Synopses & Reviews
Emily Bernard examines the complexities of interracial friendships -- white and black, Latino and white, black and Asian, black and Jewish -- in this poignant book that includes essays from Pam Houston, Darryl Pinckney, Luis Rodriguez, and Susan Straight, among others. Meet a young Italian American heading off to college, the first in his family to do so -- where he rooms with and befriends a sophisticated young black man from a highly educated, socially prominent Washington, D.C., family. Meet a second-generation Korean American from the 'hood who is more comfortable with Latinos and blacks than with Korean kids who grew up in the suburbs, and compares his friendships to bi-bam-bap, a Korean dish of all different vegetables, meats, rice, hot sauce mixed in together like crazy. Meet a black man who reflects on a twenty-year friendship with a Jewish man he met in school and with whom he can talk about absolutely everything, except perhaps the politics of the Middle East. A book that celebrates interracial friendships as it examines them, Some of My Best Friends is a timely look at a subject that has yet to be fully explored.
Review
“What a wonderful and much-needed contribution to the great American conversation.” Danzy Senna, author of Caucasia and Symptomatic
Review
“Heartfelt essays [exploring] ...what makes some [friendships] last a lifetime and others collapse at the first sign of strain.” Booklist
Review
“Meticulously annotated…a textured, ribald and frequently poignant interracial friendship between two remarkable talents.” New York Times Book Review on Remember Me to Harlem
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“You cant afford to miss this book.” Vibe on Remember Me to Harlem
Synopsis
In this unusually honest book of essays and other writings, Emily Bernard examines the complexities of interracial friendships: Latino and white, black and Asian, black and Jewish. In essays from such celebrated writers as Pam Houston, Darryl Pickney, Luis Rodriguez, and Susan Straight, among many others, you'll meet a young Italian American college student who rooms with a sophisticated young black man who can trace his college-educated elders back several generations; a second-generation Korean American from the "hood" who is more comfortable with Latinos and blacks than with Korean kids who grew up in the suburbs; and a Jewish man who reflects on his friendship with a black opera singer. Though culturally and ethnically at odds, perhaps, they call each other friends; working together, playing together, opening their homes and hearts, even when they have every reason not to.
Sometimes controversial, sometimes funny, but always thought-provoking, Some of My Best Friends is a timely work on a subject that has yet to be fully explored.
About the Author
Emily Bernard was born in Nashville, Tennessee. She has a B.A. and Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University. She has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University. She teaches in the English Department and ALANA U.S. Ethnic Studies Program at the University of Vermont. Bernard is editor of Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, 1925-1964.