Abstract

Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death & America's Dilemma, The (Book)

The article presents information on the book "The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death, and America's Dilemma," by Alex Kotlowitz. This book is a story two small towns lie on either side of a river. One, prosperous and nearly all white, while the other, poor and nearly all black, resists the epithet "inner city" only in that its population totals a mere 12000. One morning the body of a black teenage boy is discovered floating on the surface of the river. Turns out the young man had dated White girls and was last seen on the "wrong" side of the river, pursued down a deserted street by a White man. Kotlowitz's book is a patient and sensitive portrait of the social life of race in the U.S. Kotlowitz's thesis is that in the absence of certainty in racial matters, facts become elusive and truth becomes myth.