Other Side of the River : A Story of Two Towns, a Death, and Americas Dilemma by Alex Kotlowitz. Anchor Press,1998

The Other Side of the River

Literature & Fiction

Kotlowitz, Alex

Women's Fiction

Nan A. Talese

“Chicago is a tale of two cities,” headlines declare. This narrative has been gaining steam alongside reports of growing economic divisions and diverging outlooks on the future of the city. Yet to keen observers of the Second City, this is nothing new. Those who truly know Chicago know that for decades—even centuries—the city has been defined by duality, possibly since the Great Fire scorched a visible line between the rubble and the saved. For writers like Alex Kotlowitz, the contradictions are what make Chicago. And it is these contradictions that form the heart of Never a City So Real.  The book is a tour of the people of Chicago, those who have been Kotlowitz’s guide into this city’s – and by inference, this country’s – heart. Chicago, after all, is America’s city. Kotlowitz introduces us to the owner of a West Side soul food restaurant who believes in second chances, a steelworker turned history teacher, the “Diego Rivera of the projects,” and the lawyers and defendants who populate Chicago’s Criminal Courts Building. These empathic, intimate stories chronicle the city’s soul, its lifeblood.  This new edition features a new afterword from the author, which examines the state of the city today as seen from the double-paned windows of a pawnshop. Ultimately, Never a City So Real is a love letter to Chicago, a place that Kotlowitz describes as “a place that can tie me up in knots but a place that has been my muse, my friend, my joy.”

Never a City So Real: A Walk in Chicago (Chicago Visions and Revisions)

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Regional & International

University of Chicago Press

This is the moving and powerful account of two remarkable boys struggling to survive in Chicago's Henry Horner Homes, a public housing complex disfigured by crime and neglect. From the Trade Paperback edition.

There Are No Children Here

History

Americas

This is the moving and powerful account of two remarkable boys struggling to survive in Chicago's Henry Horner Homes, a public housing complex disfigured by crime and neglect.

There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in The Other America (Helen Bernstein Book Award)

Reference

DOUBLEDAY

Alex Kotlowitz's There Are No Children Here was more than a bestseller; it was a national event. His beautifully narrated, heartbreaking nonfiction account of two black boys struggling to grow up in a Chicago public housing complex spent eight weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, was a made-for-television movie starring and produced by Oprah Winfrey, won many distinguished awards, and sparked a continuing national debate on the lives of inner-city children. In The Other Side of the River, his eagerly awaited new book, Kotlowitz takes us to southern Michigan. Here, separated by the St. Joseph River, are two towns, St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. Geographically close, they are worlds apart, a living metaphor for America's racial divisions: St. Joseph is a prosperous lakeshore community and ninety-five percent white, while Benton Harbor is impoverished and ninety-two percent black. When the body of a black teenaged boy from Benton Harbor is found in the river, unhealed wounds and suspicions between the two towns' populations surface as well. The investigation into the young man's death becomes, inevitably, a screen on which each town projects their resentments and fears. The Other Side of the River sensitively portrays the lives and hopes of the towns' citizens as they wrestle with this mystery--and reveals the attitudes and misperceptions that undermine race relations throughout America. In this gripping and ultimately profound book, Alex Kotlowitz proves why he is one of this country's foremost writers on the ever explosive issue of race.

History & Criticism

Bestselling author Alex Kotlowitz is one of this country's foremost writers on the ever explosive issue of race. In this gripping and ultimately profound book, Kotlowitz takes us to two towns in southern Michigan, St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, separated by the St. Joseph River. Geographically close, but worlds apart, they are a living metaphor for America's racial divisions: St. Joseph is a prosperous lakeshore community and ninety-five percent white, while Benton Harbor is impoverished and ninety-two percent black. When the body of a black teenaged boy from Benton Harbor is found in the river, unhealed wounds and suspicions between the two towns' populations surface as well. The investigation into the young man's death becomes, inevitably, a screen on which each town projects their resentments and fears. The Other Side of the River sensitively portrays the lives and hopes of the towns' citizens as they wrestle with this mystery--and reveals the attitudes and misperceptions that undermine race relations throughout America.

The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death, and America's Dilemma

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Anchor

From the bestselling author of There Are No Children Here, a richly textured, heartrending portrait of love and death in Chicago's most turbulent neighborhoods. The numbers are staggering: over the past twenty years in Chicago, 14,033 people have been killed and another roughly 60,000 wounded by gunfire. What does that do to the spirit of individuals and community? Drawing on his decades of experience, Alex Kotlowitz set out to chronicle one summer in the city, writing about individuals who have emerged from the violence and whose stories capture the capacity--and the breaking point--of the human heart and soul. The result is a spellbinding collection of deeply intimate profiles that upend what we think we know about gun violence in America. Among others, we meet a man who as a teenager killed a rival gang member and twenty years later is still trying to come to terms with what he's done; a devoted school social worker struggling with her favorite student, who refuses to give evidence in the shooting death of his best friend; the witness to a wrongful police shooting who can't shake what he has seen; and an aging former gang leader who builds a place of refuge for himself and his friends. Applying the close-up, empathic reporting that made There Are No Children Here a modern classic, Kotlowitz offers a piercingly honest portrait of a city in turmoil. These sketches of those left standing will get into your bones. This one summer will stay with you.

An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

The Other Side of the River (Cassette)

Sociology

Random House Audio |

Explores America's racial antagonisms through the story of two Michigan towns--one white and wealthy, the other Black and poor--and a Black boy's death and its repercussions

Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death, and Ame5Rica's Dilemma

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Science Fiction

Demco Media

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Examines the lives of two inner-city brothers who live in a Chicago housing project and their daily struggle for survival and enduring hope.

There Are No Children Here (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

Children's Books

Turtleback Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kotlowitz, Alex. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Kotlowitz, Alex

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kotlowitz, Alex. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Other Side of the River

Never a City So Real: A Walk in Chicago (Chicago Visions and Revisions)

There Are No Children Here

There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in The Other America (Helen Bernstein Book Award)

The Other Side of the River

The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death, and America's Dilemma

An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago

The Other Side of the River (Cassette)

Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death, and Ame5Rica's Dilemma

There Are No Children Here (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)