Man in the Mirror: John Howard Griffin and the Story of Black Like Me - Softcover

Bonazzi, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1570751188 ISBN 13: 9781570751189

Publisher: Orbis Books, 1997

Synopsis

Describes the events that led a white American writer to darken his skin and live for a time as an African American in the Deep South

About this title

Reviews

An earnest, adulatory discussion of the classic expos‚ of racism and the memorable life of its author, John Howard Griffin. Bonazzi, who published some of Griffin's writings at his Latitudes Press and is possibly the world's only Griffin scholar, deserves credit for explaining, albeit briefly, the fascinating events that shaped Griffin's character as a crusader against racism. Born in Dallas in 1920, Griffin extricated himself from his provincial surroundings by writing to a boys' school in Tours, France, and receiving a full scholarship at age 15. He stayed in France for the next six years, first at school and then, after the Nazi occupation, working with the Resistance to help save Jews. A stint in the air force brought him into contact with Solomon Islanders, dashing what few southern preconceptions about white superiority he still harbored; and a bombardment blinded him for ten years. Back home, he converted to Catholicism and wrote a bestselling novel, The Devil Rides Outside. In 1959, he hit on the idea of darkening his skin and touring the Deep South disguised as a black man for a magazine series that became Black Like Me, published in 1961 to wide acclaim. The bulk of Bonazzi's tome is a summary of that work, with copious quotes from Griffin's own words, which remind one of just how skillful a prose stylist he was. Bonazzi's glosses tend merely to rephrase clumsily what Griffin has just been quoted saying with perfect clarity. In quoting from other of Griffin's works and playing up his intellectually rigorous Catholicism (he was friends with Thomas Merton and Jacques Maritain), Bonazzi places Black Like Me within a lifelong quest to understand and share with others his religious ideals of humanitarianism and mercy. Still, readers will probably be sorely tempted to toss this aside and go straight to Black Like Me to get the insights without the interruptions. (photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Orbis Books
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1570751188
• ISBN 13: 9781570751189
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208