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

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
The publication of Alex Kotlowitz's There Are No Children Here was a national event giving voice to the heartbreaking struggle of two boys growing up amid the violence of Chicago's public housing. The book's impact made clear that Alex Kotlowitz's voice is one of compassion and intelligence, a voice to be trusted on the subject of race in America.

With the incisive, passionate prose of someone who traverses the line between "insider" and "outsider" in American communities, Alex Kotlowitz transports his readers to the banks of the St. Joseph River, a tributary that "lazily winds its way north from Indiana through the hilly cropland of Southwestern Michigan," and that, at its mouth, partitions two towns: the mostly white and prosperous St. Joseph and the primarily black and poor Benton Harbor. In late spring 1991, the river separating these two communities also bore a haunting cargo, the body of Eric, a black youth, by turns both child and adult, perhaps drowned, possibly murdered. "For these two towns, Eric has come to mark the divide, a reference point. To those in St. Joseph, Eric's death is proof that race blinds their neighbors to the obvious," writes Kotlowitz. "To those in Benton Harbor, it is proof that because of race, even the obvious is never what it seems."

Beautifully written and painstakingly reported, The Other Side Of The River sensitively portrays the lives and hopes of the towns' citizens as they wrestle with this mystery and others — and reveals the attitudes and misperceptions that undermine race relations throughout America. Thispowerfulstory challenges us to think about our own assumptions about race, no matter which side of the river we live on. This gripping and ultimately profound book takes us to the eye of the storm, a river brimming over with grief and confusion, rage and fear, proving that Kotlowitz is one of this country's foremost writers on the ever-explosive issue of race.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Separated by the St. Joseph River, St. Joseph and Benton Harbor are two Michigan towns that are geographically close, yet in every sense worlds apart. St. Joseph is a prosperous lakeshore community, 95 percent white, while Benton Harbor is impoverished and 92 percent black. When the body of Eric McGinnis, a black teenage boy from Benton Harbor, is found in the river, relations between the two communities grow increasingly strained as long-held misperceptions and attitudes surface. As family, friends, and the police struggle to find out how McGinnis died. Alex Kotlowitz uncovers layers of both evidence and opinion, and demonstrates that in many ways, the truth is shaped by which side of the river you call home. Thoughtful and affecting, The Other Side of the River proves once again that Alex Kotlowitz is one of our foremost writers on the ever-explosive issue of race. In an afterword to this Anchor edition, Kotlowitz discusses the reaction to the book in the communities it deals with.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In southwestern Michigan, the towns of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor face each other across the St. Joseph River. The first is postcard picturesque and white; the second is a black ghetto with a reputation as dangerous. In May 1991, the body of a black teenage boy, Eric McGinnis of Benton Harbor, was found floating in the river after he had spent the evening in St. Joseph. Was it an accidental death? A murder? Had he been fleeing from a crime scene? Had he been dancing with a white girl at a local club? Was a black gang involved? Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here) spent some five years examining the death as well as the communities on both sides of the river, and the result is a disturbing, compulsively involving human and sociological study. It is an informal, almost chatty book seemingly as disorganized and as free-ranging as gossip itself. It detours to cover an earlier shooting of a black teenager by a white policeman in Benton Harbor, a jailhouse hanging in the 1930s that may have been a lynching, and a political squabble that ousted a controversial black school principal, and looks into histories of the local newspaper and of the river itself. The author also covers dating practices in both communities, including the rebellious "wiggers," white high-school girls who go out with blacks. There are interviews with segments of both communities that range from judges to teachers to police officers to drifters to kids looking for something to do on a Friday night. Kotlowitz tries to solve the mystery of the body in the river and indeed comes up with a number of possible solutions, some more probable than others. More important, he presents a riveting portrait of a racially troubled America in the 1990s.

VOYA - Edward Sullivan

Although separated by only a river, the two small Michigan towns of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor are worlds apart. St. Joseph, with an almost exclusively white population, is a prosperous lakeshore community. Neighboring Benton Harbor is almost exclusively black, utterly impoverished, and crime-ridden. When the body of Eric Mcginnis, a black teenage boy from Benton Harbor, is found in the river on the St. Joseph side, the racial tensions between the two towns surface and nearly explode. Kotlowitz proceeds on a painstakingly thorough investigation of this incident, but has no better success than law enforcement officials in solving the mystery. Was Mcginnis murdered because he was black? It could have been suicide. There is a great deal of speculation among the black and white communities, much of it influenced by their suspicions of one another. Kotlowitz tries to use this true story as a microcosm for race relations in the United States and suceeds to a limited extent, but the grand ambition is never fully realized. Too much digression is a significant flaw, as Kotlowitz offers in-depth psychological profiles of every person he interviews. These digressions serve only to bog the reader down in too many details not relevant to the main story. The slow pace of the narrative will frustrate all but the most tenacious young adult readers. Kotlowitz also tries to accomplish too much in this book. He tries to give his readers both an intriguing mystery and a complex study of race relations, but fails to deliver. Had he focused on just one angle, this would have been a great book. As it stands, however, The Other Side of the River is a work of great potential unrealized. Maps. Appendix. VOYA Codes: 2Q 1P S (Better editing or work by the author might have warranted a 3Q, No YA will read unless forced to for assignments, Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).

Library Journal

Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here) has produced another exemplary piece of investigative reportage that reveals the chasm between blacks and whites, rich and poor, in America. Two Michigan towns—predominately white, prosperous St. Joseph and predominantly black, poverty-stricken Benton Harbor—are separated by a river and years of mistrust, suspicion, and vastly differing life experiences. When the death of a black teenage boy found floating in the river remains unsolved, the polarized perceptions of blacks and whites toward the justice system are exposed. Kotlowitz's Herculean efforts to unravel the mystery is unsuccessful, but the telling of his pursuit of the truth is a compelling and suspense-filled story. And in the absence of definitive answers, the myths and perceptions created from the distinct historical experiences of the two communities become the truth that ultimately matters.
—Faye Powell, Portland State Univ. Lib., Ore.

School Library Journal - Catherine Noonan, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

YA-An engrossing story of an unsolved crime that YAs will find both readable and fascinating. Although a murder mystery, this is really an in-depth examination of American attitudes toward race. The story is set in two small lake towns in Michigan that are separated by a narrow river and a wide range of conflicting opinions, fears, and emotions. A black teenager, Eric McGinnis, was found floating in the St. Joseph River in May 1991. When last seen, he was running down a street in the predominantly white town of St. Joseph. He had crossed the river that evening from 95% black Benton Harbor to attend a teen club with friends. Whatever happened afterward caused endless speculation on both sides of the river and old fears and assumptions surfaced. Many in Benton Harbor thought he had been pushed to his death by whites angered because was dating white girls. In St. Joseph, the Benton Harbor gangs were blamed. As the author investigated this multifaceted case, he looked at over 200 people and many different motives. The aspects of this baffling case are presented with sensitivity and impartiality, and while local atmosphere and nuances are accurate, these towns could be anywhere in America. A book that will make readers examine their own convictions about the troubling issue of race in our country.

School Library Journal