Customer Reviews

The Skin Between Us: A Memoir of Race, Beauty, and Belonging

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Kym Ragusa has written a book that is destined to join not only the cannon of multicultural narrative, but that rare class of books that allows us to see ourselves as a reflection of one another. Ragusa takes us on a magical journey through the looking glass to examine racial and cultural identity from the inside out.

Not preachy, not trendy, not PC, and certainly not depressing, Ragusa's writing is delicate and personal, achingly vulnerable. Her prose are as beautiful and complex as the portraits she paints of herself and three generations of women in her family. When Ragusa interrogates the shape of her nose and the texture of her hair, I am reminded that in today's rush to perfectionism through plastic surgery, true beauty (like justice) can best be seen through closed eyes.

Lastly, in this time of growing anxiety over all things foreign, Ragusa teaches us that the American character is at heart multicultural. In reading her beautifully wrought memoir, I again learned that the skin between us can also be the bond between us.

I really enjoyed Kym's story. she accurately described the tough and gentle sides of the American Italian families I knew, with the hard to win love of the grandmother and the uncertain homes that both mom and dad provided. She does a great job of blending her memories into an interesting read. Her anguish and fears are quite spellbounding as the issue of her color dances throughout this book. I look forward to her next.

A New York Harlem memoir written by the daughter of a light-skinned African American mom and dark skinned Sicilian father and the difficult and loving relations with her two grandmothers. Written with love and deep understanding where the tough questions are taken on and worked through. Evokes a feel for Harlem's changes and the real (pre-gentrified) life of the city. Engaging--couldn't put it down! This is her first book and I look forward to her next. I believe she'll be able to write either fiction or non-fiction with equal skill and verve.

I wanted to like this book. I wanted to be interested in this book. And, while I did enjoy reading it, at the end, I was utterly at a loss to say what it was about. Ragusa's memoir of being the child of a dark-skinned Sicilian-American man and a light-skinned African-American woman was focussed exclusively on her childhood until the age of 12; although it opened with her visit to Sicily, she never actually described what she did there, except pull her hair back to hide its curliness. Similarly, she recants episodes of various episodes in her life without it being clear what the point is. I would have found her story more interesting if it included more reflection, instead of the sensation of it being a "memory dump," and if it contained more reflections from her adult life.

ragusa's writing is absolutely stunning. rich, poetic, deep, mesmorizing. intensely and fiercely honest. you will not be able to put this book down. right up there with alice walker's the color purple.