Black Is the Body, Emily Bernard
Black Is the Body, Emily Bernard
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Black Is the Body
Stories from My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, and Mine

Author: Emily Bernard

Narrator: Emily Bernard

Unabridged: 5 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/29/2019

Synopsis

“Blackness is an art, not a science. It is a paradox: intangible and visceral; a situation and a story. It is the thread that connects these essays, but its significance as an experience emerges randomly, unpredictably. . . . Race is the story of my life, and therefore black is the body of this book.” 

In these twelve deeply personal, connected essays, Bernard details the experience of growing up black in the south with a family name inherited from a white man, surviving a random stabbing at a New Haven coffee shop, marrying a white man from the North and bringing him home to her family, adopting two children from Ethiopia, and living and teaching in a primarily white New England college town. Each of these essays sets out to discover a new way of talking about race and of telling the truth as the author has lived it. 

"Black Is the Body is one of the most beautiful, elegant memoirs I've ever read. It's about race, it's about womanhood, it's about friendship, it's about a life of the mind, and also a life of the body. But more than anything, it's about love. I can't praise Emily Bernard enough for what she has created in these pages." --Elizabeth Gilbert

WINNER OF THE CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD PRIZE FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL PROSE

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND KIRKUS REVIEWS

ONE OF MAUREEN CORRIGAN'S 10 UNPUTDOWNABLE READS OF THE YEAR

Reviews

Goodreads review by K

Wow *cracks knuckles* this book y'all. The introduction and first essay is amazing. So amazing that I had to put the book down and gasp for air. After that, it seemed as though the book went downhill for me, for several reasons. I have a lot in common with the author of this book. I grew up in the s......more

Goodreads review by Traci

The earlier essays were good. I could really relate to her thinking and experiences. However as the book went on they felt repetitive. I think overall it could’ve been less. Also worth saying. This is a book filled with intimate small essays not essays on giant trauma. It’s not about the pain of bla......more

Goodreads review by Lacey

Meh. Obviously, this book wasn't written for me. It was written for a non-black audience. The majority of the essays feature the author describing mundane interactions between her husband/daughters/family friends and trying to find some racial significance in them. Maybe it was meant to be intimate......more

Goodreads review by chantel

Should be called: Black is the Body, White is the Life. Sorry homegirl. So here’s the premise: Light skin, highly educated black woman, originally from Nashville by way of Mississippi relocated to Vermont, in a white-black interracial relationship, living in a white town, LOVES white people. Has ful......more

Quotes

"Black Is the Body is one of the most beautiful, elegant memoirs I've ever read. It's about race, it's about womanhood, it's about friendship, it's about a life of the mind, and also a life of the body. But more than anything, it's about love. I can't praise Emily Bernard enough for what she has created in these pages."--Elizabeth Gilbert“My very favorite book that I have read so far this year…It’s really life changing. If you get no other book this year, get Black Is the Body by Emily Bernard.”

--Ann Patchett

"Of the 12 essays here, there's not one that even comes close to being forgettable. Bernard's language is fresh, poetically compact, and often witty ... Bernard proves herself to be a revelatory storyteller of race in America who can hold her own with some of those great writers she teaches."--Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air"Black Is the Body brings lucidity, honesty, and insight to the topics of race and interracial relationships ... quietly compelling ... [Bernard's] stories get under your skin."--Carlo Wolff, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette"Bernard's lyrical book details traumas and pain from decades past to interrogate the nuances of her own life: growing up black in the South, marrying a white man from the North, and surviving a violent attack which unleashed the storyteller in her."--Entertainment Weekly"Echoes of Joan Didion--terse yet beautiful writing, a bracing honesty--in the graceful new essay collection by Emily Bernard ... Black Is the Body marks the debut of an essayist in command of her gifts, a book that belongs beside the best of contemporary autobiography."--Hamilton Cain, Chapter 16"Conceived while the author was hospitalized after being stabbed by a white man, these 13 formidable, destined-to-be-studied essays mark the emergence of an extraordinary voice on race in America."--Oprah Magazine"Like the absurdly devastating crime that opens this riveting collection, Bernard's essays are impossible to turn away from. Linked by the author's powerful voice and by her experiences of the world--of survival, of falling in love, of interracial marriage and friendship, and of motherhood--each account tells the agonizing story of race in America with realism, nuance, and profound hope. A supremely honest and utterly gripping book."--Nell Freudenberger"Bernard's honesty and vulnerability reveal a strong voice with no sugarcoating, sharing her struggle, ambivalence, hopes, and fears as an individual within a web of relationships, black and white. Highly recommended."--Library Journal (starred review)"Lucid ... deeply felt, unflinchingly honest, and openly questioning ... [Bernard] illuminates a legacy of storytelling ... and elaborates on the relationship between blacks and whites. A rare book of healing."--Kirkus (starred review)"Contemplative and compassionate ... Bernard's voice is personable yet incisive in exploring the lived reality of race ... [Her] wisdom and compassion radiate throughout this collection."--Publishers Weekly

Awards

  • L.A. Times Book Prize (The Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose)
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