This is no “both sides” affair: Perry is an unabashed “movement” baby, raised by intellectual freedom-fighter parents. Any attempt to classify this ambitious work, which straddles genre, kicks down the fourth wall, dances with poetry, engages with literary criticism and flits from journalism to memoir to academic writing - well, that’s a fool’s errand and only undermines this insightful, ambitious and moving project. After all, Perry addresses everything from hip-hop to the United Fruit Company and her own grandmother. SOUTH TO AMERICA A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation By Imani PerryĪt the start of “South to America,” Imani Perry implores the reader: “Please remember, while this book is not a history, it is a true story.” I tried to keep these instructions in mind - not always easy with a narrative so scrupulously researched and teeming with facts and citations - but ultimately, I discarded them.
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