Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White

by Brent Staples

From Pulitzer Prize winner Brent Staples, an evocative memoir that poses universal Where does the family end and the self begin? What do we owe our families, and what do we owe our dreams for ourselves? What part of the past is a gift and what part a shackle? For Brent Staples there is the added dimension of moving from a black world into one largely defined by whites.

The oldest song among nine children, Brent grew up in a small industrial town near Philadelphia. First a scholarship to a local college and then one for graduate study at the University of Chicago pulled him out of the close family circle. While he was away, the industries that supported the town failed, and drug dealing rushed in to fill the economic void. 

News of arrests and premature deaths among Brent's childhood friends underscored the precariousness of his perch in a world of mostly white achievers. A younger brother became a cocaine dealer and was murdered by one of his "clients." His death propelled Brent into a reconsideration of his childhood and coming-of-age that offers vivid portraits of family and place, of values that supported and pressures that tore apart, of the appeal and pain of entering a predominantly white world, and of the strengths and vulnerabilities of the black world he grew away from.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Race, American, History, Biography

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 1994

Reviews

[Deborah LaRoche · Rating 3 out of 5]

His is a fascinating story, but I wanted more of what he skimmed over (his sister's situation, his entry into the world of "white" journalism) and less of what he focused on (Barrow).

[Rafael Suleiman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good autobiography of a Black author.

[Thelma · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book and the author grew on me.

[Lidia]

Loved and hated soul bellows. Ny magazine Herzog by Saul bellows