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A TLS, FINANCIAL TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, GUARDIAN, OBSERVER AND WHITE REVIEW BOOK OF THE YEAR
FINALIST FOR THE 2021 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION
From award-winning writer Claudia Rankine, the stunning follow-up to Citizen and Don't Let Me Be Lonely
'Riveting' Bernardine Evaristo, TLS (Books of the Year)
'Brilliant' Gary Younge, New Statesman (Books of the Year)
'Timely and powerful' Fatima Bhutto, Financial Times
'One of our time's most incisive, brilliant and necessary intellectuals' Seán Hewitt, Irish Times
'Ranking is a writer of genius' Jeremy Noel-Tod, Sunday Times
At home and in government, contemporary America finds itself riven by a culture war in which aggression and defensiveness alike are on the rise. It is not alone. In such partisan conditions, how can humans best approach one another across our differences?
Taking the study of whiteness and white supremacy as a guiding light, Claudia Rankine explores a series of real encounters with friends and strangers - each disrupting the false comfort of spaces where our public and private lives intersect, like the airport, the theatre, the dinner party and the voting booth - and urges us to enter into the conversations which could offer the only humane pathways through this moment of division.
Just Us is an invitation to discover what it takes to stay in the room together, and to breach the silence, guilt and violence that surround whiteness. Brilliantly arranging essays, images and poems along with the voices and rebuttals of others, it counterpoints Rankine's own text with facing-page notes and commentary, and closes with a bravura study of women confronting the political and cultural implications of dyeing their hair blonde.
Wry, vulnerable and prescient, this is Rankine's most intimate work, less interested in being right than in being true, and being together.
About the author
Claudia Rankine is a poet, essayist and playwright; her numerous works include the ground-breaking American Lyric trilogy, Don't Let Me Be Lonely (2004), Citizen (2014) and Just Us (2020). A chancellor emerita of the Academy of American Poets, she is recipient of many honours including the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Forward Prize and a MacArthur Fellowship. She is a professor of creative writing at New York University, and has previously taught at Pomona College and Yale University.
Summary
A TLS, FINANCIAL TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, GUARDIAN AND OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR
From award-winning writer Claudia Rankine, the stunning follow-up to Citizen and Don't Let Me Be Lonely
'Audacious, revelatory, devastating' Robin DiAngelo
At home and in government, contemporary America finds itself riven by a culture war in which aggression and defensiveness alike are on the rise. It is not alone. In such partisan conditions, how can humans best approach one another across our differences?
Taking the study of whiteness and white supremacy as a guiding light, Claudia Rankine explores a series of real encounters with friends and strangers - each disrupting the false comfort of spaces where our public and private lives intersect, like the airport, the theatre, the dinner party and the voting booth - and urges us to enter into the conversations which could offer the only humane pathways through this moment of division.
Just Us is an invitation to discover what it takes to stay in the room together, and to breach the silence, guilt and violence that surround whiteness. Brilliantly arranging essays, images and poems along with the voices and rebuttals of others, it counterpoints Rankine's own text with facing-page notes and commentary, and closes with a bravura study of women confronting the political and cultural implications of dyeing their hair blonde.
Wry, vulnerable and prescient, this is Rankine's most intimate work, less interested in being right than in being true, and being together.
Report
Claudia Rankine marshalls the full range of her substantial talents - from poetry to essay - to explore how racism is lived, privilege is expressed and engagement might be possible. Personal, political, interrogative and, most all, impressive Gary Younge
