Black is the Body Book Review

By Emily Bernard

Powerful achievement

Typical descriptions—”be authentic,” “tell it like it is,” “genuine,”—feel pale and trite as I try to describe this award-winning memoir. Reading it felt like a window opened. Reading it felt like I had been invited into a private home. Reading it was an experience in seeing how when a voice is honest and humble and writes with as much clarity as possible the overall effect is power. Bernard’s sharing of her experiences in being a black woman in America’s white society as an educator, a friend, in adopting her kids, in being knifed…there’s so much here.. My heartfelt reaction is to witness. This memoir is a powerful achievement.