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Skinfolk
- Author
- Matthew Pratt Guterl
- Narrator
- George Newbern
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 28 March 2023
- Run Time
- 9 hours 59 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
A haunting, poignant story of growing up in a mixed-race family in 1970s New Jersey, in the tradition of The Color of Water.
Magnanimous and charming, Bob Guterl knew that he could solve the racial problems bedeviling postwar America.
Determined to stave off impending global catastrophe, the larger-than-life judge and his resolute wife, Sheryl, launched a radical experiment, raising their two biological sons alongside four children adopted from Korea, Vietnam, and the South Bronx―the so-called “war zones of the American century”―in a white clapboard house with a white picket fence in small-town New Jersey.
In lyrical, often searing prose, Matthew Guterl, a renowned historian of race and their third-eldest child, recounts the ultimately troubling story of his family; his racially diverse siblings; and his idealistic parents, with their miragelike dreams of creating a racial utopia in an otherwise all-white community.
Chronicling the siblings’ coming-of-age in a recalcitrant, discriminatory society, Skinfolk peers behind that white picket fence, revealing many of the racial issues that continue to plague Americans today.
Critics Review
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“Quietly searing….[An] unflinching analysis of this and other racially complicated scenes.”
New York Times
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“Audience favorite Newbern meticulously channels Guterl with a folksy, inviting intimacy, moving the narrative forward with delicate control, mindfully regulating the devastatingly emotional moments.”
Library Journal (audio review)
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“An earnestly felt, beautifully wrought story of an American family in all its complexity.”
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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“Guterl explores the ethics involved in his parents’ endeavor and confronts the consequences of even the best intentions.”
Publishers Weekly
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“Guterl focuses much of the story on himself and his closest siblings, Bear and Bug, and on the realities of growing up in a big family. But he is clear-eyed about his privilege, even within his family.”
Booklist
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“Skinfolk explores a question we all face: What makes us kin?”
Martha S. Jones, author of Vanguard
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“[A] moving, beautifully written memoir.”
Natalia Molina, author of A Place at the Nayarit
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“A chronicle of life, love, complexity, race, and above all, the meaning of the word ‘family.’ ”
Jelani Cobb, dean of the Colombia Journalism School
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“With unflinching eyes, Matthew Pratt Guterl examines his family experiment with an academic’s precision.”
Julia Scheeres, author of Jesus Land
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“The story of this family is unforgettable in its embrace of the personal and the political…A powerful read.”
Wendy S. Walters, author of Multiply/Divide
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“An achingly moving memoir…Matthew Pratt Guterl lays his scholar’s eye over a complex narrative exploring the joys and limitations of love, family, and adoption.”
Marie Myung-Ok Lee, author of The Evening Hero
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Matthew Pratt Guterl
- Narrator
- George Newbern
- Duration
- 9 hours 59 minutes
- Release Date
- 28 March 2023
- ISBN
- 9798212385879
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- Biography: general, Ethnic studies, Biography: general
Synopsis
A haunting, poignant story of growing up in a mixed-race family in 1970s New Jersey, in the tradition of The Color of Water.Magnanimous and charming, Bob Guterl knew that he could solve the racial problems bedeviling postwar America.Determined to stave off impending global catastrophe, the larger-than-life judge and his resolute wife, Sheryl, launched a radical experiment, raising their two biological sons alongside four children adopted from Korea, Vietnam, and the South Bronx―the so-called “war zones of the American century”―in a white clapboard house with a white picket fence in small-town New Jersey.In lyrical, often searing prose, Matthew Guterl, a renowned historian of race and their third-eldest child, recounts the ultimately troubling story of his family; his racially diverse siblings; and his idealistic parents, with their miragelike dreams of creating a racial utopia in an otherwise all-white community.Chronicling the siblings’ coming-of-age in a recalcitrant, discriminatory society, Skinfolk peers behind that white picket fence, revealing many of the racial issues that continue to plague Americans today.
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