Review: Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've had this book on my TBR forever and finally got it from the library. I didn't really even know what it was about and went in cold. Mira Jacob writes about what it is like to be brown (for her, Indian with darker skin than her other family members) in the America post 9/11 up through Trump's election win. Not only that but married to a Jewish (white) man whose parents refuse to see the harm in voting for Trump, and mother of a young mixed race boy with Questions.

What I love is her very frank tone. In all the "talks" in the book she shows how she navigates difficult situations where people want her to make them feel better about racism, often their own, and what happens when she doesn't. This includes one very difficult conversation with her husband! The art is hand-drawn people often cut out (or the appearance of being cut out) and laid over stock photos, which adds a dimension of reality to what is happening (although to Mira it's only too real.)

I'd love to see her take on our current situation, and I hope she continues writing in this form.

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