The Other Side of the River (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Alex Kotlowitz
- First Published: 1998
- Type of Work: Sociology
- Time of Work: 1991-1996
- Setting: Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, Michigan
- Principal Characters: Eric McGinnis, Jim Reeves, Ruth McGinnis
- Genres: Nonfiction, Sociology
- Subjects: African Americans, Segregation or integration, Racism, Interracial relationships, Prejudices or antipathies, Ethnic relations, Death or dying, Hate crimes
- Locales: Michigan
On May 22, 1991, a Coast Guard seaman pulled the body of a teenage black boy out of the St. Joseph River in St. Joseph, Michigan. As Alex Kotlowitz succinctly states in the first sentence of The Other Side of the River, “This much is not in dispute.” Almost everything else about the death of young Eric McGinnis, unfortunately, is in dispute. The book investigates the disappearance and subsequent death of the Michigan teenager and what his death ultimately reveals about the two towns most closely affected by it. Kotlowitz researched the yet-to-be-solved case for five years,...
[The entire page is 1814 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
