Rating: 
Summary: Consuming
Review: "The Other Side of The River" is the devastatingly self-aware, uncomfortable chronicle of Kotlowitz's permanent quest for the understanding of race relations with the death of Eric McGinnis as the focul point. Over the course of the story, Kotlowitz will have you helpless with amazement. "River" is channeling something so universal and familiar that readers will find it useful as a means for raising the precontemplative conscious. A book that can be read in one setting. I appreciate greatly the efforts of Kotlowitz and The Cast.
Rating: 
Summary: Unique take on race relations in the United States
Review: A number of people have covered race relations in the U.S and in a number of different ways; however, Kotlowitz still manages to find a fresh take on the matter. I grew up in a small community about a half-hour from Benton Harbor/St. Joe area, so I found the book especially interesting; however, the relationship between the "twin cities" that Kotlowitz discovers and explores is certainly not unique. Benton Harbor is a primarily black, lower-income city with a horrific crime problem while St. Joe is a primarily white, upper-middle class city with very little crime. The twin cities relationship is especially interesting because both communities are relatively small and only a river serves to divide. However, similar questions could be raised about the relationship between many urban areas and their suburbs. Kotlowitz is a journalist by training and that style of writing works well in the book. While we're hearing about a sociological problem, we're also being told a compelling story.
Rating:
Summary: Unique take on race relations in the United States
Review: A number of people have covered race relations in the U.S and in a number of different ways; however, Kotlowitz still manages to find a fresh take on the matter. I grew up in a small community about a half-hour from Benton Harbor/St. Joe area, so I found the book especially interesting; however, the relationship between the "twin cities" that Kotlowitz discovers and explores is certainly not unique. Benton Harbor is a primarily black, lower-income city with a horrific crime problem while St. Joe is a primarily white, upper-middle class city with very little crime. The twin cities relationship is especially interesting because both communities are relatively small and only a river serves to divide. However, similar questions could be raised about the relationship between many urban areas and their suburbs. Kotlowitz is a journalist by training and that style of writing works well in the book. While we're hearing about a sociological problem, we're also being told a compelling story.
Rating: 
Summary: No Passion For This Topic
Review: After 'There Are No Children Here', I was eager to ready anything and everything that Kotlowitz was writting. This book was a major disappointment. Clearly the author lacked the passion for this story that he had in his previous book. I'm not sure that this topic holds up as an accurate microcosm for race relations in middle America as it attempts to do so it's difficult to see why this would be an important text to anyone who didn't live in southwest Michigan. Nonetheless, it is well written.
Rating:
Summary: Two sides to every story
Review: Alex Kotlowitz deals with heavy issues central to the American consciousness: race, injustice, poverty, inequality. All of these issues appear in microcosm in two Michigan towns -- St. Joseph's, predominantly white, affluent, safe, attractive, and on the "other side of the river," Benton Harbor, predominantly black, crumbling, drug-infested, crime-ridden. A single event, the disappearance of a Benton Harbor teenager who was later found dead in the St. Joseph River, forced people from both towns to confront problems that had been building for many years. Kotlowitz took great measures to explore the case at length, interviewing many people from each town, analyzing the evidence in police reports, even taking a boat down the river himself to examine the question firsthand. His clear, uncluttered prose style complements his thorough reporting methods. Despite his painstaking investigation, though, Kotlowitz was not able to determine the cause of Eric McGinnis' death, accident or murder. There are no definite answers, he concludes, but the infinite number of possible interpretations reminds us how complicated the issues really are.
Rating: 
Summary: (PLAN 452) Book Review
Review: Alex Kotlowitz wrote a good book that is both easy to read and worth reading. He does a good job at telling the story of the two towns and the towns' residents to a backdrop of a local murder case that tested the towns' race realations. Lots of local history is told in this book. This allows the reader to get closer to understanding the towns. Being from a nearby city myself, I had heard of such conflict it was interesting to read more about the two communities involved (Benton Harbor and St. Joe, Michigan). If your from the area, then this book is definatly woth reading to in terms of getting an outsiders fairly unbiased view of the area. If not, its still worth checking out because its just interesting story to read and may lead to some self-reflection.
Rating:
Summary: My Thoughts on the Subject...
Review: Alex Kotlowitz's "The Other Side of the River" is a disturbing account of how people live in this country today. At times it is hard to believe that this story actually takes place in America. This book is relatively easy to read, which is a plus. The multitude of facts, opinions, theories, speculations and rumors makes this book hard to put down. Each chapter raises more questions, and answers fewer. This book also does a good job presenting a story from two very different perspectives. Both perspectives have their supporting elements and their holes. In the end the reader chooses which side of the story to believe, and utlimately which side of the river they more readily identify with. Overall, this book is worth taking the time to read.
Rating: 
Summary: This Is NOT The WHOLE Story
Review: Alex Kotolwitz it an out spoken liberal, that doesn't know what the heck he is talking out of his butt about. My father was in this book in the part where he a Steve Marshke were in the Silver Dollar having a burger after a hard honest day at the office. And I know for a fact that many facts are false accusations contradicting what really happened that night in St. Joseph. And may I remind you that this youth did commit a crime he broke in to a teacher of mine son's car. I think Kotolwitz should come back to Twin Citys and get BOTH sides of the story and not just words from the St. Joseph residents that were not in volved in the case.
Rating:
Summary: This Is NOT The WHOLE Story
Review: Alex Kotolwitz it an out spoken liberal, that doesn't know what the heck he is talking out of his butt about. My father was in this book in the part where he a Steve Marshke were in the Silver Dollar having a burger after a hard honest day at the office. And I know for a fact that many facts are false accusations contradicting what really happened that night in St. Joseph. And may I remind you that this youth did commit a crime he broke in to a teacher of mine son's car. I think Kotolwitz should come back to Twin Citys and get BOTH sides of the story and not just words from the St. Joseph residents that were not in volved in the case.
Rating:
Summary: Reprehensible
Review: As a lifelong resident of Southwest Michigan, St. Joseph, to be precise, I found this to be a very disturbing portrait drawn of our twin cities by an individual with no clue. The only tie he has to our community is that the sister of his sister-in-law, was with one of the main individuals in this book on the night of this unspeakable tragedy. He fails to mention his relationship to this key player at any point in this book. Yes, there is bigotry in St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. But in no way is this book representative of our daily existence. There are questionable areas in St. Joseph, as there are in most cities. I found it odd that Mr. Kotlowitz did not mention having met with anyone from the our Historical Society to obtain unbiased information on the historical prejudices that he says exist in our small towns. I find it unfortunate and am saddened to think that an outsider, who is unfamiliar with the people of our twin cities, will read this book and be left with the most unbelievable impression of two cities, who, so closely situated to one another, can not or will not tolerate the crossing of the river from one town to the next without fear of being harmed.
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