Slippery Characters: Ethnic Impersonators and American Identities (Cultural Studies of the United States (Paper))

Rating:
Summary: Not written for lay people
Review: I don't think this book was written for lay people, and I find the writing style slightly dry. But the subject matter of people passing as something they are not is fascinating, and this book is extremely well researched and documented.

If you like non-fiction, as I do, I recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Slippery Characters, Interesting Autobiographies
Review: In this book, Laura Browder examines many autobiographies and other autobiographical works from the ante-bellum era through the present. She focuses on individuals who have impersonated ethnic and class positions not their own--but not in the way we often assume either; she's not writing about African Americans who pass for white, for example, but about how individuals of various backgrounds pass for Indian, how whites have passed for black, how middle-class people have passed for poor. Her examination of these events is sweeping; her style is engaging and jargon-free. To me, the most interesting chapter compared the interpretations of black life by John Howard Griffin and Grace Hasell.