by Rilla Askew
First published 2017
Award-winning novelist Rilla Askew turns her attention to nonfiction in this collection of nine connected essays about American identity and violence. She uses Oklahoma as her lens, examining events from the Trail of Tears through the Tulsa Race Riot to the Oklahoma City bombing. Askew weaves together memoir and social commentary, tracing her own journey from what she calls "the presumption of whiteness" in her teenage years to her current understanding as a writer. She confronts police violence, gun culture, ethnic cleansing, and denied history while arguing that Americans must acknowledge both their violence and generosity. The book spotlights how Oklahoma serves as a microcosm of national contradictions. Askew writes with a novelist's storytelling ability, creating vivid portraits of landscapes and weather alongside brutal historical truths. She argues that healing the wounds of division requires owning our contradictory nature as Americans who can be simultaneously generous and prejudiced, decent and self-deceiving.
Genres: essays, historical-fiction, american, non-fiction, biography-memoir, american-history
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: memoir, social-commentary
Setting: Oklahoma, Tulsa
Period: Trail of Tears, Tulsa Race Riot, Oklahoma City Bombing
176 pages · Paperback · OUP
Content warnings: racism, violence