No family is without fault; few parents can be labeled good or bad. Both Priscilla Gilman and E. Dolores Johnson demonstrated that truth with extraordinary openness in their memoirs—for which we can all be grateful. 

Truth-telling is hard.

The Critic’s Daughter by Priscilla Gilman

Gilman captures the nuances of a family—her remarkable father with fine-grained detailing that brings him and Gilman alive. My attention never faltered; I soared (envious!) as she rendered her experience as the daughter of the daughter of a magically attentive, brilliant, and lauded man. I felt the pain and worry of a daughter whose father required endless adoration and protection—the damage wrought when she took on the role of his constant cheerleader; for him, she denied seeing his dark side. 

Though the intellectual opportunity-rich world of theater, literature, and academia where Gilman came of age was opposite from mine, I could walk in the same shoes she wore: living a life trying to soothe and cheer everyone in her life. That we had matching reactions to the father in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn shined my love for The Critic’s Daughter even more.

Say I’m Dead: A Family Memoir of Race, Secrets, and Love by E. Dolores Johnson

Say I’m Dead offered what I want an extraordinary memoir to provide: Johnson surrounded me with a socio-cultural-political lifetime while bringing me close to her family, twining the personal, familial, and historical importance of the times.

The author grew up mixed-race at a time when everything about being Black, mixed-race, or any identity other than white and Christian, was difficult and dangerous. Her parents gave up an unimaginable amount of their lives to be with each other, raising three strong children who confronted racism every way they turned.

 The times changed—the author discovered her missing family, and her daughter grew up in a far better world, but the reader never loses sight of the disparity they still face every day and everywhere. The author did a phenomenal job bringing the personal and political together in this page-turning book.