The grace of silence /

After the election of Barack Obama, Norris, one of the voices of "All Things Considered" on NPR, served as the host of a series of segments about the meaning of race in America. As this memoir makes clear, the experience stirred Norris, born to postal workers who strove to be "the king and queen of the black bourgeoisie," to think that "my reporting had to begin with me." Like most black Americans, she's had some disturbing brushes with racism. Shortly after her parents bought house in a predominantly white section of Minneapolis, for instance, their neighbors put their homes up for sale. As an adult, Norris learns that her father, who served in the United States Navy during World War II and died in 1988, was shot in the leg by a white police officer during a low-grade scuffle shortly after returning to the Jim Crow South from the Pacific. And an uncle discloses that her long-departed grandmother hawked pancake mix for Quaker Oats as an itinerant Aunt Jemima, known then in popular culture as "a devoted, dimwitted plantation slave." Norris relates these discoveries with the pitch of revelation, but they fail to dazzle at the level she hopes, largely because they are tethered to her obligation to make them stories about herself. As a result, she indulges in the sentiment and navel-gazing all too common to the genre of midlife memoir. It would have been more interesting if she had provided a fuller exploration of the conditions that move one older African-American woman Norris interviews to say, "I can't look at these civil rights documentaries, because it is not entertainment and it sure as hell ain't ancient history."

*Starred Review* Lauded journalist Norris, cohost for All Things Considered on NPR, intended to write a book analyzing the changing conversation about race in the Obama era. But once she realized that even within her own family, discussions about race were not completely honest, she changed course. The result is an investigative family memoir of rare candor and artistry that dramatically reveals essential yet hidden aspects of African American life. A fifth-generation Minnesotan on her mother's side, Norris was stunned to learn that her maternal grandmother worked for Quaker Oats as a traveling Aunt Jemima, a revelation that sparks a paramount interpretation of this loaded icon. The next shock was discovering that when her father returned to Birmingham, Alabama, after serving in WWII, he was shot by a white policeman. This painful secret inspires a commanding exposé of the scandalous violence against black men who had fought for human rights abroad only to be denied freedom at home. A balance-beam writer, Norris looks at both sides of every question while seeking truth's razor-edge. But she is also a remarkably warm, witty, and spellbinding storyteller, enriching her illuminating family chronicle with profound understanding of the protective grace of silence and the powers unchained when, at last, all that has been unsaid is finally spoken.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist

In this eloquent and affecting memoir, Norris, co-host of NPR's All Things Considered, examines both her family's racial roots and secrets. Spurred on by Barack Obama's campaign and a multipart NPR piece she spearheaded about race relations in America, Norris realized that she couldn't fully understand how other people talked about race until she understood how her own family dealt with it, particularly with their silence regarding two key events. She intersperses memories of her Minneapolis childhood with the events that shaped her parents' lives: her maternal grandmother's short career as a traveling "Aunt Jemima," which always embarrassed her mother, and her father's shooting by a white policeman in Alabama in 1946. It is the shooting, which occurred soon after Belvin Norris Jr. was honorably discharged from the navy, that forms the narrative and emotional backbone of Norris's story, as she travels to Birmingham to try and piece together what happened. Though the quest is a personal one, Norris poignantly illuminates the struggle of black veterans returning home and receiving nothing but condemnation for their service. The issue of race in America is the subject of an ongoing conversation, and Norris never shies away from asking the same difficult questions of herself that she asks of others because "all of us should be willing to remain at the table even when things get uncomfortable." (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

In examining her personal roots for this memoir, African American Norris (cohost, All Things Considered, NPR) found some skeletons in her family's closet. For example, she discovered that in the early 20th century her grandmother had dressed as Aunt Jemina to pitch pancake flour to the wives of white farmers in the Midwest. Using her skills as an investigative reporter, Norris also pieces together details of an incident in 1946 when her father was shot by a white policeman in Birmingham, AL. These facets of Norris family history were never discussed during her childhood. To a degree, this "graceful silence" shielded Norris from the indignities of race relations in America, enabling her to be raised in a somewhat sheltered environment that championed thrift, education, hard work, and dignity. Verdict The chronological flow of the book is awkward, but Norris's family history offers Americans of all races a moving and revealing account of the obstacles facing several generations of middle-class African Americans in the pre-Civil Rights era. [See Prepub Exploded, 3/18/10.]-Robert Bruce Slater, Stroudsburg, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In her debut memoir, veteran journalist and All Things Considered co-host Norris deftly explores the "unprecedented, hidden and robust conversation about race" now taking place throughout the United States.In the wake of Barack Obama's election, the author found that middle-class black families were more willing to open "the window to [their] painful past."Throughout her childhood, her family had resolutely encouraged her to achieve fulfillment by focusing on the future and ignoring racial slights. They didn't discuss the civil-rights struggle or the humiliating reality of segregation, even though in 1961the year of her birthher family was one of the first black families to move into a previously all-white Minneapolis neighborhood. Following up a casual remark by her uncle, Norris discovered that her deceased father had been shot just two weeks after his discharge from the Navy, when he had been jailed on a false charge of robbery. Born and raised in Birmingham, Ala., he moved north shortly after the incident and never discussed it with his wife or children. The author was able to track down relatives of the friend and piece together what occurred, and she learned that her father was probably a participant in one of the marches led by returning veterans who refused to accept second-class citizenship. By exploring her father's past, Norris uncovers the hidden origins of the civil-rights movement and how it still shapes the lives of Americans today. While giving homage to her beloved father, the author rejects the comforting myth that we currently live in a post-racial society. "Our continuing national conversation on race will no doubt proceed by fits and starts," she writes. "But all of us should be willing to remain at the table even when things get uncomfortable. We need to be fearless while unburdening ourselves, even as we respect the same effort in others. There is often grace in silence. But there is always power in understanding."Outstanding.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.