BIOGRAPHY

The Book Keeper: A Memoir of Race, Love, and Legacy

by Julia McKenzie Munemo
Swallow. Jan. 2020. 256p. ISBN 9780804012218. $27.95. MEMOIR
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Freelance writer Munemo lost her father to suicide when she was only five. He was a Jewish man who wrote books Munemo refers to as “slavers”—pulp paperbacks full of interracial sex set during the Civil War era. Now a parent herself, raising two multiracial children with her Zimbabwean husband in a world that is increasingly dangerous for people of color, Munemo has set herself a goal: to unearth what drove her father’s despondency, his racism, and his creative spirit. While the book is an engaging meditation on a family heritage rife with religious, racial, and emotional conflicts, Munemo has not given much consideration to the renewed rise in anti-Semitism in her thinking about the dangers she describes in a Trump presidency.
VERDICT A carefully crafted memoir for all readers who care about family connections and legacies, and about multiracial identity, in an increasingly complex world.
Reviewed by Amy Lewontin, Northeastern Univ. Lib., Boston , Jan 01, 2020
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