The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death & America's Dilemma

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The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death & America's Dilemma

3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 · rating details · 687 ratings · 80 reviews

Alex Kotlowitz's There Are No Children Here was more than a bestseller; it was a national event. His beautifully narrated, heartbreaking nonfiction account of two black boys struggling to grow up in a Chicago public housing complex spent eight weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, was a made-for-television movie starring and produced by Oprah Winfrey, won many disti...more

Paperback, 336 pages

Published January 4th 2012 by Anchor Books (NY) (first published 1998)

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Aug 03, 2011 Dan Thorson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Journalist Alex Kotlowitz comes to Benton Harbor, Michigan with the intention of examining one of America’s poorest and most violent communities. This changes, however, when Kotlowitz discovers that 16 year-old Eric McGinnis, a black boy from the impoverished town, was found floating in the river dissecting Benton Harbor and its predominately white and affluent neighbor, St. Joseph. Kotlowitz becomes obsessed with the death, one that was hastily ruled an accident. The author spends four years tr...more

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Jun 28, 2011 Adam rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Benton Harbor and St. Joe residents, west-Michigan politicians

Shelves: history, non-fiction, michigan, race-and-ethnicity, sociology

A Michiganian murder mystery!

I came across this Kotlowitz expose at the local library's Friendshop. I was surprised to find what seemed to be a national publication about an event in two small towns of west-Michigan. I had never heard the tale and was intrigued by the story's racial charged background.

'The Other Side of the River' is primarily the account of Eric McGinnis' disappearance and death. However, the story spans many similar incidences, all of which have a common theme of bringing to...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Ben Richmond rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mighty-bleak, real-life-man

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Kotlowitz is a great reporter, and is judicious and compassionate to all of his subjects (and his readers). Ostensibly this book looks at the question of race in America in a different way; how real people react to a specific tragedy. It is a fascinating look at two towns with a spotty past, and nothing but questions as to how to move forward.

But the meta-level probably tells you more about race in America than the book does: A young black man drowns (SPOILER ALERT: no one knows why) in a river...more Kotlowitz is a great reporter, and is judicious and compassionate to all of his subjects (and his readers). Ostensibly this book looks at the question of race in America in a different way; how real people react to a specific tragedy. It is a fascinating look at two towns with a spotty past, and nothing but questions as to how to move forward.

But the meta-level probably tells you more about race in America than the book does: A young black man drowns (SPOILER ALERT: no one knows why) in a river between two towns (one black and poor, one white and affluent) and this necessitates having a soul-searching conversation on "race." Kind of seems like Kotlowitz is looking for the narrative there, and it's not a very nuanced one. Black and poor vs. white and rich isn't the entirety of "Race in America," but it's a compelling (not to mention, ahem, lucrative) framing device. Frankly Kotlowitz, a Chicago-based writer, should know better than to draw the lines so predictably. But then he lives in the suburbs now, so maybe I'm expecting a lot. If a young Latino man surfaces in the South Branch of the Chicago River between Pilsen and Chinatown, I guess I could go and ask people about how Latinos and Asian-Americans view each other, and it would probably be the first book of its kind. The problem with doing so is that the odds are people wouldn't view it as a racially motivated murder. But when a young black man surfaces in between RichWhite and Poorblacktown, is it time to ask those questions?

Since we don't know what happened in Kotlowitz's story, it's hard to know if his prism through which he views the event is widely shared, or justified. I'm not accusing him of editorializing or looking for racism where it doesn't exist (I'm sure it does exists in St. Joe/Benton Harbor), but a reporter gets answers to questions he asks, right?

Stylistically, the book leaves a little something to be desired. He's a clear and easy-to-read writer. His non-fiction writing techniques (transitions, section breaks etc) I'm sure look at home in the New Yorker, but wear thin over 300 some odd pages.

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Apr 16, 2010 Dee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This was a book my husband bought a couple of years ago. It is intriguing because it tells about the towns we lived in when we first met. I grew up in this area and we are most familiar with all the landscape. This makes a person tie in their own memories with so much. The events recorded are true and happened after we married and moved away. It tells a ragged story of racial conflict that people try to ignore. The book leaves you feeling a little 'off' because the police and courts in the story...more

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Apr 15, 2010 Chris added it

I live right where this is supposedly written. A lot of what the author writes is not true at all and completely fictitious. It reads like something he wants to happen and not that it HAS happened. Blacks are not afraid to go down to the river or to the beach for that matter. Both races attend the same clubs and dance with each other, party with each other and have fun together.No one is chased off. Yes, the towns are predominately split in races, and one side is a lot rougher than the other, bu...more

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Nov 13, 2008 Chriss rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tabloid account of a black teenager drowning and the author dramatizing it into a racial issue because law enforcement and first reponders who "could have saved him" were white. Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, Michigan certainly have had their fair share of crime but deserve more credit than an outsider's blundering.

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Jun 14, 2012 Bree rated it 4 of 5 stars

Having grown up in the area, this is a book I've had on my radar for a long time. For me, it was a fascinating read on the very complicated situation I grew up in, but hadn't been able to fully recognize until I left the area for college. I know that many St Joseph residents,especially those who have a greater stake in the community, were very embarrassed by the book and greatly dislike Alex Kotlowitz, labeling him an extreme liberal (we're talking about a pretty politically conservative area)....more

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Aug 17, 2011 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars

In spring of 1991, the body of a teenage African-American was found floating in the St. Joseph river. In this book, author Alex Kotlowitz tries to determine what happened to Eric McGinnis. Was his death the result of foul play? Was it a horrible accident?

This book isn't simply about the unfortunate death of a boy. It's about race relations between two towns on the shores of Lake Michigan. St. Joseph, a prosperous, predominately white city, and Benton Harbor, a seedy, predominately African-Americ...more

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Aug 07, 2011 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: done-reading

I wanted to read this book because I live in the area. I wasn't living here in the time of Eric's death. I believe that the author presented quite well the tensions that exist between the two towns of St. Joseph & Benton Harbor. This book was copyrighted in 1998, and even though it's 13 years later, a lot of what he researched and wrote about, the people he talked to, those emotions and attitudes still exist in this area. I think it's better, than the 1990's but the St. Joseph river is still...more

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Nov 06, 2012 Coralie rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was okay. In Southern Michigan, two towns border each other along a river. One is a lakeside resort town, 95% white, the other is 95% black. In "The Other Side of the River", Alex Kotlowitz explores the racial tensions between the two towns, centering on the death of Eric McGinnis, a black boy who was found dead in St Joseph, the mostly white town. The murder was never solved, and Kotlowitz explores all the theories and all the holes in each. This was an interesting book, but the fact...more

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May 31, 2009 Laura rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-school-and-up

This was a tough read. Kind of like reading a Law and Order episode. Very serious book with a lot of details gathered by the author. He goes in-depth to discuss the death of a young boy in St Joseph/Benton Harbor, Michigan. Primarily about the racial tension across the cities. I definitely wouldn't have picked this one up if I didn't have to read it for class and do a lesson plan on it.

I could see why it would appeal to some people who are really into sociology, criminology, or based-on-a-true-...more

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May 10, 2013 Erik Graff rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Americans

Recommended to Erik by: Fin Einar Graff

Shelves: history

My great-great grandparents and their children having built a cottage in the woods in unincorporated Lake Charter Township near Lake Michigan and generations of us as children having spent our summers there, I have always been familiar with the towns of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. St. Joe was the prettier of the two, the one with the old grand hotel, nice parks and the Silver Beach amusement park (now, sadly, gone), but Benton Harbor was the place that had the big shopping centers, movie theat...more My great-great grandparents and their children having built a cottage in the woods in unincorporated Lake Charter Township near Lake Michigan and generations of us as children having spent our summers there, I have always been familiar with the towns of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. St. Joe was the prettier of the two, the one with the old grand hotel, nice parks and the Silver Beach amusement park (now, sadly, gone), but Benton Harbor was the place that had the big shopping centers, movie theatres, auto shops and hardware stores. When something broke, usually a car, that is where Dad would go. Trips to St Joe/Benton Harbor were quite the event in childhood, the sixteen miles up the Red Arrow Highway seeming a vast distance to feral kids.

My earliest memories of Benton Harbor go back to the mid-fifties. Home of Whirlpool and to the now almost extinct House of David cult, it was an industrial city back then. Like Gary, Indiana it was substantially black, but then both places were thriving, relatively speaking. People had jobs. It seemed a big place. They even had a race riot in 1968, back when all the big cities seemed to be having them. In recent years, however, its industrial base has mostly disappeared. Many people don't have jobs. Storefronts are empty, the four downtown theatres are closed, tumbleweeds--yes, tumbleweeds--can be seen on the main thoroughfares. It is no longer the place to go when one has business "in town"--business is now at great malls beyond the city limits. My brother, Fin, a postman in Benton Harbor for fifteen years now, keeps me informed about the place, occasionally drives up there with me to show off his newest routes or interesting local developments, one of which was Jimmy Carter, in town with Habitat for Humanity, actually hammering nails--I didn't see this myself--on a rooftop.

Kotlowitz' book about St. Joe and Benton Harbor was popular in both towns, prominently displayed in bookstores. Indeed, I talked to a girl, a black girl, working at one of the latter's stores about the story he tells. She, claiming to have known Eric, the murder victim, said it was substantially accurate. The only false note is that the book suggests that the St. Joseph River separates the two. It actually isn't quite that neat, but it serves as a metaphor of connection and of separation.(less)

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Feb 02, 2011 Leah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: summer-reading, non-fiction, history

This book is about the tense and fraught relations between two small towns in Michigan, and the impact of an African-American boy’s death on both towns.

The reason for the tension is because one town is predominately black and the other is mostly white. Predictably, the mostly-black town has a high poverty level, high levels of violence, low rates of education, and a fair amount of anger. The mostly-white town is mostly middle-class, has strong schools, low crime rates, and a lot of indignation.

W...more This book is about the tense and fraught relations between two small towns in Michigan, and the impact of an African-American boy’s death on both towns.

The reason for the tension is because one town is predominately black and the other is mostly white. Predictably, the mostly-black town has a high poverty level, high levels of violence, low rates of education, and a fair amount of anger. The mostly-white town is mostly middle-class, has strong schools, low crime rates, and a lot of indignation.

When a young black man’s body was found floating in the river that divides the towns (yes, a river really does divide them), the two towns' responses were predictably divided. The black community believed (not without some evidence) that Eric had been murdered and a vast conspiracy had formed to cover it up. The white community, on the other hand, believes that Eric had been in the white town to commit a crime, and was killed accidentally while running away from the scene.

The author of this book is a journalist, which made the book much easier to read than I expected. Because of the subject matter, I’d expected the author to be a sociologist or anthropologist who would thump down a hefty literature review at the beginning, which I’d be forced to skip to get to the meat of the book (and which I certainly wouldn’t admit here). Instead, I was pleasantly surprised that the author leaps straight into the story, making no claims about his ability to draw parallels to American society at large, no attempts to philosophize about race-based tension in the US, and no effort to say something profound for posterity. Instead, as he says himself, he just wants to tell the story for the sake of the dead boy.

Because, you see, the child’s death remains unsolved. Due to a variety of mistakes, assumptions, bad timing, omissions, and other bad luck, no one knows why Eric died. The few people to see Eric the night he died differ so strongly in their details that a second theme for this book could be the absolute unreliability of eye-witnesses.

I found the book fairly easy to read, but a few things bothered me about the writing. In a book that is so focused on how skin color and community affiliation affect events and perception, I found it inexplicable that this author managed to overlook his tendency to assume the unmarked category.

For example, in one case in which a crowd of people gathers, the author doesn't specify whether they're black or white, a crucial detail in a book like this. Upon reading for context, I learned that they were white, revealing that this author, even in a book that revolves around skin color, had chosen to leave white as the unmarked category.

The book contains a fair amount of deep background on these two towns and their history of race relations. Additionally, the author explores some recent events in the towns that contributed to the aftermath of Eric's death. While important, these two levels of history--recent and ancient, so to speak--weren't presented in a linear way, which was kind of confusing. The story jumped around from recent school board elections to the 1920s, and back to the present.

The author of this book spent several years interviewing people from both sides of the river: family members, friends, witnesses, police officers, and community leaders. I was struck by how physically separate the lives of whites and blacks are in this community; whites simply don't cross into black areas, and vice versa.

I enjoyed reading this book, even if it was a slightly depressing reminder of how skin color still divides this country. The experiences of one group are so radically divorced from the experiences of another group that it's difficult for each to have any empathy for the other. Our backgrounds, perceptions, and opinions are so strongly formed by our skin-color-based associations that it's going to take a long, long time before we can, as a country, chisel ourselves out of those pigeonholes.

Recommended if you like history, depressing stories, unsolved mysteries, or have a grim fascination with the train wreck that is race relations in the US.(less)

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Oct 26, 2009 Julia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Kotlowitz (the author of the much-acclaimed book, 'There are No Children Here') has an incredibly special way of dissecting racial issues and giving perspective from both sides.

This book describes two small Michigan communities northeast of Chicago. St. Joseph is on Lake Michigan. It's a common vacation destination for Chicagoans given its location, recreational water activities, and quaint downtown shopping area. It's predominantly white, middle-to-upper class. A river on the east side of St....more

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Apr 28, 2009 Nick rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: general, true-crime

I though this would be a true crime that involved racial tension, but it turned out to be the story of the racial divide between two towns separated by a river. The black community believes a boy was murdered for coming into the white town. The white community believes the boy boy drowned in an accident. There is no evidence to prove either opinion. The book does a good job of showing how past wrongs combined with a small percentage of bad apples have caused both races to misunderstand and mistr...more

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Nov 11, 2007 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

Although its focus is on the unsolved death of a black teenager found floating near a Coast Guard station on the St. Joseph River, it is really about the huge racial divide in America, described by the author in the tense relationship between the communities of St. Joseph (white) and Benton Harbor (black) in Michigan. For those who believe that racial discord can only be found in the South or huge urban centers, one only has to read a piece like this. Also important is how rumor and myth become...more

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Oct 26, 2010 Anni rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have wanted to read this book for some time now as my father grew up in St. Joseph, the predominately white town depicted in the book. The events in the book take place in the 90's, when I was in middle and high school and frequently visited my grandparents there. I feel connected to the area and went into this book wit a lot of background information. Overall, I think the author did a great job presenting the various perspectives within the two communities. Although not always easy to read, I...more

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Oct 07, 2008 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone interested in race relations

I was hard on this book because I'd just finished David Simon's masterpiece "Homicide" (one of the best police books ever written) and I thought Kotlowitz's first book "There are No Children Here" was fantastic. Without those bias, I would have rated the book higher.
I thought Kotlowitz lived up to the excellent reporting he demonstrated in "No Children". But this time he as the writer became a character. It was interesting and I appreciated the background information about how he reached some c...more

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Apr 19, 2009 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Kate by: My mom- thanks!

Shelves: favoritereads

Good book by one of my favorite authors about two towns side by side in Western Michigan- St. Joseph, which is prosperous and largely white, and Benton Harbor, just across the river, whose mostly black residents live in poverty. The impetus for the book was the mystery surrounding the death of a teen from Benton Harbor, but the author goes beyond a single event into the history of the two towns and their relationship.

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Sep 23, 2011 Paul Toth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Depressing beyond anti-depressant relief but, once begun, unstoppable. The geography of race relations is one way to describe this book. Frustrating for reasons that leave the decision yours as to whether to read a book without "closure." And yet closure would have inappropriately violated the book's theme: There's nothing to close, including the book, which continues "reading" me now that I've read it.

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Jun 17, 2012 Chriss rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: true-crime, law-enforcement

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Jul 25, 2011 Debra Darschewski rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was very interesting. It kind of read like a very long newspaper article so went very quickly. I was impressed with the impartial reporting and getting viewpoints from every side. It was very eye opening to see the perspectives of the people in both towns and makes you realize what very little progress we've made.

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Apr 15, 2013 Mimi rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the 2nd book by this author that I have read. (The first one being There are No Children Here which was very well done & a grim look at inner city Chicago and what it's like for those children.) Again, the author does a nice job researching while also injecting his own observations but not in an intrusive way. Another look at race relations, prejudice etc in this country.

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Jul 17, 2011 Eliza rated it 5 of 5 stars

I could not put this down. It's a tough story to tell but Mr Kotlowitz tells it wearing is journalist-hat and gives the story dignity and a human touch. You don't have to be from the W side of MI to appreciate this story but it carries a lot of gravity for those of us who do know the area well.

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Nov 28, 2010 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

A difficult book to write without adopting a judgmental voice on the part of the author. The author does a nice job of looking at a series of episodes in the history of these two towns and how race and socio-economics shape our communities and our cultural paradigms.

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Apr 12, 2008 Jason Williams rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-nonfiction

It's only partly about the unsolved murder. It's more about the persistence of de facto segregation amidst the legacies of white flight: these are two defining phenomena of 20th century America. If, as DuBois said, the problem of the 20th century was the problem of the color line, then the St. Joseph River aptly symbolizes that line.

Living in Benton Harbor (while associating primarily with St. Joseph society) was such a formative experience for me as a kid; racial anxieties were so palpable ther...more

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Aug 05, 2011 LuAnn Frimmel rated it 3 of 5 stars

This author will be visiting our community in February to share his writing experiences with our high school students. I have read his two most well known books so that I am prepared to have a conversation with him. This book was based on the research that was done on the racial issues plaguing the towns of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, MI in the 1990's. Because there were so many people involved in the investigation of the death of a young black man, I had a difficult time keeping them all stra...more

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May 06, 2012 Jeff rated it 3 of 5 stars

This had to do with racism and the death of a boy named Eric McGinnis in 1991 who was found in the St.Joe river. I thought the author did a great job of describing the two towns and the assumptions of both races made about the other.

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Sep 26, 2010 Barbara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

A tale of the author's obsession with a mysterious death of a black teenage boy found in the river dividing two Michigan towns, one black and one white in the 1990's. A serious, sad, and eye-opening look at race in America.

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Jun 20, 2010 Stephanie rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book made me too sad to view it with any sort of "good book" vs "bad book" eyes. I'm sure it's a perfectly well-written book, and an interesting story(ies) for those disconnected from the area. Do not, however, read this book if you are about to move to St. Joe. :P

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About Alex Kotlowitz

FROM HIS WEBSITE:
Between writing books on urban affairs and society, Alex Kotlowitz has contributed to "The New York Times Magazine", "The New Yorker" and public radio’s "This American Life". Over the past three years, he has produced three collections of personal narratives for Chicago Public Radio: "Stories of Home," "Love Stories" and "Stories of Money." Stories of Home was awarded a Peabody. H...more FROM HIS WEBSITE:
Between writing books on urban affairs and society, Alex Kotlowitz has contributed to "The New York Times Magazine", "The New Yorker" and public radio’s "This American Life". Over the past three years, he has produced three collections of personal narratives for Chicago Public Radio: "Stories of Home," "Love Stories" and "Stories of Money." Stories of Home was awarded a Peabody. He has served as a correspondant and writer for a "Frontline" documentary, "Let’s Get Married", as well as correspondant and writer for two pieces for PBS’s "Media Matters." His articles have also appeared in "The Washington Post," "The Chicago Tribune," "Rolling Stone," "The Atlantic" and "The New Republic." He is a writer-in-residence at Northwestern University where he teaches two courses every winter, and a visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame as the Welch Chair in American Studies where he teaches one course every fall. He has also been a writer-in-residence at the University of Chicago. Kotlowitz regularly gives public lectures.

Kotlowitz grew up in New York City. His father, Robert, is the author of four novels and a memoir of World War II, "Before Their Time." His mother, Billie, who died in 1994, ran the Thematic Studies Program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. His brother, Dan, is a professor of Theatrical Lighting Design at Dartmouth. Kotlowitz graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Ct..

His first journalism job – after a yearlong stint on an Oregon cattle ranch – was with a small alternative newsweekly in Lansing, Michigan. After a year there, he freelanced for five years, producing for "The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour" and reporting for NPR’s "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition." From 1984 to 1993, he was a staff writer at "The Wall Street Journal," writing on urban affairs and social policy.

His journalism honors include the George Foster Peabody Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the George Polk Award. He is the recipient of three honorary degrees and the John LaFarge Memorial Award for Interracial Justice given by New York’s Catholic Interracial Council.

He currently lives with his family just outside Chicago.
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