Notes from No Man's Land

[Bryna]

I have mixed emotions about Notes from No Man’s Land. On one hand I found Eula Biss’ writing to be extraordinary in its honesty. She fully embraces her weaknesses and lays it all out for us to explore in a beautifully sculpted racial journey through time and place. It was humbling to read such strong words from a woman who seemed to lack any self worth when it came to her own identity. She makes it hard to ignore what it means to be ‘white’ in the United States today. On the other hand, her opinion of what it means to be ‘white’ or ‘black’ or Native American is skewed with a heavy dose of guilt and prejudice. Although I agree that we should be fully schooled in our actual history (not the one sugar coated in high school history books), I do not agree with wearing it around our necks like some bloody bling-bling forever knocking against our chests. Her words are of a masochistic nature, which is all very well dished out twice a month or so, but bridges on psychosis to live by day to day. This is one book I would recommend for anyone to read, if not to learn by then at least to throw around the room in frustration.