Book Review

The Skin Between Us
Kym Regusa
memoir
224 pages
W.W. Norton

This memoir is like a good Italian meal. The passages are replete with flavors and textures that make you want to linger. Ms. Regusa is the daughter of an African American mother and an Italian American father. She is a visual artist whose childhood filled with books and museums deftly affect her ability to tell her tale. I found myself slowing down to take in passages; I wanted to savor them. A photographer and filmmaker, Ms. Regusa's rendering is a combination of watching a documentary and feeling full from partaking in an extended meal. This is not a feel-good book. The tension, anger, abandonment, and racism addressed here is tangible. Still there is enough of the poetic and hopeful to keep the reader going.

While this review is brief, I hope you can sense how satisfying this read is. I read this last year and even now, I feel full and content.