Skinfolk; A Memoir

Title of the book: Skinfolk; A Memoir 

Author: Matthew Pratt Guterl 

Publisher: Liveright 

Publishing Date: 2023 

ISBN: 978-1-324-09171-4

Summary:

Could a picturesque white house with a picket fence save the world? What if it was filled with children drawn together from around the globe? And what if, within the yard, the lines of kin and skin, of family and race, were deliberately knotted and twisted? In 1970, a wild-eyed dreamer, Bob Guterl, believed it could.

Bob was determined to solve, in one stroke, the problems of overpopulation and racism. The charming, larger-than-life lawyer and his brilliant wife, Sheryl, a former homecoming queen, launched a radical experiment to raise their two biological sons alongside four children adopted from Korea, Vietnam, and the South Bronx—the so-called war zones of the American century. They moved to rural New Jersey with dreams of creating what Bob described as a new Noah’s ark, filled with “two of every race.”

While the venture made for a great photograph, with the proverbial “casseroles and potato chips out for everyone,” the Brady Brunch façade began to crack once reality seeped into the yard, adding undue complexity to the ordinary drama of a big family. Neighbors began to stare. Vacations went wrong. Joy and laughter commingled with discomfort and alienation. Familial bonds inevitably buckled. In the end, this picture-perfect family was no longer, and memories of the idyllic undertaking were marred by tragedy.

In lyrical yet wrenching prose, Matthew Pratt Guterl, one of the children, narrates a family saga of astonishing originality, in which even the best intentions would prove woefully inadequate. He takes us inside the clapboard house where Bob and Sheryl raised their makeshift brood in a nation riven then as now by virulent racism and xenophobia. Chronicling both the humor and pathos of this experiment, he “opens a door to our dreams of what the idea of family might make possible.”

In the tradition of James McBride’s The Color of Water, Skinfolk exposes the joys and constraints of love, blood, and belonging, and the persistent river of racial violence in America, past and present.

Author Info:

(From goodreads)

I am a historian, so I write books. But I read them, too. If I really enjoy something, I'll review it here. And feel free to message me

Personal Opinion:

I definitely feel guilty about giving this story three stars because it did have a fascinating premise and I did look forward to reading it. What I think occurred are the mismatched expectations that I had towards the book versus what the book was about. From the paragraph, I expected personal anecdotes, I expected that race would be a lot more than just black and white binary; I had hoped the author would acknowledge the complexity of the label white, since just about a hundred years ago, his white skin wouldn't be able to protect him as it does today. Instead, what I got is a memoir that seems to lack personality and emotion, and besides brief lip service, Asian race and the complexity of the label white is ignored. I also hoped for more stories about Bug and how Bug grew up being Asian in a white family,  and I feel as if I didn't get what I was seeking. Let's say I was expecting a lot more than what the author provided. Personal anecdotes? Some were there but not really, and the author does a lot of time jumps. For instance he never details how he met his wife, and aside from Bear and, later on Eddie, the stories of Bug, Anna and Mark are often ignored. Also, is Bug transgender? Because there is a big discrepancy between the pictures versus that Bug is often referred to as a "he" in the story. 

This was given for review

3 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)