Writing style
Descriptive · Direct · Journalistic
Apple BooksBlack Like Me
Biography and memoir
- First published
- 1961
- Print length
- 192 pagesSignet, 1996
Description
In 1959, journalist John Howard Griffin temporarily darkened his skin so he could travel as a Black man through the segregated Deep South. Over six weeks, he journeyed through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia, examining life across the color line under Jim Crow. The book grew from the journal Griffin kept during this project, shaping his observations into a firsthand nonfiction account. Presented as a humanitarian challenge to racial intolerance, it records an unusual attempt to cross a rigid racial boundary and report the experience directly. The work focuses on Griffin’s journey and the perspective he developed while moving through a region marked by tense race relations.
Reading profile
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Pace
Measured
Tone
Earnest · Reflective · Tense · Unsettling
Structure
Chronological nonfiction
Focus
Ideas · Information · Voice
Emotional intensity
5 / 5
Reading complexity
1–5 · higher means more demanding- Writing
- 3 / 5
- Ideas
- 3 / 5
- Structure
- 2 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 2 / 5
Themes
Book details
For the print edition listed above.
- Publisher
- Signet
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9780451192035
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