The Other Side of the River

The other side of the river

The body of a black teenager , Eric McGinnis , was found in the St . Joseph River , drowned . The only question everybody asks is : How did he get there ? People wonder whther this was an accident or a suicide ? The two towns , Benton Harbor and St . Joseph , divided by both race and the river grapple with the possibilities in this difficult case

Alex Kotlowitz , the author , puts his sharp reporting skills to good work here , describing in detail everything that is known about Eric McGinnis 's short life

and untimely death "The Other Side of the River is the story of two small towns "whose only connections are two bridges and a powerful undertow of contrasts " On one side of the river is St Joseph , white and prosperous on the other is Benton Harbor , black and poor -- "landscapes so dissimilar . the view can take your breath away " So are described these two towns in the book

Benton Harbor assumed Eric had been murdered St . Joseph . actually it depended on whom Kotlowitz asked . Kotlowitz uses Eric 's death as the central theme in a larger story of racial divide , symbolized , of course by the long-running river

Klowitz spent years pursuing the story , talking with more than 200 sources , hoping to discover something definitive about how and why Eric died . This search gives The Other Side of the River the intensity of a mystery or true-crime tale but Eric McGinnis ' death , whether accident or murder , also displayed the greater-than-geographical distance dividing the citizens of Michigan 's Twin Cities . Benton Harbor 's African Americans and St . Joseph 's European Americans perceived Eric McGinnis death and investigative work by police and prosecutors through eyes deeply affected by their own histories and their own myths . Kotlowitz 's well-researched account includes testimonies from a wide range of subjects -- from investigators to teachers , teenagers to long-time community members

Black teenagers argue that McGinnis was killed by St . Joseph whites for dating a white girl white teenagers link McGinnis 's death to gang migration from Chicago . Others maintain that McGinnis was not murdered at all

Alex Kotlowitz uncovers layers of both evidence and opinion , and demonstrates that in many ways , the truth is shaped by which side of the river you call home . Kotlowitz tries to solve the mystery of the body in the river and indeed comes up with a number of possible solutions , some more probable than others

Although focused on the death of a young man , this book is more about the racial divides that exist among Americans more than thirty years after the civil rights movement reached its apogee . People from both sides tend to keep to themselves , looking with suspicion at the other To those in St . Joseph , Eric 's death is proof that race blinds their neighbors to the obvious . To those in Benton Harbor , it is proof that because of race even the obvious is never what it seems

When the body of a black...