Island in the City: A Memoir (American Lives)

What forges the unique human personality? In Island in the City Micah McCrary, taking his genetic inheritance as immutable, considers the role geography has played in shaping who he is. Place often leaves indelible marks: the badges of self-discovery; the scars from adversity and hardship; the gilded stamps from personal triumphs; the tattoos of memory; and the new appendages--friendships, experiences, and baggage--we carry with us. Each place, with its own personality, has the power to form or revise our personhood in surprising and fascinating ways. McCrary considers three places he has called home (Normal, Illinois; Chicago; and Prague) and reflects on how these surroundings have shaped him. His sharp-eyed, charming memoir-in-essays contemplates how aspects of his identity, such as being black, male, middle-class, queer, and American, have developed and been influenced by where he hangs his hat Cover......Page 1 Title Page......Page 4 Copyright Page......Page 5 Contents......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 12 Normal......Page 14 Oreo......Page 16 Postures of Privilege......Page 30 To Rebel against Men......Page 39 Ever the Moth......Page 45 Chicago......Page 56 Metropolis......Page 58 Green and Gray......Page 66 Geraldyne's Room......Page 77 Two Cities......Page 86 Playground City......Page 99 Prague......Page 110 Snow Globe Bohemia......Page 112 Island in the City......Page 119 A Good Fake Czech......Page 129 Cabaret......Page 137 An Idea of Prague......Page 145 Epilogue......Page 157 Works Cited......Page 164 "Micah McCrary's sharp-eyed, charming memoir-in-essays contemplates how place has the power to form or revise our personhood in amazing and fascinating ways. He reconsiders three places he has called home--Normal, Illinois; Chicago; and Prague--to meditate on how his identity has been shaped by where he hangs his hat"-- Provided by publisher