The Responsibility of Writing: Michael J. Shapiro and Brad Evans in conversation

Mike Shapiro: My review of your How Black was My Valley for the journal American Book Review has left me with issues and questions I was only able to introduce given the journal’s 1500-word mandate. Because the diverse narrative threads in the book have captured my attention, I want to initiate an essay-length conversation that will bring out aspects of the book’s form in order to give it the critical attention it deserves. Your stunning introductory paragraph sets a tone – literally I said in my review – because “black” is the book’s central tonic in a text in which a literary “tonality” provides the books structural coherence.