On The Bookshelf
Cordially invites you to celebrate
with us our 60th year of business
serving the metropolitan (Detroit area.
Dit honor of this event,
will roll back our prices
to 1979
Ve
(
7618 (Woodward LAve., (Tetrolt
(313) 871-1590
fReservations are suggested
(offer good only at our (Detroit location)
"
Excellent Thai Food As You Like It o.. Extra Mild, Mild, Medium, Spicy and Extra Spicy
Rated *** by DetrOjt Nevis
Lunch Specials
from
r SO
11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
includes
soup &
rice
fztt#-& t 8 eatetiv 04vailable • eocictails eetvecl
Hours: Mon.-Thurs.,
a.m.-10 p.m., Fri & Sat. I I a.m.-1 I p.m., Sun. 12-9 p.m.
6635 Orchard Lake Road at Maple • Old Orchard Shopping Center • 626.6313
CATERING
WE CAN DO
SOMETHING
FABULOUS
FOR THAT
SPECIAL
EVENT
DELIVERY
SERVICE
AVAILABLE
8/20
1999
A Little Bit Of New York
Right Here In Bloomfield Hills
LET US TAKE
CARE OF
THE FOOD!
HOME OR
OFFICE,
ANY
OCCASIONS,
SHIVAS,
NO
NOTICE
NEEDED!
6646 Telegraph at Maple • Bloomfield Plaza • 248-932-0800
.1.1
■■ •11Mr
90 Detroit Jewish News
In this spirit, he has conducted a lot
of online interviews and discussions
and conversed in person with small
groups. He is now talking with an
independent producer about making a
documentary film based on White Lies.
The books' physical appearance also
reflects the author's desire to inspire
readers to contemplate their own his-
tories. A self-described minimalist who
doesn't like clutter, Berger, who has a
doctorate in art history and has consult-
ed to many museums on exhibitions,
worked closely with the book's designer
to "recreate the sensibility of the text.
From the choice of typeface to the
airy quality of the pages with lots of
white space between the chapters, the
book projects a sense of quiet, a space
for introspection.
"It was very painful to write this
book," Berger admits. Through writ-
ing, he came to forgive each of his
parents — which he says he couldn't
manage to do after 12 years of thera-
py. Although he doesn't at all condone
his mother's attitudes, he understands
how her own attempts to launch a
career in music, in which she was
denied parts again and again because
she was too "ethnic looking," impact-
ed her life and her own obsession with
skin color.
He describes the process of writing
as "an interesting journey of remem-
bering. I remembered things I hadn't
thought of since they happened."
In addition to remembering diffi-
cult details of his youth, he also
came up with some happy memo-
ries, like long walks with his father
on summer Shabbat afternoons,
when they'd head uptown and
explore. As soon as Shabbat was
over, they'd head over to the
Automat on 42nd Street and Third
Avenue, paying the bill with money
stuffed in his father's shoes. As he
describes eating watermelon in the
cool air-conditioned room, it is pos-
sible to taste summer.
Berger, the author of six previous
books, still loves to walk around the
city. These days, he uses Afro-Sheen
on his wavy hair, at the suggestion of a
black photographer. He laughs and
acknowledges that this would offend
his mother.
In one of three chapters titled
"Hair," he writes that she insisted that
he part his hair and use Alberto VO5
to keep it "neat and well-groomed"
rather than natural. The tube of hair
cream, along with a brush and comb,
was the only gift he recalls receiving
from her.
. When asked about connections
between blacks and Jews, Berger says
that the bonds that existed during the
Civil Rights movement, even if there
were misunderstandings, were indeed
real and beautiful, not mythic.
He believes that the notion of a
widespread black anti-Semitism is a
myth, which is as pervasive as the
myth of pronounced Jewish racism; he
doesn't think that people are walking
around hating each other.
In the Clinton era, he sees the
bonds between the groups being
rekindled, as the president seems to
have fondness for both blacks and
Jews — "the coalition that elected
him" — and has brought both groups
into his administration.
To reduce racism, he feels the
media and schools can play a tremen-
dous role, and he sees people begin-
ning to understand their own beliefs
as a step toward understanding each
other. "Unless they do this," he says,
they're never going to be prepared
for the dialogues they're going to
need to have eventually.
"The most important lesson I hope
people come away with is that too
often we're looking over our shoulder
at everyone else," he says. "Once in a
while we have to look at ourselves,
stop blaming others, think about
what we can do that can make other
peoples' lives less difficult."
``