At Mama's Knee

January 23, 2017
Journalist Ryan’s loosely connected series of essays and autobiographical sketches examines what it means for mothers of color to work hard, protect children against a racist world, and find balance among competing responsibilities. In a pivotal passage about the protests over Freddie Gray’s death in police custody, she recalls that in “April 2015, the Baltimore I grew up loving was turned upside down.... I remember driving back from the White House that April evening frantic to get home to my children, Ryan and Grace, not knowing what was going to happen in my community.” Ryan, a member of the White House press corps, lends her voice as an African-American mother to debates about divorce, community, death, and politics. Her journalistic chops are evident in her keen eye for an important topic, and she also shows a willingness to stake out strong and even unpopular opinions, such as in her stringent critique of the reclamation and use of anti-black slurs by African-Americans. However, like many works by short-form journalists, her long-form book has a thematic thread but not a dramatic arc. She too often lets others speak for her via interviews with political aides and community activists while holding more personal matters—her mother’s death, a family shooting, and her own balance of career and motherhood—at arm’s length.