| My Soul Looks Back: A Memoir | |
| Author: | Jessica B. Harris |
| Language: | English |
| Subject: | Autobiography |
| Genre: | Memoir |
| Publisher: | Scribner |
| Pub Date: | 2017 |
| Pages: | 255 |
| Isbn: | 978-1-5011-2590-4 |
| Isbn Note: | (Hardcover) |
My Soul Looks Back: A Memoir is a memoir by cookbook author and food historian Jessica B. Harris,[1] [2] particularly describing on her life and friendships with major black writers including James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, and Toni Morrison in New York City in the 1970s.
Harris published the 255-page book with Scribner on March 9, 2017.[3]
Publishers Weekly described the book as "a lively, entertaining, and informative recounting of a time and place that shaped and greatly enriched American culture," namely Harris's life as a young person in New York City in the 1970s amid black authors including James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, and Toni Morrison; Harris was introduced to this circle through her romantic relationship with Sam Floyd, Baldwin's best friend.[4] Reviewing the book for The New York Times, critic Dwight Garner described it as having a "simmering warmth" and "was never, to this reader, uninteresting" even if it also had a "softness of focus", suggesting at times the book fails to "recall the best lines and jokes" from the literati Harris describes.[5]