Thursday, April 24, 2019
Tayari Jones is an American author from the South. Her latest novel focuses on the lives of a middle class African American couple whose marriage is torn apart when the husband is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit.
Guest host Erik Spanberg sits down with Jones to hear about her book.
Tayari Jones is from Atlanta, Georgia. Her most recent book An American Marriage was named by both Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey as a must-read novel. The book focuses on the marriage of a middle class African-American couple who live in Atlanta, and whose lives are torn apart when the husband is wrongfully convicted of rape.
Jones uses the book to explore the size and scope of America’s prison system, and the themes of systemic racism that plague our justice system. The fact that African-Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of whites is not lost on Jones. Her characters are college educated, employed, are not victims of drug abuse, and most importantly not poor. Even so, the justice system still manages to rip apart their lives, and ruin an otherwise successful family.
Guests:
Tayari Jones, author, An American Marriage