John Blake's memoir, *More Than I Imagined: What a Black Man Discovered About the White Mother He Never Knew*, delves into his life as a biracial man navigating identity alongside a mother who had schizophrenia. It explores themes of self-discovery, relationships, and tackles enduring issues like racism and indifference. Drawing on his experience as a seasoned journalist, Blake shares a compelling story that reflects on his challenging upbringing in Baltimore. As an adult, Blake's personal revelations about his family deeply influence his perspective, highlighting the importance of racial unity through empathy. Ultimately, his very candid memoir tells a story of redemption, offering profound hope and reconciliation, making it a thought-provoking must-read with a lasting impact.

All in all, I applaud John Blake for his sincere yet raw memoir. I enjoyed reading it. I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

One day, I was perusing CNN’s website when I came across an essay by John Blake entitled What a Black Man Discovered When He Met the White Mother He Never Knew. I was intrigued and, upon reading this essay, I found I wanted to learn more about John Blake’s life experiences. Happily, I learned that he had written a book about the subject, More Than I Imagined: What a Black Man Discovered About the White Mother He Never Knew. I searched for the book and found it on NetGalley.
In More Than I Imagined, we learn what it was like for John Blake, growing up in the Baltimore inner-city neighborhood that gained notoriety in the HBO series, The Wire. His father was a Black merchant marine who was rarely home, leaving John and his brother in various foster homes while he was away at sea. John knew he was biracial, but things he had been told and/or witnessed caused him to deny the white mother he never knew and be hostile toward whites. The fact that his mother had all but disappeared from his life and his mother’s family had rejected him because of his race didn’t help matters.
It was only in his late teens that John learned the truth about his mother. She hadn’t exactly disappeared – she was in a psychiatric institution, diagnosed with schizophrenia. After years of believing that his mother left because her family didn’t like Blacks, John learned that his mother left because she had a mental illness. A short time later, he met his aunt, who also worked hard to set the record straight regarding how her family viewed the subject of race. This did little to allay his fears as he now fought to understand racism coupled with the stigma of mental illness.
As one reads More Than I Imagined, we join the author on a journey to understand the world he was living in. We grew with the author as he moved out of his inner-city home and into a university that was all-Black, but whose students had gone to school in integrated areas and had white friends as well as Blacks. He joined a Christian group that was integrated and grew more insight into race relations. He began to cover race relations in his work as a journalist, all the while struggling to understand why his mother and father never really saw what race is when it came to love.
Through his time with his mother and his aunt, and in talking to certain members of his family and his elderly father, John soon learned an important thing…something he worried over for years. His mother’s attraction to his father was not rooted in her mental illness, it was rooted in love. At a time where biracial couples were unpopular and the Love marriage case had yet to be decided, his parents decided to break barriers and be with each other regardless of their racial differences.
I found the idea behind the book intriguing and as I read, I was glad to see John Blake’s views on racial relations grow. I liked his reference to Gordon Allport, a well-known psychologist who believed that sustained contact with other races reduced prejudice. It doesn’t make it all go away, but I believe in this idea. I also liked that he delved into the stigma of mental illness as well, a different form of prejudice altogether.
John Blake’s More Than I Imagined is an excellent and informative read, allowing us to see race relations through the eyes of someone who has written countless articles about the subject, but was still learning about the topic himself.

A truly compelling book by a man that once denied he was half white around his black friends and family. It’s about self discovering and forging relationships with people over the author’s life. Excellent writing. Difficult subject matter at times.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Four stars!