The best biographies generate empathy, emotionally connecting the reader to the subject’s lived experience. Esau McCaulley’s memoir makes that connection from the first page. There are hints of McCaulley’s story-telling chops in his hermeneutics book, Reading While Black, but How Far to the Promised Land places them on full display.

How Far is not just Esau MacCaulley’s story, it’s the story of his family—especially his Father—and how they have been shaped by southern US culture.

A good narrative—a Black one, at least—is not owned by any individual; it is, instead, the story of a people. The focus on a singular person obscures the truth that the gifted are not the only ones who succeed, the weak are not the only ones who perish, and the America we laud for providing victors still creates too many victims to be at ease with the way things are. (xvii)

McCaulley’s work is not bitter (despite ample cause for bitterness), but an honest, clear-eyed look at life in the American South. For readers like me, far removed from McCaulley’s context, this book is an exercise in empathy; an opportunity to develop love for one’s neighbour.

McCaulley, Esau. How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the American South. Convergent, 2023.