Blue as the lake

Blue as the Lake maps out an African-American landscape unique in American literature. From Idlewild, the black resort near Lake Michigan, where the young Robert Stepto vacationed with his grandparents, to Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, the author traces a history of generations finding and making a home.

These stories of migration take the author and his ancestors from Washington to Missouri. Chicago to Massachusetts. Their family lore careens through American history - we meet a black regiment in World War I; the legendary jazz musician Coleman Hawkins; and Inabel Burns, pioneering feminist and great-granddaughter of slaves. In their attachments to place. Stepto's stories claim a multiracial and national heritage.

Beautifully and intimately rendered, they offer a meditation on what it means to be American.