Friends Disappear

A sociologist returns to her suburban Illinois hometown to compare the paths of black and white childhood friends in a "fascinating" mix of study and memoir ( Chicago Tribune). Mary Barr thinks a lot about the old photograph on her refrigerator door. In it, she and a dozen or so friends from the Chicago suburb of Evanston sit on a porch. It's 1974, the summer after they graduated from Nichols Middle School, and what strikes her immediately—aside from the Soul Train–era clothes—is the diversity o...