C. P. Ellis grew up in the poor white section of Durham, North Carolina, and as a young man joined the Ku Klux Klan. Ann Atwater, a single mother from the poor black part of town, quit her job as a household domestic to join the civil rights fight. During the 1960s, as the country struggled with the explosive issue of race, Ellis and Atwater met on opposite sides of the public school integration issue. Their encounters were charged with hatred and suspicion. In an amazing set of transformations, however, each of them came to see how the other had been exploited by the South’s rigid power structure, and they forged a friendship that flourished against a backdrop of unrelenting bigotry. Now a major motion picture, The Best of Enemies offers a vivid portrait of a relationship that defied all odds. View the movie trailer here: https://youtu.be/eKM6fSTs-A0

本書は、相容れない憎悪の先にある「階級という共通の痛み」を鮮烈に描いた傑作です。ＫＫＫの幹部と黒人活動家が、南部の権力構造に共に搾取されていた事実に気づく過程は、単なる和解を超えた鋭い社会批判の重みを持ちます。著者の筆致は、個人の良心がいかに集団の狂気を凌駕するかを、冷徹かつ情熱的に問いかけます。 映画版が二人の交流を情緒的に映す一方、原作は歴史の闇を深く掘り下げ、テキスト特有の思索の深さを提示します。映像で胸を打たれた方は、本書で葛藤の細部を補完することで、真の友情が過酷な土壌から芽生えた背景を重層的に体感できるはず。両メディアの相乗効果が、人間賛歌の真髄を鮮やかに突きつけます。