Through a Blue-Eyed Lens is a poignant memoir that takes the reader on the improbable journey of Shelley, a young white girl, in the 1960s South. 

 

When Shelley arrives from the outer reaches of Wyoming, her new stage is Memphis, a segregated city increasingly steeped in conflict and turmoil. By recounting the ways in which she navigated both social and historical constructs, Shelley unearths a storehouse of deeply personal memories. Through these selective reflections, she reveals the wildly unpopular decisions and consequential choices that found her estranged from one community and embraced by another.

 

The story of how Shelley came into adulthood as she straddled two worlds within a city divided is at the heart of Through a Blue-Eyed Lens