My father, who keeps me flush with books, sent me Black Girl White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates for my birthday. It sounded like something I would like: written from the perspective of a white girl born of a well-known family, struggling to deal with her parents' radical past, and the issues of rooming with a black girl during her freshman year at the college her family founded. I loved the premise, and Oates puts a lots of effort into shaping the book in disjointed way to give it the jaunty feel of thought, but I found it difficult to get past the characterisation of Minette Swift, the black roommate. She's enigmatic and awkward, disinterested in others, and deeply devout. She is anything but likable, but we spend the whole book listening to the narrator fall in love with her, or at least the idea of her, because she hardly ever speaks except to pray. The whole thing I found to be a bit odd, like Oates was describing someone so different from anyone that I had ever met that I couldn't understand what she wanted me to think. Still, I thought the book was an okay read, and moved quickly, so I would recommend it if the subject matter sounds interesting to you. But don't be surprised if you find yourself a bit puzzled, too.
October 13, 2008
Black Girl White Girl
My father, who keeps me flush with books, sent me Black Girl White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates for my birthday. It sounded like something I would like: written from the perspective of a white girl born of a well-known family, struggling to deal with her parents' radical past, and the issues of rooming with a black girl during her freshman year at the college her family founded. I loved the premise, and Oates puts a lots of effort into shaping the book in disjointed way to give it the jaunty feel of thought, but I found it difficult to get past the characterisation of Minette Swift, the black roommate. She's enigmatic and awkward, disinterested in others, and deeply devout. She is anything but likable, but we spend the whole book listening to the narrator fall in love with her, or at least the idea of her, because she hardly ever speaks except to pray. The whole thing I found to be a bit odd, like Oates was describing someone so different from anyone that I had ever met that I couldn't understand what she wanted me to think. Still, I thought the book was an okay read, and moved quickly, so I would recommend it if the subject matter sounds interesting to you. But don't be surprised if you find yourself a bit puzzled, too.
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