Black Girl White Girl Author:Joyce Carol Oates Volumes will be written about Oates' young women narrators, their vulnerability and covert power, their passive-aggressive quests for love and their penchant for revenge. Complicated young women like Generva Meade, heir to a fortune and a legacy of activism. Her Quaker ancestors were abolitionists, her namesake was a famous pioneering feminist, ... more »and her father is a notoriously radical hippie attorney. A signature theme for Oates is the psychology of race relations, and a favorite rite of passage is a young woman's first year away at college, preoccupations that shape this acutely provocative novel. It's 1974, and Generva, called Genna, is a freshman at a college founded by her great-grandfather. Her roommate, Minette Swift, is a black scholarship student and the pious, anxious, and aloof daughter of a minister. She also appears to be the target of hate crimes. Genna tries so desperately to befriend Minette that there is something suspect about her avid fascination. As events unfold, Genna's growing frustration over the unbridgeable gap between her and Minette fuels her anger with her elusive father, who may be in danger due to his involvement with a protest bombing. Oates is a master at injecting potent personal and social psychology into the lean musculature of a thriller, a feat that, in this case, starkly exposes key paradoxes at work in the American soul. -- Booklist« less