Helpful Score: 2
Amazon.com
A young girl learns some difficult lessons in Danzy Senna's debut novel Caucasia. Growing up in a biracial family in 1970s Boston, Birdie has seen her family disintegrate due to the increasing racial tensions. Her father and older sister move to Brazil, where they hope to find true racial equality, while Birdie and her mother drift through the country, eventually adopting new identities (Sheila and Jesse Goldman) and settling in a small New Hampshire town.
Birdie/Jesse tries to find her niche in this new world of eye shadow and gossip and boys, but she also wants to remain true to herself and find a common ground between her white and black heritage. She sets out to find her sister and reconnect with that part of her that has been lost for so long; the search takes her far from the settled, safe life she had in New Hampshire to a far more ambiguous, and unsettled, existence, one in which her own definitions of herself become muddled, and her search for her sister leads ultimately to a search for her own true identity. --
A young girl learns some difficult lessons in Danzy Senna's debut novel Caucasia. Growing up in a biracial family in 1970s Boston, Birdie has seen her family disintegrate due to the increasing racial tensions. Her father and older sister move to Brazil, where they hope to find true racial equality, while Birdie and her mother drift through the country, eventually adopting new identities (Sheila and Jesse Goldman) and settling in a small New Hampshire town.
Birdie/Jesse tries to find her niche in this new world of eye shadow and gossip and boys, but she also wants to remain true to herself and find a common ground between her white and black heritage. She sets out to find her sister and reconnect with that part of her that has been lost for so long; the search takes her far from the settled, safe life she had in New Hampshire to a far more ambiguous, and unsettled, existence, one in which her own definitions of herself become muddled, and her search for her sister leads ultimately to a search for her own true identity. --
Helpful Score: 1
I loved this book, the main character was so vivid, I never wanted this book to end.
Helpful Score: 1
This is one of my favorite books, one that I plan on rereading many times. It was such an absorbing story. As a biracial woman, some of the situations in this book really hit home for me. I would recommend it as a must read for people of all races.
This was a very interesting read. It was an excellent observation cultural experiences in relation to the time in America. The writing was sensitive, inventive, flowing and kept my interest throughout. Overall a very good read.
Fascinating first novel about race in contemporary young person's experience of Boston
one sister looks black, one looks white - a story about a family separating and a woman looking to find her identity.
I really enjoyed this book about a interracial couple and their two girls. The story is primarily about one of the daughters who "passes for white" and her experience with being bi-racial. Great read! Highly recommended!
This novel is so much more than a novel--it is beauty and haunting and powerful. I had never read anything by this author so did not know what to expect, other than it got very good reviews. This book is more than very good, it is a compelling look at being black and being white in one family. I know this will forever be one of my favorite reads. If this were (and it's not) the only novel this author ever wrote, i believe she should be so very proud, it's up there with the best of the best.
I'm reading this for an English class on American Women writers- and so far this sounds like a quasi-autobiographical on Danzy Senna
