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Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self

By: Rebecca Walker
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Riverhead Books
ISBN: 1573221694
ISBN-13: 9781573221696
Released: 06 Jan 2001
RRP: £13.38
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

If she weren't Alice Walker's daughter... - By: , 26 Jan 2001
...this book would probably never have gotten published. Though there are some passages of clear, precise & interesting writing, these definitely take a back seat to an abundance of self-absorbed, self-pitying & undisciplined prose. The premise for the book is extremely interesting: a child born to people committed to change: unconventional, political people with causes to fight & fire in their bellies. When the world does actuallly change, Alice Walker & her Jewish lawyer husband Mel Leventhal find themselves polarised: Walker defines herself as black, Leventhal returns to the world of the white, Jewish liberals & daughter Rebecca is torn between the two & at home in neither world.

Interesting idea.

However, as the story reads, there's just too much poor, pitiful, screwed up me. I don't belong in either world. I can't make a choice, etc. Who am I?

About forty pages in, the reader finds him or herself thinking, so you don't fit in, so what? What 15-year old feels comfortable? What adolescent feels their parents, teachers, relatives reallly understands them?

The book's subtitle is "Autobiography of a Shifting Self." Very apt. You're left with a feeling of shifting perspectives & shifting emotions. But not much else.

Not a great read.