Product Description

In 1975 Genna Hewett-Meade's college roommate died a mysterious, violent death partway through their freshman year. Minette Swift had been assertive, fiercely individualistic, and one of the few black girls at their exclusive, "enlightened" college—and Genna, daughter of a prominent civil defense lawyer, felt duty-bound to protect her at all costs. But fifteen years later, while reconstructing Minette's tragic death, Genna is forced to painfully confront her own past life and identity...and her deepest beliefs about social obligation in a morally gray world.

Black Girl / White Girl is a searing double portrait of race and civil rights in post–Vietnam America, captured by one of the most important literary voices of our time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #760898 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-01
• Released on: 2006-10-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In 1975, racial tension still runs high at Genna Meade's mostly white Schuyler College in Pennsylvania. Her outcast black roommate, Minette Swift, is a D.C. preacher's daughter; Genna is descended from the college's founder. Minette misses home desperately; Genna, in contrast, avoids her "hippie" mother's phone calls while yearning for a visit from her absentee father, activist lawyer Maximilian Meade. Despite their differences, the girls muster an effortful friendship, due to the near-fetishization of black culture that Genna's parents have inculcated in her. When racist incidents begin to plague Minette, Genna tries to protect her, but Minette lapses into an antisocial, dangerous depression. Meanwhile, Genna has her own problems—she's gradually piecing together clues to a mystery whose solution may lie far too close to home for comfort. Eventually, Minette's downward spiral prompts a shocking epiphany for Genna that will alter the course of her family's life. Oates bravely grapples with the fallout of the Civil Rights movement, the early '70s backlash against Summer of Love optimism, and the well-intentioned but ultimately condescending antiracist piety of privileged white liberals, but this anecdotal novel feels slight compared to her best work. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
In 2006 Joyce Carol Oates released two novels (Missing Mom and Black Girl/White Girl), a new collection of short stories (High Lonesome), and another novel under her pseudonym Lauren Kelly (Blood Mask). What negativity exists in reviews of her latest work is tied to accusations that Oates sells a promising novel short by not allowing herself time to develop it properly. That doesn't stop Stanley Crouch from delivering an ecstatic review. Nor does the complaint stand up against the balance of critics who come down overwhelmingly on the National Book Award winner's side in proclaiming Black Girl/White Girl a brave, nuanced look at American culture.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From Booklist
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, 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. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Grey
In "Black Girl White Girl" we find Joyce Carol Oates in familiar territory: Genna ("I hated the possibility of being perceived as a spoiled, privileged white girl..."),from a wealthy family yearning for the friendship of her college roommate, Minette: a black woman ("Her face fascinated me, it was the most striking face I'd seen close up....sharp boned...with dark skin that looked stretched to bursting...you felt that, if you dared to touch that skin, your fingers would dart away, burnt.").
Genna goes out of her way to be kind and considerate of Minette often doing simple courtesies for her but to no avail. Minette, coming from her conservative African American background is wary and suspicious. ("From the start Minette was an enigma to me. A riddle and a dazzlement".)
As with many of Oates' heroines, Genna is uncomfortable in her own skin and seeks the approval of others in order for her to accept herself. Genna is emotionally empty: she is always on the lookout for someone to fill the gaping void that is her heart and soul.
As is always the case in Oates' work, family plays a big part in "BGWG" ("...the family is the locus of obsession. The family is about possessing and being possessed.")
Genna's family life is anything but simple and straightforward.
Her mother Veronica lords over her with absolute authority on the one hand and a bottle of Absolut in the other. Her father, Max always seemingly on the lam for his Civil Rights activities is unavailable physically and emotionally and only makes guest appearances in Genna's life. Both Veronica and Max are thrilled that Genna has the opportunity to room and become acquainted with a living breathing African American. Genna's heart is in the right place. It's just that she has no experience making friendships. She tries too hard and that simply drives Minette farther and farther away. Not that Minette is perfect by any means. She too is flawed but a much bigger mystery than is Geena. ("Always there was a curious aloofness to Minette Swift.")It is also through Minette that Oates once again exhibits her fascination for and fright of compulsive eating. Minette sneaks food into her room, eats in her room alone and generally uses food as a way to hide from others and avoid facing her peceived (by her) inadequacies.
Then a series of tacit attacks begins: racial slurs are written on the door of Genna and Minette's room, Minette's textbooks are stolen and reappear marked up and shabby. The attacks escalate and Minette is pushed down a flight of stairs. Who is behind these acts?
Oates is covering a lot of territory here: racial prejudice as well as racial entitlement, the family as a base of encouragement or discouragement, the college campus as a microcosm of life and on and on. "Black Girl White Girl" takes us back to that part of Oatesiana called Obsession and though it is not one of Oates' better works it certainly deserves your time being that it comes from one of our finest contemporary writers.

Not JCO at her best, but not a bad read, either
As the title suggests, the novel is comprised of two stories conjoined. Genna Meade reconstructs her freshman year at college and the events culminating in the death of her former roommate for a motive not disclosed until the novel's end. Genna is the white, wealthy offspring of hippie-radicals and Quaker ancestors; her black roommate Minette is the pious, self-possessed daughter of a Washington, D.C. preacher. A compelling mystery unfolds as Genna's hesitant narration reveals a tale of personal and political tumult in the post-Vietnam era. The pervasive theme is good intentions gone awry. What seems clearly "black and white" in the novel's beginning becomes more a study of shadows, as Genna avoids, vaguely considers, then finally faces the morally grey aspects of her life and times.

What a disappointment!!
First and foremost, was anyone else irritated by Minette Swift's omnipresent 'SCUSEME????'. Does she not know any other words?

Moving on...

What drew me to this book was the riveting synopsis on the book jacket. I expected a discussion (exploration?) of race relations between two young women of drastically different backgrounds in 1970's collegiate America and their collective movement toward understanding and friendship (before Minette's untimely death, of course). The descriptive scales are way out of balance in this book; the surface of Minette's life and that of her family are barely scratched, while Genna's is picked through with a fine-toothed comb. The book focuses heavily on white girl Genna's dysfunctional family, constantly hammering into the reader's head her father Max's valiant legal crusading on behalf of anti-war activists and people of color and his all-too-frequent absences. That's all well and good, but how about paying a little more attention to Minette? After all, isn't she supposed to figure prominently in this text? Was she experiencing depression before she came to college, or did her troubles begin at Schuyler? And if they did begin at college, what was the impetus? How about elaborating on what put this obviously intelligent and pious young woman on the path to depression? I wish Ms. Oates had expanded upon this segment of the plot and delved a little deeper into this character.

What a disappointment. I'm about to start on "The Gravedigger's Daughter"...here's hoping for a more riveting read!