30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This will be a favorite novel from 2007, April 28, 2007
BLACK & WHITE by Dana Shapiro
April 28, 2007
Rating ***** (5 Stars)
Clara Brodeur is estranged from her mother and older sister, but her friends and family that have known her since she left home do not know the reason why. Only her husband has some idea what Clara went through as a child, the daughter of a prominent photographer in New York. BLACK & WHITE is the story of a woman's relationship with her famous mother, Ruth Dunne.
Against her better judgment, Clara goes alone to New York to see her mother, who is now ill and is on her deathbed, leaving her children and devoted husband at home. It is Clara's sister Robin that convinces Clara to make this emotionally difficult journey back to her roots, in which memories still haunt her to this day, as she tries to live a life that is totally apart from what she had experienced by the hands of her mother.
Ruth Dunne was a struggling photographer/artist years ago, with two children under the age of 6 and a devoted husband. When Ruth is 'discovered' by a friend of her husband's, she is told that her photographs are good but they lack something. So she tries something different. When she sees her younger daughter Clara, who at the time was three years old, naked in the tub with a plastic frog in her mouth, Ruth takes the photograph, and soon her photography career takes off. Known as the CLARA SERIES, these photographs take New York by storm, and make Ruth a genius in the eyes of the art world.
But there is controversy, as critics and the public argue whether these photographs are art, or on the edge of pornography. From the age of three through fourteen, Clara is Ruth's muse, and is the center of all her most famous and critically acclaimed work.
And underneath it all, Ruth's family is falling apart. Clara struggles with the idea of being the center of such attention, never feeling comfortable with the nude portraits, but never knowing how to say "no" to her mother. Robin feels she's the neglected daughter, and this feeling carries over into adulthood, as the two sisters deal with their relationship to each other and to their dying mother. Their father never approved of the photographs, and tries his best to protect Clara, but Ruth finds ways to sneak out of the house to photograph her, usually when he is away on business.
When Clara finally runs away from home because she's finally had it, she separates herself from her family and makes a new life for herself, eventually moving to a small town with her new husband. In her new life, Ruth Dunne does not exist, and Clara has no plans of telling her daughter Sam about this icon in the world of photography --- that is, until she receives word that her mother is dying.
BLACK & WHITE is told in flashbacks, detailing Clara's childhood and her life with her family growing up. Now that she's reunited with her sister and mother, she needs to decide how to live out the rest of her life, whether to acknowledge her past with Ruth, whether to let her daughter know who she really is. There are many issues that Clara has to deal with before her mother dies, including what happened to her at the hands of her mother and whether she can forgive Ruth. Clara also needs to decide whether to include her mother, on her deathbed, into her life, now that her life includes a husband and a daughter. Conflicts between the two sisters are also at hand. The main theme of the story is that of forgiveness and acceptance. I found BLACK & WHITE a very intense novel, and a fast read. I had enjoyed FAMILY HISTORY by Dani Shapiro a few years ago, and eagerly picked up BLACK & WHITE, expecting to read yet another wonderfully written book about the relationships and intricacies that make up a family. I think I enjoyed BLACK & WHITE even more, which is saying a lot. I highly recommend this book.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Captivating, April 9, 2007
Black & White is incredibly well-written and enjoyable to read. Shapiro's descriptions of the photo shoots, while disturbing, are captivating. The reader can visualize the scenes (and the characters) so easily. In my opinion, the image of Clara's father is the most heart-breaking; all he wanted to do was protect his daughter and her innocence from the masses. While I was surprised by the minimal sympathy I felt for Ruth near the end, I was never entirely convinced that she deserved it. I'm sure the book will leave readers debating Ruth's motives and her love for her children.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Emotional and Riveting, May 10, 2007
Black and White is the first of Dani Shapiro's novels I've read, and I found it riveting. The excellent writing is very descriptive, which allowed my mind to be fully transported to the two main settings, an L.L. Bean version of a Maine island in winter and the black-clad gallery world of Manhattan. The rich texture of Shapiro's writing shines through with minute detail. She creates nearly every scene with a 360-degree view. This quality added to my ability to imagine the expensive and much-studied photographs upon which the story revolves: The Clara Series, by Ruth Dunne.
Character driven, this is primarily Clara's story. She's a 32-year old mother of a 9-year-old daughter, Sammy, and wife of jewelry artisan, Jonathan. After 14 years of self-imposed exile from her famous mother, the photographer Ruth Dunne, and her older sister, an uptight attorney named Robin, she's called back to Manhattan because of her mother's grave illness. Clara's relationship with her mother and her struggle as she returns is the central plot. From ages 3-14, Clara had served as Ruth's muse and model and grew up with all eyes upon her, judging, assessing and commenting on the black and white nude photographs that made her mother a star. Ruth never asked permission . . . Clara suffered and at 18, just before she obtained her high school diploma, ran away. Her mother's cancer and her sister's request that she return to help, forces her to come of out hiding. This return to the fold exposes her secrets and her fears. She must not only face her mother and her sister, she must face herself.
It's a quick read, a satisfying story and has fantastic character development of each character, major and minor. Highly recommend.
Michele Cozzens, Author of A Line Between Friends and The Things I Wish I'd Said.
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Q: What is your writing process like? Has it changed from book to book?
