14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Grey, March 10, 2007
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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very unrealistic; not sure if I should be insulted, January 14, 2008
This book was very unrealistic and possibly insulting. I only say "possibly" because I'm not sure what exactly Oates was trying to say with this story. The main characters were too caricatured for me to feel much for them. Genna was just too, too guilty and too desperate to be liked by a roommate who didn't want a new friend. And Minette - how was she a real person? The only way I could see her as a living, breathing human being would be to believe that she suffered from some very serious mental problems. Why make her so unpleasant? She arrogantly disliked everyone, spoke strangely ("Scuseme"), ate obsessively, and even stopped bathing. We are also to believe that she faked her own racist harrassment - the kind of thing a person would do for attention. But Minette seemed to want no attention at all. Ever. From anyone. And she didn't even do well in school. Yet everyone, from the RA to the professors, bent over backwards to accomodate her because she was a black scholarship student. I'm not sure what Oates is trying to say here. Was this the story of a girl with mental problems, or an arrogant, dirty, greedy black girl who wasn't smart enough for the scholarship she had, who manufactured racism when she didn't find any (in the 70s) and her long-suffering, guilt-ridden, white roommate who just wanted a friend?
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not JCO at her best, but not a bad read, either, November 5, 2006
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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
