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| BLACK
WHITE AND JEWISH, Autobiography of a shifting self |
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Author:
Rebecca Walker
Binding: Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: The Putnam Publishing Group
Published Date: December 01, 2000
"Compelling."
-The Washington Post
"Stunningly honest."
-San Francisco Chronicle
"A complex, all-American story." -USA Today
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REVIEWS
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Publishers Weekly Review
The
daughter of famed African American writer Alice Walker and
liberal Jewish lawyer Mel Leventhal brings a frank, spare
style and detail-rich memories the this compelling contribution
to the growing subgenre of memoirs by biracial authors about
life in a race-obsessed society. Walker examines her early
years in Mississippi as the loved, pampered child of parents
active in the Civil Rights movement in the bloody heart of
the segregated South. Torn apart by the demands of their separate
careers, her parents' union eventually lost steam and failed,
leaving Walker to shuttle back and forth across country to
spend time with them both. Deeply analytical and reflective,
she assumes the resonant voices of an inquisitive child, a
highly sensitive teen and finally a young woman who is confronted
with the harsh color prejudices of her friends, teachers and
families-both black and Jewish-and who tires desperately to
make sense of rigid cultural boundaries for which she was
never fully prepared by her parents. Whether she's commenting
on a white ballet teacher who doubts she'll ever be good because
her black butt's too big, Jewish relatives who treat her like
an alien, or a boyfriend who feels she's not black enough,
Walker uses the same elegant, discreet candor she brings to
her discussion of her mother and the development of her free-spirited
sexuality. Her artfulness in baring her psyche, spirit and
sexuality will attract a wealth of deserved praise. (Jan.
2) Forecast: Coming the heels of her mother's story collection,
The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart (which offers a fictional
treatment of Alice Walker's marriage to Leventhal), this literary
debut by the younger Walker, who has been recognized by Time
as one of her generation's leaders, is destined to generate
excitement. Although Walker is likely to be compared to Lisa
Jones (the daughter of Amiri Baraka and Jewish writer Hetty
Jones), who tackled the myth of tragic mulatto in Bullet Proof
Diva (1995), a collection of columns from the Village Voice,
Walker's higher profile and narrative treatment of these themes
will draw a wider audience who no doubt will greet her warmly
on her 10-city tour.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Booklist
Review
When
Alice Walker and Mel Leventhal married, their love was an
illegal but idealistic leap of faith. But "Black Power"
replaced "Integration" as the civil rights movement's
slogan; a few years later, Walker and Leventhal divorced.
Their daughter, Rebecca, shuttled back and forth, spending
two years with her writer mom on the West Coast, then two
in the East with her civil rights lawyer dad and his new family,
then back again. Identity is an issue for every kid, but for
Rebecca, it was especially challenging; she was too black
for one East Coast boyfriend, not black enough for the tough
girls in her San Francisco school. (In New York, at one point,
she hung with Puerto Rican kids, because they seemed more
welcoming than either blacks or whites.) Both families gave
Rebecca a good deal of freedom early--too much, some readers
will no doubt feel. Happily, the author ultimately found teachers
who encouraged her to build her identity around her capacities
rather than her bloodlines, and her capacities are reflected
in this involving, honest, poignant memoir.
By Mary Carroll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights
reserved
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PRAISE
FOR BLACK WHITE AND JEWISH
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"Walker skillfully depicts her tangled upbringing,
full of disappointment and privilege."
-Time
"Walker
masterfully illuminates differences between black and white
America... A heartbreaking tale of self-creation."
-People
"A
cautionary tale about the power of race in shaping identity...
A highly readable debut."
-Entertainment Weekly
"A well-written refusal to ignore old wounds."
-The Boston Globe
"Her outsider status equips her with a sharp eye
for analysis and narrative detail. And her restrained prose
is refreshing in this age of gushing confession."
-The Washington Post Book World
"Black White and Jewish is a frank, detail-rich
look at her upbringing."
-Chicago Tribune
"Her book is an attempt to not only come to grips
with her own identity, but to expose the pain and turmoil
that come with shifting back and forth...It is stunningly
honnest account, almost painfully self-revelatory."
-San Francisco Chronicle
"A poignant, spare memoir."
-Chicago Sun-Times
"Black White and Jewish is Rebecca Walker's anthem
of independence, the compelling diary of a 'Movement Baby'
who combats her own racial insecurities."
-The Dallas Morning News
"Walker
treats her youth as a mystery to be slowly unraveled."
-USA Today
"Moving between those two worlds - and the biases
each held against the other - left Rebecca fighting to sort
out her identity, which she does so eloquently in her new
memoir, Black White and Jewish."
-USA Weekend Magazine
"[Walker] has been borkering an equally difficult
peace between her racial and sexual selves."
-Talk (hot titles for a cold season) |
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"Walker's descriptions of her near-constant battle to
define herself racially are poignant and intricately constructed."
-The San Diego Union-Tribune
"Black White and Jewish is Walker's personal
account of that real world - a place that nourishes anger
and cynicism - and her eventual discovery that the only real
world is the one we create."
-Seattle Weekly
"Episodic, brief chapters punctuated by spare poetic
details reinforce her idea of herself as a vaporous being
who floats in and out of her skin."
-Dream Hampton, The Village Voice
"In
this lyrical and devastingly honest memoire, Rebecca Walker
bravely shares the details of childhood agonies associated
with mixed heritage."
-The New York Observer
"The
book examines her search for herself with poetic style and
touching detail."
-Rocky Mountain News
"Walker
has crafted a beautiful memoir about race, sexually, and
spirituality." -Honey
"Rarely
does a writer convey the angst of a young biracial woman's
search for self-identity in a society hell-bent on defining
her as she reduces readers with her shap insights and her
beguiling prose... Walker puuls it off in this chronicle
of her life." -Savoy
"A
streetwise, candid look at the difficulties of being biracial...
If her book is any indication, building bridges between
different worlds is one of her gifts - a matter of survival
while she was growing up, but now a choice."
-Time Out New York
"The daughter of famed African American writer
Alice Walker and liberal Jewish lawyer Mel Leventhal brings
a frank, spare style and detail-rich memories to this compelling
contribution to the growing subgenre of memoirs by biracial
authors about life in a race-obsessed society. Her artfulness
in baring her psyche will, spirit and sexuality will attract
a wealth of deserved praise."
-Publishers Weekly
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PRESS
ARTICLES |
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| REBECCA
WALKER: REFLECTIONS FROM BLACK, WHITE, AND JEWISH
by Doug King © WitherSpoonSociety.org, Nov 1,
2000 |
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| EXISTING
BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE © RaceRelations.about.com,
Nov 06, 2000 |
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| PW
TALKS WITH REBECCA WALKER by Robert Flemming ©
Publishers Weekly, November 06, 2000 |
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| IDENTITY
CRISIS by Livi Regenbaum/Kansas City Jewish Chronicle©
Jewsweek.com, 2001 |
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| REBECCA
WALKER CAPTIVATES AUDIENCE, SPEAKS ABOUT BIRACIAL AND LIFE
EXPERIENCES by Anna Milanez ©
The Bi-Co News, 2001 |
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| PORTRAIT
OF A YOUNG WOMAN IN SEARCH OF HER AUTHENTIC SELF by
Marlena Thompson © InterFaithFamily.com, January,
2001 |
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| TRANSLATING
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS by Judith Bolton-Fasman ©
InterFaithFamily.com, January, 2001 |
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| REBECCA
WALKER AT WOMEN & CHILDREN Jan. 16 by Karen Hawkins
© OutlinesChicago.com, Jan 10, 2001 |
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| THE
PARENT TRAP by Jennifer Frey ©
WashingtonPost.com, Jan 12, 2001 |
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| ALICE
WALKER'S DAUGTHER DETAILS HER 'SHIFTING' CHILDHOOD
by Jennifer Frey, © The Washington Post, January
21, 2001 |
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| LIVING
ON AMERICA'S RACIAL DIVIDE by Laurence Washington
© Rocky Mountain News, January 28, 2001 |
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| THE
COLORED PARENT by Margo Hammond, © The New
York Observer, Feb 5, 2001 |
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| REBECCA
WALKER ERASES HER HYPHENS IN BERKELEY TALK by Rachel
Metz, © The Daily Californian, February 15, 2002 |
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| IDENTITY
CRISIS by Bob Minzesheimer © USA TODAY, February
24, 2001 |
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| WALKER,
IN HER OWN SHOES by Austin Bunn, The Advocate, Feb
21, 2001 |
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| HOW
REBECCA WALKER FOUND HER IDENTITY by Temii Tellis,
© Dimensions Archive, March 19, 2001 |
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| HOW
REBECCA WALKER FOUND HER IDENTITY by Temii Tellis,
© Dimensions Archive, March 19, 2001 |
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| WALKER
OPENS, HEALS SOME OLD WOUNDS by Alyssa Haywoode,
© Boston Globe, March 19, 2001 |
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IDENTITY
CATHARSIS by Heather Tenzer © Moment, April 2001 |
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REBECCA
WALKER: BEING BLACK, WHITE AND JEWISH © Ivillage.com,
August 05, 2001 |
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| WORK
IN PROGRESS,
By
Gina Kaufmann,
© Pitch.com,
01/17/2002 |
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REBECCA
WALKER FINDS HER PLACE AFTER BLACK-WHITE-JEWISH YEARS
© St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 21, 2002 |
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| REBECCA
WALKER FINDS MEANING IN MANY WORLDS by John Mark Eberhart
©
The Kansas City Star, January 27, 2002 |
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| BOOKS
- OF COLOR by Mekado Murphy , © Dallasvoice.com,
February 01, 2002 |
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| AUTHOR
OPENS EYES TO WORLD THAT'S NOT BLACK AND WHITE
by Andrew DeBraber © The Grand Rapids Press, 2002 |
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