Black Girl / White Girl

While I was anticipating truly outstanding writing from a novelist as renowned as Oates, considering this was my first encounter with her work, I didn't always come across it. However, I must give her due credit for taking on an uncommon and challenging subject. The unrequited longing of White Girl for friendship with her (Black Girl) roommate feels authentic for the time and place that is portrayed. It remains a bit of a mystery as to why Oates decided to make Black Girl so strange and troubled. But then again, White Girl was also rather troubled, perhaps typical for this author. I was also confused by the narrator's repeated mentions of nappy hair and oily dark skin - what was the significance of that?

This is a concise book. I would have preferred more emphasis on the girls' relationship without the major disruption to the plot caused by the radical left father. It would have been interesting to see how their connection developed and evolved without this additional complication. Maybe Oates had her reasons for including it, but for me, it detracted a bit from the central focus of the story. Overall, though, it was an engaging read that made me think about race, friendship, and the complexity of human relationships.

In 1975, two girls share a room in a prestigious college in the East. One is rich and WASP. She comes from a family of progressive intellectuals who are a bit hippie. They are very engaged in fighting for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam, and they have no time to take care of her.

The other girl is poor and black. She has won a scholarship. She comes from a family of extremely devout Christians who are bigots and ignorant and are originally from the South. However, there is nothing stereotypical about them. The characters and situations in Oates' novels are always realistic and authentic.

The two girls could not be more different, yet they have something in common: they are both eighteen years old. Both are plain, one is too thin and the other is too fat. Both are lonely and studious and have little fun. Both are clumsy, insecure, and sensitive and cannot make friends, even though they are in desperate need of this friendship.

I really liked this subject, so original (how much more banal the story of a friendship would have been!) and so true. Oates is masterful in describing an era - the 1970s in the United States, with the racial issues already resolved yet still relevant, drugs, war, the Nixon scandal, terrorism - and at the same time telling the insecurities, frailties, and angsts of adolescence. And, of that age, the risks: sometimes it takes so little in the life of an adolescent, just a small mistake, a distraction, a case, a stupidity, an unfortunate encounter, a misunderstanding, a moment of discomfort, to irrevocably ruin an entire life. It is just like that.

I felt that this piece read more like an outline of a novel or just the ideas for a novel, rather than an actual fictional story with fully developed characters.

I really desired to know more about the thoughts of the Black Girl mentioned in the title. I had the wish that the novel could have been written in alternating chapters, with different narrators taking turns.

That being said, I did discover some of the scenes to be truly unforgettable. For instance, Genna in the mall with her mother during Christmas time, the two roommates shopping for Christmas together, and the interrogations by the housemother.

Moreover, I've found myself constantly thinking back over the characters and the worlds in which they were each formed and within which they existed.

It seems that although the story may not have fully fleshed out the characters in the traditional sense, it still managed to leave a lasting impression with its memorable scenes and the thought-provoking nature of the characters and their worlds.

I look forward to seeing if the author will further develop this into a more complete and engaging novel in the future.

I was truly anticipating to have an intense love for this book. It was the very first one that I had the opportunity to read by this particular author, and that too in its French version. However, to my dismay, I was just a little bit let down. Maybe the theme didn't precisely align with what my heart desired to read at that specific moment.

Nevertheless, it is indeed a novel that delves deep into the life in the United States during the 1960s. At that time, the country was striving to break free from an atmosphere that could no longer be simply termed as racial segregation, yet it still reeked of daily racism. The middle-class white people with their so-called good intentions were attempting to eradicate this racism, but unfortunately, they only ended up restating the prejudices.

Leaving aside the aspect of race for a moment, Minette is in fact a deeply tortured character. She has a radical personality that makes her completely unlikable. It is probably this immediate sense of rejection and mistrust that the reader feels towards her. Genna, on the other hand, fails to recognize this feeling within herself or express it clearly. This is because it would be so contrary to her liberal education. And it is precisely this that creates a sense of unease within the reader.

Je pensais vraiment adorer ce livre qui était le premier que j'avais lu de l'auteur, dans sa traduction française. Mais j'ai été un peu déçue. Peut-être le thème ne correspondait-il pas exactement à ce que j'avais envie de lire à cette époque.

Cependant, il s'agit d'un roman qui traite de l'Amérique des années 1960 qui essayait encore de se libérer, sinon de la ségrégation raciale, du moins d'un climat de racisme omniprésent. Ce climat était contrebalancé par une bien-pensance blanche et petite-bourgeoise, mais en réalité, cela ne faisait que renforcer les préjugés.

En laissant de côté le conflit racial pour un instant, Minette est en réalité un personnage tourmenté. Elle a une personnalité radicale qui la rend totalement difficile à apprécier. C'est sûrement ce sentiment de rejet naturel que ressent le lecteur, sans que Genna parvienne vraiment à le reconnaître en elle, car cela serait contraire à son éducation libérale. Et c'est précisément cela qui crée le malaise.

It's extremely challenging to assign a rating to this book.

Before reaching page 100, I might have awarded it just one star. In fact, I was using it as a kind of sleeping aid. However, then I began to develop an interest in the story. But it was more in terms of how it was constructed. The imbalance of a story with a seemingly balanced title was quite astonishing. I was fascinated by how unlikable both the girls and their families were. At the same time, I was frustrated by the hypnotic and repetitive moments. "Scuse Me, tell me about Minette's glasses one more time and I'll go crazy." This just goes to show how obsessed Genna is with Minette. And now I realize that although the story focuses on how weird and unlikable Minette is, Genna is becoming increasingly unhinged, perhaps even more so than Minette. I believe that if you finish the book blindly trusting everything that Genna says, you've missed something crucial about the book. Even if you read it on a superficial level, the book does a great job of highlighting white privilege and the perils of kumbaya liberalism. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking, well, you ended up liking the book or at least finding it very thought-provoking, so why not give it 4 stars? But I simply can't change how much I disliked the first part of this book.

God,

Oates has once again done this strange and twisted thing. Everything seems so wrong, and yet, in a strange way, it is perfect. I found it to be such a weird but apt tale about white guilt. In this story, everyone is so strange. I don't think anyone is clearly illustrated except for our narrator, who, like many of Oates' protagonists, doesn't feel all the way.

Basically, I love it. The way Oates weaves this story is truly remarkable. She delves deep into the psyche of the characters, exploring their inner turmoil and the complex emotions that drive them. The theme of white guilt is presented in a thought-provoking and powerful way. It makes the reader question their own assumptions and prejudices.

Overall, this is another brilliant piece of work from Oates. Her writing is engaging, her characters are vivid, and her stories always leave a lasting impression. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

Joyce Carol Oates' career as a writer has been unusually straightforward. Born in 1938, she read great literary figures like Dostoyevsky, Faulkner, and Hemingway as a teenager and started writing herself at the age of 14. She studied English and Philosophy and published her first short story collection, "By the North Gate," in 1963, two years after graduating. Since then, she has written over 40 novels, several plays, short story collections, novellas, poetry, essays, and biographical works. She is considered one of the most important authors of American contemporary literature, has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize several times, and is often talked about as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. I keep my fingers crossed for her every year and read through her extensive work according to my mood. "Black Girl / White Girl" was at the top of my Oates reading list.

On the evening of April 11, 1975, on her 19th birthday, Minette Swift died in a terrible accident on the campus of Schuyler College. She was one of the few African-American students admitted. The circumstances of her death remained mysterious. 15 years later, Minette's former roommate, Genna Hewitt-Meade, tries to reconstruct the events before the young woman's death. Soon, she gets entangled in the painful memories of her own confusing youth, which was marked by a complicated relationship with her parents. As the daughter of a civil rights lawyer, she understood it as her duty to befriend Minette and protect her from negative influences if necessary. But Minette pushed her away. Only as an adult does Genna realize that Minette's refusal to let her in may have saved her life - while it cost Minette her life.

I thought reading "Black Girl / White Girl" would be a no-brainer. Joyce Carol Oates deals with the theme of racism in her own style of psychological realism - a guarantee for a top rating, I thought. I was wrong, because contrary to my assumption, the book is not about racism. The political aspect was at most a hint that stole onto the tongue whenever I was confronted with Minette's definition of her identity. Unfortunately, I didn't understand at all what "Black Girl / White Girl" is about, although the novel is not too demanding thanks to Genna's first-person perspective. I didn't understand what message Joyce Carol Oates wanted to convey through the complex, irritating relationship between Minette and Genna. Several months have passed since I read it. The story had a lot of time to work in my subconscious. When I thought about the book again, I realized what I had experienced: an unrequited friendship, the tragedy of which lies in the fact that the two protagonists, despite their similarities, did not find each other. Both young women come from difficult families with intimidating, dominant fathers. Genna's father was a radical civil rights lawyer who never had time for his children and exposed them to a questionable environment at an early age. Minette's father was a strictly conservative pastor, which made her grow up strictly religious and try desperately to live up to the high expectations of her parents. Both had to assert themselves on their own for the first time, were terribly lonely and insecure. Both urgently needed a friend, but while Genna longed for an intimate relationship and was willing to make huge compromises to befriend her moody roommate, Minette entrenched herself behind the thick walls of her faith and the associated behaviors that didn't fit into the college world. Genna couldn't break through her defenses because Minette never developed the desire to change her status as an outsider to belong. Instead, she reacted with stubborn rejection and withdrew more and more until she became completely isolated and sank into a deep depression. While reading, I couldn't understand why Genna wanted to be friends with Minette of all people. Minette behaved impossibly towards her and everyone else, but the more forcefully she pushed Genna away, the more determinedly Genna fought for her. I felt sorry for Genna because her behavior seemed undignified to me. It took months until I understood how Minette's refusal to adapt positively influenced Genna's life. Without her example, Genna wouldn't have learned that social obligations have limits. Genna was in danger of completely giving herself up to please others. Minette taught her that individuality is more important than harmony. It's a shame that Genna could never thank her for this lesson.

"Black Girl / White Girl" is the first novel by Joyce Carol Oates that didn't completely enthuse me. After I was finally able to come up with a theory about what the author wanted to achieve with this story, I had to ask myself what the long time it took me to understand it means for the evaluation. How good is a book that you have to rummage around in for months to understand? In the end, I decided to primarily evaluate my reading pleasure and secondarily take into account that "Black Girl / White Girl" is psychologically convincing and hides a concrete, understandable message in its depths. The reading didn't give me any pleasure. The book neither captivated nor fascinated me. Mostly, I was confused. Nevertheless, it is a book that has an impact and is thus typical of Joyce Carol Oates. I respect that - although "Black Girl / White Girl" will probably never be among my favorite novels.

From the title of this book and the soundbites on the back cover, one would assume this is a book solely about race in 1960s America. And indeed, race is a significant aspect of the story. However, it is also a book that delves into much more. To me, it seemed to be a profound exploration of white middle-class guilt and the concept of political correctness.

The story is presented as the 'confession' of Genna Meade, an 18-year-old white girl from a wealthy yet deeply dysfunctional family. Genna's parents are aging radical hippies who have turned their backs on their elitist upbringings and inheritances to combat the inequalities in society. They are particularly outraged by racial inequality, which leads to Genna being willingly sent to Schuyler College at the age of 18. This college was established and endowed by her own family, and she finds herself living in a mixed-race dormitory of students mostly selected through'merit programmes', which is essentially positive discrimination.

Genna's roommate is Minette Swift, the daughter of a preacher from Washington. Minette is distant, rude, unfriendly, and overall, not very likeable. However, because she is black, Genna excuses all of these flaws and goes to great lengths to accommodate her. As the story progresses, we learn that Minette is struggling academically at Schuyler College, and as her inadequacies become more evident, she becomes increasingly defensive and unpleasant. Ugly, racist attacks begin to occur against Minette, and all of the students in the dorm come under suspicion. As Genna discovers the truth behind these incidents, she lies to protect Minette.

Underlying this story is the tale of Genna's father, Max. He has been an absent figure for much of Genna's life. A father with bipolar tendencies, shifting between 'kind Max' and'mad Max', Genna has always been desperate for his attention and for him to spend time with her. Her mother, Veronica, is an embarrassing follower of Max. Genna and her brother have endured a very neglected childhood as their parents pursued their causes and the hippie lifestyle. Her brother left home at 16 to embrace conservatism, leaving Genna with the burden of a lifetime of politically correct indoctrination and a desperate need for her father's love and care.
As the story unfolds and Minette descends into depression, Max's life also takes a downward spiral. His past activism in assisting draft dodgers is revealed to be more serious than he has ever admitted. As Genna learns the truth about Max, Minette dies in a fire that Genna feels she could have prevented by telling the truth. The truth finally emerges from Genna, but it is the truth about Max, not Minette, and it shatters Max. The story concludes with Genna handing this manuscript to her father, where he will learn of her betrayal.
This is a remarkable book. It forces you to think, to question, and to feel uncomfortable, yet it never fails to entertain and engage. I had never read any books by Joyce Carol Oates before, but after reading this, I will most certainly be reading more of her work.

It is a thought-provoking and poignant exploration of complex themes such as race, class, guilt, and family. The characters are well-developed and the story is engaging from start to finish. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about social issues and human nature.