A bit underwhelming.

I don't like Genna, and I like Minette even less. What comes across is the individual's confusion over racial relationships and political correctness. It acts like a brick wall between two girls who might otherwise have become friends.

The gradual breakdown of Minette is well portrayed, but I don't understand why it happens. I can't tell if Minette is clever or not. I don't know why she hates herself so much.

The thread with the hippie activist parents is loosely tied in with the main story, making it seem like two books in one. I read it and enjoyed some parts of it.

However, I will continue to read Joyce Carol Oates because I've read a couple of brilliant novels by her. Her writing has the power to engage and move me in ways that this particular work did not.

Perhaps with more exploration and development of the characters and their relationships, this story could have been more fulfilling. But as it stands, it left me with a sense of dissatisfaction and a longing for something more substantial.

Overall, while there were some redeeming qualities, it didn't quite measure up to my expectations.

When I was a 10-year-old Cub Scout having a regular meeting at TW's house, his mother discovered a piece of cake behind the couch. It was crucial for her to figure out who had dropped it there. When no one owned up to it, she took us aside one by one to question us about our possible guilt or knowledge of the guilty party. Later, I heard that the culprit was found out, but I never knew how or who it was. That same year, I dropped a quarter behind a couch in my own house and couldn't find it no matter how hard I searched. I wondered why I couldn't locate my quarter while TW's mother effortlessly found the cake. Fifty-four years later, I still wonder. Some things just stay with you. The quarter never did resurface.

What does this have to do with "Black Girl White Girl" by Joyce Carol Oates? Well, imagine how you would feel if the RA at your college residence took all eighteen girls aside for a "conversation, that was not an interrogation" to determine fault in damaging a textbook of a 'prickly' black student. And that was just the beginning. In JCO's works, it's rarely easy to determine the truth at first or even second glance.

The two college roommates in 1990 are well-developed, complex characters. I haven't read a lot of JCO, but I gather that many of her characters have an edge that is tense and quirky. I've enjoyed her characterizations. The ending isn't exactly a surprise, but it's definitely not obvious either. The theme of unspoken thoughts and feelings appears repeatedly. "Of course, Minette had told me nothing. Nor had I asked. I would not have dreamt of asking!"

Is Genna's radical lawyer father central to the story or a distraction? There's no agreement among reviewers here, so each reader will have to decide for themselves. But the author seems to give a pretty strong clue.

My other JCO books have been "We Were the Mulvaneys" and "Will You Always Love Me? and Other Stories". I expect to add a few more to the list in the coming months. I find that I can read Oates at a couple of different levels depending on how much effort I want to put in. I like a story where I can enjoy reading it but still know that there's more there if I want to take it to a deeper level. I might not pursue it, but I like the lurking complexity that I can choose to ignore.

Joyce Carol Oates’s Black Girl / White Girl was an utter letdown.

Oates’s prose, which usually flows effortlessly, seemed forced in this novel. Even if it had been as smooth as in her other works, it wouldn’t have been enough to salvage this book, which fails to live up to its promises. To be frank, I feel cheated. This novel made me angry, not in the way I assume Oates intended.

The blurb on the back of the book highlights “black girl” Minette Swift’s tragic death as the focus. However, the main character and narrator is Genna Hewett-Meade, Minette’s “white girl” college roommate. Fifteen years after Minette’s death, Genna is “painfully confronting her own past life and identity…and her deepest beliefs about social obligation in a morally gray world.” The novel is said to be “a searing double portrait of race and civil rights in post-Vietnam America.” But this is not what the novel is truly about.

The reader suspects this from the beginning and is confirmed by the end. The novel is actually about Genna’s relationship with her white liberal, free-expressive, FBI-wiretapped parents, especially her father Max Meade, who may or may not have committed a crime in the name of his beliefs.

Minette Swift is a complex and well-developed character. She is a scholarship student who goes to church every Sunday, struggles to fit in the college choir, and is gaining the freshman 15. She tries to keep Genna at a distance to focus on her grades, but Genna is fascinated with her and stalks her, looks through her things, and forces her friendship on her. Minette is bullied, first with a stolen textbook thrown in the mud and later with derogatory racist letters.

Until Oates ruins her. It turns out that Minette sent herself the letters and wrote the n-word on her own door, possibly to escape the dorm where she was being bullied or for racial reasons, but definitely because she is an introvert with a temper. Genna discovers this and lies for her. Later, Genna visits her in her new dorm on the night before Minette’s dorm burns down due to her own candles. In the epilogue, Genna says that while Minette was always praying for salvation, her “only salvation” was Genna, a white girl.

Minette Swift and the interesting parts of the novel that describe her or compare her and Genna are all overshadowed by the storyline in which Genna “painfully confronts her own past life and identity and her deepest beliefs about social obligation.” It turns out that this confrontation has nothing to do with race. It is about the fact that after Minette’s death and her father’s first visit to the university, Genna submits testimony that allows the FBI to arrest her father for the murder of a black security guard many years ago. While in prison, her father is beaten up for being a white man.

I cannot express how disappointed I was with this novel. Oates creates Minette Swift and then abandons her for the dull character of Genna Hewett-Meade. If the intention was to misdirect us so that we, like Genna, believe we are hearing Minette’s story rather than Genna’s, then it succeeded. I feel cheated at the end of this novel, a feeling that started in the fourth chapter and grew stronger until I was making faces at Genna’s “reflections” 15 years later and her description of proudly taking a job in Newark instead of at an ivy league school in the epilogue. I hope Oates is aware of how condescending and well-meaning her main character is and how little she grows. I have read and loved her novels before and would like to believe that she is self-aware, even if it doesn’t show. (Update, as of 2019: I've followed her on Twitter for a few years, and I'm fairly certain she is not self-aware of these aspects of her novel.)

Black Girl/White Girl is the very first book by Joyce Carol Oates that I have had the pleasure of reading.

I am truly unsure as to why I have hitherto steered clear of her works. However, I am extremely glad that I finally picked up this particular one to peruse.

The racial tensions depicted on the university campus within the pages of this book really struck a chord with me. This is because the very same tensions and protests were an integral part of my own university career.

So many aspects of the book had the power to draw me right back into my experiences from the 1960s.

All things considered, this book was an exceptionally good read for me. It offered a vivid and engaging exploration of themes that are both relevant and thought-provoking.

I look forward to delving into more of Joyce Carol Oates' works in the future and seeing what other literary treasures she has in store.

This book offers an engaging exploration of the fictional Caucasian character, Genevra Meade.

Genevra is assigned to share a room with an African-American young woman, and the story unfolds from there. It delves into their relationship, providing insights and raising questions about race relations.

Eventually, the death of the roommate occurs, which is already revealed in the book jacket blurb, so it's not a spoiler.

The author has a unique way of presenting details about the characters. There are both older, remembered details and newer, currently-happening ones.

She also confounds the reader with the repetition of phrases or sayings at different times, sometimes changing them and sometimes repeating them verbatim. This technique is not distracting but rather makes the reader stop, pause, and think before continuing.

The author presents the details of the main character's life in an accessible and easy-to-follow manner, even if the narrative is not always linear.

Overall, this book may not be an incredible or mind-blowing masterpiece, but it is still an interesting read that offers a thought-provoking look at race and relationships.

"'Scuseme."

"'Scuseme?"

"'Scuseme!"

"'Scuseme."

This was truly horrible. It's难以置信 that a writer as talented and respected as Joyce Carol Oates could pen such pointless drivel. Every single character is so unlikable that I found myself hoping they would all meet their demise. The plot is completely chaotic and all over the place, and the narrator comes across as a total dumbass. The title and jacket summary are also highly misleading. The book is not about race relations, a mysterious death, or even the two girls. In fact, I flipped through the final pages so quickly just to be done with the damn thing that I can barely recall how it all ended. And quite frankly, I don't really care.

AND WTF IS WITH THE CONSTANT \\"'Scusemes\\"?!!?!?! It's beyond annoying and adds nothing to the story. It feels like a cheap gimmick that detracts from what could have potentially been a decent read. I'm extremely disappointed in this book and would not recommend it to anyone.

Interesting,

not quite what I expected. This wasn't my favorite of her work, but it was well worth reading. I just read another one that dealt with race a bit. I've forgotten the name of it. It's her one novella and that one was impressive in the way it let those issues be in the story, yet not take over. I also liked the characters in the novella better. (The main one being an uncontrollable wildish woman, so of course I'm drawn in.)

In "Black Girl White Girl", the power of it was more in the balancing act between two stories. She pulled it off quite brilliantly. You don't even realize how brilliantly until you get close to the end. The two stories intertwined seamlessly, creating a complex and engaging narrative. The characters were well-developed and the themes explored were thought-provoking. It made me reflect on the differences and similarities between the two races and how society views them. Overall, it was a great read and I would highly recommend it to others.

**Title: The Intricacies of Oates' Writing**

"Perhaps some truths are lies.
But no lie is a truth."


As time passes between one book and another, it sometimes happens that when reading Oates, I forget that the beginning of each of her stories is not an easy and well-lit path.

The problem of "not understanding" because one fails to contextualize or reconnect the threads risks, then, boring me.

However, then I remember that I must be patient and... suddenly everything comes back.

It is like a weaving where at the beginning one only sees small interwoven threads that seem randomly paired.

But then, the fabric begins to appear and a power of meaning bursts forth that, personally, leaves me breathless (no intended rhyme..).

This is how it was for this novel that collects the confession of the white Genna and what happened in 1975 to her roommate (black) at college.

Black girl, white girl...

This story, in addition to the historical background of the radical American movements, tells of a tortured relationship between a daughter and a father.

A story of unspoken words and missed hugs where once again writing is used as a tool to liberate suffering.

[May 2014]

I happened to come across this book during a recent Joyce Carol Oates reading and signing event in my local area.

Although the tour was centered around her new book Dear Husband, I chose this paperback instead.

The novel was well-written and detailed, gradually pulling me in. As I continued reading to discover the fate of the characters, it became apparent that the entire story was somewhat unbalanced.

The main character, Genna, had an obsessive and distorted perspective, and the dysfunction of her family was evident through the fragmented narration.

On the other hand, her black roommate, Minette, did not seem to be very fully developed. The stubbornness she exhibited appeared too simplistic.

It was as if the author allowed herself to live vicariously and rather narrowly through her main character, but truly had no clue how to understand the thoughts and feelings of the other characters.

I'm not sure... perhaps I was simply anticipating a more objective examination of the dynamics between whites and blacks, but instead, I was presented with a rather skewed view.

Maybe, after all, this is the very point that Joyce Carol Oates was attempting to make. Shrug?

Black Girl/White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates is often described as an intimate depiction of ‘black’ and ‘white’ America in the post-Vietnam War era. However, I'm not entirely convinced that this is its sole or even main focus. In fact, this book is really about the complex relationship and interactions between two nineteen-year-old freshman students, Minette (the black girl) and Genna (the white girl).

Throughout the work, there are indeed constant references to race issues and the troubles of the times. These were, without a doubt, tumultuous times. But the fractious relationship between the two girls who attend a progressive arts college takes center stage. Genna comes from an uber-liberal, dysfunctional family. Her father is an activist lawyer, a hero of the left, who spends his time defending draft dodgers, anti-war protestors, and the like. This liberal mindset has been instilled in young Genna, making her big-hearted and kind, yet a little naïve about the ways of the world. She is eager to reach out and be friends with Minette, to the point of obsession.

What is it like to be a descendant of heroic individuals? Do you share in their stature, or are you diminished by it? Do you share in their idealism? Their courage? Their faith?

Minette, on the other hand, is a taciturn misanthropist, to put it bluntly. She is the daughter of a church minister, and her faith is extremely strong. This young coloured woman openly rejects Genna's advances for friendship and often doesn't even acknowledge her existence. This, in turn, seems to make Genna even more determined to be friends with her.

But the question that萦绕在 my mind, and perhaps the message Oates is trying to convey, is whether Minette should cut Genna some slack. Should she be friendlier towards Genna because she is a supporter of black rights and sympathetic to the plight of people of colour? Should black people in general automatically like and even form friendships with accepting, progressive, left-wing types?

Well, to me, the answer to these questions is obvious – NO, although I'm open to being challenged.

Genna reflects on what her father would think:

I wondered what my father would think of my roommate: a black girl who doesn't much care that she's black, and doesn't care at all for your caring

This story doesn't follow a standard formula. It's not plot-driven, and that's what makes it so intriguing. In addition to the fascinating interplay between the main characters, the author weaves in racial tensions, a lynching, war protesters, Nixon and Watergate, arson, conspiracy to murder, prison life, dysfunctional relationships, religion, and even a hint of a whodunit.

I really enjoyed this book.

4 stars

This story referenced Billie Holiday's song ‘Strange Fruit’. This disturbing and sadly moving song can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DGY9...

Bello! Finally, a great book! Or at least, I really liked it a lot.

Genna and Minette are roommates in an exclusive college in the north of the USA. They are both 18 years old. It's 1974. Genna is white, tall, thin, nice, intelligent. She is the great-granddaughter of the founders of the college and comes from a well-off family. Her father is a famous lawyer who has defended draft resisters, pacifists, and members of more or less peaceful movements within the civil rights sphere for years. Her mother is an ex-hippie, and her brother left home at 16. Genna's family is not very present in her life, and it seems to cause her a lot of harm. She and her mother are clearly victims of the father's personality, and it's precisely to escape the "control" of this man that the brother left home so young. Minette is black, a bit chubby, comes from Washington, and studies at this prestigious college thanks to a scholarship as a promising student. Her father is a minister of a Christian church. Her parents are very present in her life, they call her every day and constantly send her gifts from home. In fact, for a good part of the book, not much happens. Genna is the narrator, more or less omniscient. She dedicates the work to Minette, who we know from the beginning is dead. We don't know how or why. It becomes clear that the death of the roommate had a strong impact on Genna's psyche and life.

And during the narration, this is explored in depth. At the end of the book, we will also discover further details about Genna's father. I repeat, in my opinion, a really great book.

I'm not entirely certain as to why this particular author decided to pen this book. I picked it up simply because I have read other works by Oates that I absolutely adored. However, this one just didn't quite measure up for me.

On the surface, the story appears to be about two college girls, one African American and the other Caucasian, who happen to be roommates. Throughout the course of the book, the author seems to be "apologizing" for being white, as her character spends an inordinate amount of time attempting to be kind to her roommate, only to receive a sneer in return.

Then, rather abruptly, in the last 25 pages or so, the book takes a strange turn. The black girl dies, and the white girl turns her father into the authorities for having committed a crime many years ago. It all feels rather disjointed and strange.

To be quite honest, I can't in good conscience recommend this book. It just didn't have the same depth and engaging quality that I have come to expect from Oates' work.