Should I read “Black, White & Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self” by Rebecca Walker? Rebecca Walker is the daughter of writer Alice Walker and a white, Jewish civil rights lawyer.
From the title it sounds like an interesting book.
I heard about the book from the Luscious Librarian:
I’ve been reading Rebecca Walker lately. I picked up Black White and Jewish, her bestselling memoir and fell in extreme like with her prose. She’s introspective and neurotic, enlightening and open about all of her experiences in life and I just drink it up. For someone who has led a relatively mundane life without travel or expensive education I live vicariously through the memoirs of passionate and interesting women.
On the other hand, mynameismyname says:
I read Walker’s memoir around the time it was first released. It’s meandering and often dull. It’s more about her personal exploits and her strained relationship with her famous mother than her personal struggles with race. I wouldn’t recommend it.
The Washington Post says it is “Compelling”, the San Francisco Chronicle calls it “Stunningly honest”. But then you know how they are.
If you have read it – or even tried to read it or thought of reading it – and have an opinion, I would love to hear it!
Check out the reviews on Amazon.com.
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i would recommend it. if you like authors like danzy senna, i think you’d enjoy it.
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Yeah, Danzy Senna is a good recommendation. A much better one than Walker. Her autobiographical novel “Caucasia” is wonderful. It ought to be made into a movie.
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I read it, it was so-so IMO. Like others have posted I would recommend Danzy Senna’s book over Rebecca Walker’s. I try to like Rebecca but I will admit she just doesn’t sit well with me.
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I read it and can say it is in fact so so. Not bad, but nothing to reach for either. It’s written in a fairly amateur way. She spends a lot of time on somethings that are unimportant and then glazes over other things that would seem worth while. It’s very subjective and you won’t get much from reading it other than knowing a little more about her childhood and her teenage years. At the end of the day, it left me feeling as if she was an ungrateful brat, but that’s just me.
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Thanks for all of your recommendations! The sense I get, from these and from the Amazon reviews too, is that Walker writes well but this book is not particularly deep, especially when it comes to issues of race and finding out who you are in the world.
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I read it and I truly enjoyed the book.
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Well, from your comments I wound up not reading it but now I am reading “Caucasia” instead. Way better than the bits of the Walker book that I read. I will post on it when I am done the book. Thanks again for your comments!
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I have read interviews that she has done on different magazine blogs i thought she was mostly whining about how awful her mother was. I wasn’t too impressed with her. I have entertained the idea of reading Caucasia. I am on the fence.
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Rebecca Walker is an over-priviliged brat with mommy issues and no real personal challenges. This woman had a melt down in the maternity section of a department store. She is quite delusional regarding the world around her. Maybe once she experiences some real tragedy in her life, she might finally become the writer with the Walker gene.
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