Rating: 
Summary: Why?
Review: Why would a publisher consider such a wandering, whine of a book? Were the author not Alice Walker's daughter, I'm sure the publisher would have passed on this one. I'm not suggesting there isn't room for another mixed race exploration. But with standards like the Color of Water, Walker's poor-me tone just doesn't wash.Given the editing problems in this book, one can only guess at the original manuscript. After so carefully describing the male genetalia of her many male lovers, how is it possible that the reader is supposed to be content "knowing" that the author is a lesbian. By the time I finished this book, I felt cheated that I'd spent the time on this poor excuse instead of something more enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Give me a break!
Review: My Jewish friends always joke about how their people are infamous for there perpetual whining. Well, Rebecca I guess this is where you got the ability to whine for over 200 pages. I have no sympathy for Rebecca and think she should be ashamed of herself for exploiting her parents in such a way as I'm sure they believed that they were doing the right thing. I can't stand kids who complain that their parents are never there because they are working all the time. People such as poor, sad Rebecca never stop to think that all that work is what pays for international vacations, private schooling and designer clothes whilst living in some of the most interesting and expensive cities in the world. Many of my friends and I have all had much more painful lives than poor little lost Rebecca, but I guarantee we would have a hell of a time getting published because we aren't the children of famous authors. Who wants to read about what a little "Ho" she was anyway? This book lacked character and the childish, rambling tone in which Ms. Walker LEVENTHAL writes is thoroughly annoying. Her Yale education obviously did nothing to spark creativity. I was surprised to see her smiling on the back cover of her book as Ms. Walker Leventhal seems to be feeling very lugubrious indeed. Perhaps she and Halle Berry should hang out and whine together because frankly I'm sick of hearing it all and I think these women need to remember that all humans have a cross to bear, regardless of race, religion, or soceoeconomic status.
Rating:
Summary: What a misleading title
Review: Rebecca Walker needs to step back and look at the big picture. Her book read more like a detailed description of her daily life than a memoir. Sometimes that works, to give an insider's look at what life was really like. But who was she trying to kid? Hopefully not us, the readers, because it didn't work on me. Her feeble attempts at self-pity over "not belonging" to any group were completely invalidated by her complete lack of willingness to explore all three facets of her racial/ethnic self. I can relate to her need to explore her background on a level of feeling the need to choose between one parent's heritage and another, but if she wanted to do that for real, she should have written her book accordingly. As it stands, she pretty much wrote like a little child, but not effectively enough to give us an idea of what kind of knowledge or insight she gained during those years of her life. I was greatly disappointed (and disgusted, at times) by Walker's (or should I say Leventhal's?) more than infrequent ignorant, offensive banter. ...
Rating: 
Summary: reflections
Review: Black White and Jewish, by Rebecca Walker is a true portrayal of her life. She wrote it the way she thought growing up, the amatuer style showed that she was not a profesional just a girl telling her story. You see her struggle to fit into different surounding with different minority combinations. One gets an idea of the pain she feels when reshaping her identity to each location she lives in. She tries, like every teenager to fit in with her friends. You can see how easily she adapted to different ages and people by lying about who she is.
All her life Rebecca feels that she is being thrown between different worlds. I recomend this book to ayone who feels that they dont belong and wants to see that they are not alone.
Rating:
Summary: Grateful for the Library...
Review: ...because I ALMOST bought the book. I'm so glad now that I didn't, because most of the book turned out to be a disappointment to me. I did like the simplicity of the author's writing style, and I could really identify with many of her childhood experiences. I was born the same year as the author and, though I am not of mixed race, I was the "light-skinned" girl with the long hair, and I got picked on quite a bit by other girls who said I thought I was "cute". Like the author, I was quiet and didn't quite fit in, and often felt I wasn't "black" enough. Many of her earlier experiences mirrored mine (the music references brought back a lot of memories, too) and that was, for me, the best part of the book.
But I was expecting more than just an account of her childhood, which is basically what this book was. We don't hear much about her adulthood at all and some of the choices she's made there (except a brief reference to her current romantic involvement with a woman...interestingly enough, like her mother, she starts out interested in men, but ends up in a relationship with a female "lover/partner"...hmmmm....).
The author struggles coming to terms with who she really is. I don't know that she ever really found that out, though. It's clear she wants to make her connection to her mother a stronger one (thus she moves her given last name to middle name status, and moves her middle name -- Walker -- up to last name status). Seems to me that all along she identified more with the black side of herself. She never seemed to deeply connect with her Jewish self; possibly because her father's side of the family disowned him after he married her mother.
Still, I get more than just a little tired of hearing about her sexual tirades...I mean, really...enough already. I think the book is a little off-balanced. I guess her time at camp was really meaningful to her, because it seemed to put everyone on a level playing field, but it was fairly pointless to me. I pretty much skimmed over this part. Like other reviewers, I wonder if she would have gotten this book published if she weren't the daughter of Alice Walker. I think lots of other "unknowns" have stories far more interesting and of much greater depth, but alas, they may never be published because, afterall, "why would anyone care?"
Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointment
Review: I looked forward to revelations about being of mixed blood. It was hard to read the book all the way to the end, but when I did, there was only the one revelation: you don't know where you fit in. I guess I could have assumed that. The writing was amateurish, more like something written by a high-schooler. There were a lot of unnecessary descriptions of what the author and her friends wore, I suppose this was to create setting, but there's more to setting than fashion: "While I'm here I wear long gauzy skirts and tank tops in muted colors. Flip -flops. I wrap my hair with strips of Kente cloth so that my dreads stick straight up out of the top of my head, and I walk." I was disappointed by a consistent tone of self-importance, even narcissism, which is distracting in the memoirs of famous people, and off-putting in the memoirs of children of the famous.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I was expecting so much more from a book that deals with being biracial. I found the book shallow and was waiting for some experience she cited to make me really feel what it was like to be both black and Jewish. The only thing I felt in the end was that it was no different than being a mix of anything or even just feeling that you don't fit in, like so many teens do. A very disappointing book from a woman that I'm sure really has much more to say.
Rating:
Summary: schmaltz
Review: Schmaltz is literally "chicken fat" but it refers to something that is kitsch and gooey ... this book is unreal and amateurish when it could have been something a lot better. It is not easy to be black white AND Jewish....but it is a different world now and there are a lot of mixes...How about White Japanese and Jewish and she opened the first Japanese Kosher restaurant in New York City. There was so much to say here and none of it is said...just schmaltz - chicken fat.
Rating:
Summary: I'm glad I read it in Barnes and Noble......
Review: Well. Rebecca Walker seems like a very bright, attractive woman who maybe should go to law school or get an MBA, and not write anymore. This book is an embarrassment to everyone involved with it. Especially the publisher. What were they thinking? Her background is very interesting, black writer/artistic mother and Jewish civil rights lawyer during the civil rights movement.... and I'm sure there is a good story to be told by someone who has writing talent, but alas, it is not Ms. Walker. Lots of self indulgent whining without a lot of humor, or sensitivity or likeability. The author really comes across in a unsympathetic, sort of spoiled way, and you feel like she only got this book deal because her mother is Alice Walker. It's sort of sad. I felt bad for her at the end of the book because she is so obviously in the wrong field, and will always probably be a bit miserable because she shouldn't be writing. Yet she probably always will be writing these tiresome, dull, self conscious pieces, because she's exploited by the publishing industry for her name. Her heart seems in the right place, like she really wants to help change the world for the better, but she probably will not be that effective as long as she writes these dopey books.
Rating: 
Summary: it's da best!
Review: i LOVED this book! it's [...]! i really could relate to it! i'm a korean adopted adolesent and many of the things in the book have sort of became a reality to me! i liked the way i could relate so well and the book was written in such a way that it was sophisticated but still have a modern air. i swear u HAFTA read this book! it idk it's just unexplainable it really did affect me 4 da better tho
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