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Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self

Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self

List Price: $14.00
Your Price: $10.50
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Black, White, and Jewish
Review: The title of this book caught my attention.Although I am not mixed,I very well may someday have a mixed child.I found this book very interesting,the times she was growing up were the same time period I was growing up.I knew all the songs she wrote
about and all the cool clicks of kids in Riverdale she hung with.I feel like Ms.Walker could very well be a good friend of mine.I too grow up in Westchester but as a Italian American.
But I feel like the ending was a disapointment,like when did she meet her "Partner"?I want to know more!!I hope Ms.Walker blesses us with more books!Maybe a second diary of her early 20's!!???

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Promise unfulfilled
Review: This book looked promising. At first, I didn't realize Rebecca Walker was in any way related to Alice Walker. I picked it up, because it appeared to have a multi-cultural, bi-racial theme: a story about someone growing up bi-racially and multi-culturally. I didn't realize it was going to be about the life and times of Alice Walker's daughter from her perspective as a "movement" child. While she probably wasn't looking for it, she did gain some sympathy from me, but in the end, I felt she was able to get a book deal because of her connections, her privileged background, and I was left empty. I did not get a real feel for who Rebecca is nor for her deeper experiences. Just as she seemed to do with those in her life, I felt she was trying to get attention with shocking tidbits of her life. This book is not a keeper. It has been passed around to a number of my friends, a number also purchased it, and we have all basically been left pretty disappointed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Poetic writing but much room for emotional growth
Review: There can be little doubt that Rebecca Walker's memoir is written with passion and poetry. The contents are compelling, and the reader moves with Rebecca and feels her confusion, shame, pride, etc. However, this is a memoir of Ms. Walker's life so far -- and she's only 32 years old. Although clearly cathartic, this book informs the reader (though curiously not Ms. Walker herself) that Ms. Walker's family and culturally diverse background have only begun to influence her life. Forced through severe parental neglect to raise herself, Walker reveals a young woman struggling with her own identity in a shifting world -- in which she manages to adapt despite her misgivings. What struck this reader was the ongoing adaptations current in Ms. Walker's life, which she sees as her "real" identity. No doubt Ms. Walker will provide much more insightful and interesting material as her young life progresses. For now, though, the details of her youth are a fascinating study of growing up in America -- whoever you may be.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Intruiging
Review: Rebecca Walker's book is truly an intruiging look at a fascinating life. Her writing style, while a bit unusual is engaging -- it made me feel as though I were really there, a fly on the wall perhaps. Rebecca's life is one I would not envy, and her choices are perhaps ones I would not have made, but just reading of her journey made me question my own reality -- and isn't that what all good books do?

Living in a world as mixed up as our own, and trying to find a space to fit is something that everyone goes through, and while Rebecca Walker's journey should not be seen as a guide, it can be seen as a way to view another's path.

Her road is a difficult one, made more so by her conflicting identity, and her story is entertaining to say the least.

It made me question everything I know about race, religion, and American Society. After reading it, I called up 3 friends and recommended this book to them. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: What's your point?
Review: Can I ask where someone like this gets the right to complain? This wasn't a matter of dealing with mixed race/religion, this was a chance to whine about who had more money than her already privileged self, who she had sex with, and how wonderful she was.

I've never seen an author that never admits she made a mistake, and how the fault is with everyone else around her. For example, how can she expect people not to call her racist names if she hangs around drugged up losers who cut class and drink all the time, rather than working on making a difference in their lives?

She complains so much, it feels like fingers going down a blackboard. I'm a very well cared for teenage girl who is given a lot of loving attention and almost anything (within financial reason) that she asks for, but believe me, if mommy and daddy gave me my own car, a computer in a time when they were a rarity (in the mid 80s), trips all over Europe, and paid tuition to Yale, I wouldn't have the gall to write a book such as this.

On the other hand, a female who had to start from the bottom, upwards, with a mixed race in a time of adversity would be a more interesting story. Ironically, it seems the people who are least in the position to complain seem to make the most noise.

Just a quick question, also: who died and gave her the right to publish personal information about all the people she had sexual activity with? Or does Ms. Walker lack proper etiquette and respect to individuals around her to not spread all her dirty laundry all over the world?

The only positive point I see with this novel is that she has a nice writing style. Maybe she should write books like her mommy does.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: See It For What It Is
Review: I finished the book last night and loved it. Rebecca's writing style is inspiring and beautiful. The story was engaging enough for me to finish in two sittings. Every life is worth a novel and we should all be so lucky as to write ours down for others to read. Many of these reviewers are judging Rebecca's choices or her parents emotional distance or accusing the book of being published only because she is Alice Walker's daughter. But there are thousands of books published each year by not so famous children. Rebecca could have rested on her duff and done nothing, but instead she used her talent as a writer to heal something inside of herself by telling her story. Read the book for what it is - an interesting account of one woman's coming of age, one woman's account of being biracial in America, one woman's story in a sea of millions. I applaud her.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Praise for Black, White, and Jewish!
Review: As soon as I realized that Black, White, and Jewish was by the same author who contributed to one of my all time favorite essays, found in Listen Up- Voices of the Next Feminist Generation, and was Alice Walker's daughter, I was anxious to read this book. It was better than I ever would have imagined, one of those page turners you can't put down because you have to know what is going to happen next. As I was reading about Walker's life, I couldn't get over how different her experiences had been from mine yet I could still relate to and found myself touched very deeply by her words and struggle to come to terms with her body. Rebecca Walker is absolutely brilliant and I would recommend this book to anyone. You don't need to be black or Jewish for it to get under your skin.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great book, now lets hear from Mel
Review: ~I was transported to another world & experience. Thats a sign of a good read. I also read her mothers book "The Way Forward is with a Broken Heart" before reading Rebecca's. I would now love to hear from Mel Leventhal & hear his views on these 2 books about him, raising a biracial daughter, being married to Alice Walker... Does he have a book coming out? It would complete the true story of this unique family.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: If her mother weren't Alice Walker......
Review: This is a rather mediocre report of growing up in the 70s and 80s. I don't think it would even have been published if the author's mother weren't Alice Walker.

I think the younger Ms. Walker is bright and writes well, but there is no great reason for reading this book. Unfortunately, I've never read any of the magazine articles written by Ms. Walker, but I will be looking for them.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Worth the purchase price
Review: I read Black,White and Jewish for the impressions of another "half-breed," to know someone else feels the way I do, because we've both "been there." I'm 43, born biracial before biracial was cool or prevalent. I found a lot I could identify with in this book, and it brought up many forgotten incidents and feelings. For that reason alone, it was worth the purchase price.

Black, White and Jewish is also an interesting commentary on Alice Walker. Reading Ms. Walker's books, I would think she'd be more attentive to her daughter's emotional needs. But what I see is another American woman at a loss when it comes to connecting with her daughter. In many ways, Rebecca's story reads like that of an adult child of divorce. In contrast to her "different" racial status, she remained simply another American teenager, trying to figure out who she is.

I'd like to read Rebecca's story in 10 years after she's (hopefully) had a chance to grow up. It seems she hasn't quite figured out who she is yet.


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