Rating: 
Summary: thank god I checked it out of the library
Review: It amazes me how being related to someone gives you full-fledged access to do things that normal folks would take years of living to acquire. I thought that I would get a really good book but boy was I wrong. My big question is "Where in the hell was Alice when her daughter needed her?" I guess she was writing those other whacked out books after Color Purple. This girl has issues that most of my biracial friends never had to deal with..ex: like a mother who was never there. I'm still trying to figure out how she can wax on for endless pages about "Color War" at a camp but we have a two paragraph mention that she is now in a relationship with a female. When did this occur?
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Summary: Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self
Review: Wow! What a great book. Everyone knows someone like Rebecca Walker. You went to school with her, she's a friend of a friend, or perhaps her off-beat artsy style attracts your attention while you stand in line at the local coffee shop. Regardless, if you are curious like me, you'll wonder what she's like. Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self lets you in to Rebecca's world.After reading this book, you'll know what it's like to have a black and white parent. If you were never a part of the fast crowd, this is your ticket in. In this book, Rebecca takes the reader into her Black and Jewish homes. A lot is revealed as she tries to navigate through her circles of black and white friends. However, this book is about much more than race. It also shows how a young woman is affected by divorce and a self-absorbed mother who does not take on the traditional, nurturing, motherly role. Black, White and Jewish is well-written, many of the characters will stay with you long after you've closed the book. If you've ever wondered what makes a dynamic, free-spirited woman like Walker tick, this will give you some valuable insight. I'm about Walker's age and in the future, I'd love to see a book on her college experience and her thirty-something years. Kudos to Rebecca Walker for having the courage to put it all out there.
Rating: 
Summary: I raised myself
Review: What a crock of dissapointment this was!!!! This would have never been published had she not been Alice Walker's daughter. This lose collection of memories lamely tied together with a gimmicky introduction and a sermon at the end which tried to resurrect the gimmick reminded me of a child who when asked who taught her something answers "I taught myself". This book was demeaning to both her parents. I would have thought that by her age she would have the maturity in looking back to not just give self-centered vingettes, but also do justice to the complex relationship with both parents other than the petulant teenage "you don't understand me, don't care about me, don't supervise me and know nothing about me". Shame on her editor for letting her get away with this -- what you printed has the quality of a new writer's first draft. This book could have been so good but it obviously just "wrote itself".
Rating: 
Summary: The Best Book I've ever Read
Review: I'm only thirteen, but I think this is the Best Book In The World. She is such a great writer and her life was really interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth Reading!
Review: I just finished reading this book! I enjoyed reading this book, though I wish I hadn't read the reviews of the book first. I read a review that said that the only way Ms. Walker got a chance to publish this book was because she was Alice Walker's Daughter. So, that review was stuck in my head the entire time that I was reading this book. But, I do believe that it was worth reading! But, what till it comes out in Paperback,don't pay for the hardback edition!
Rating:
Summary: Didn't live up to my expectations
Review: I read Black, White and Jewish with my face-to-face bookclub, and most of the group liked the book or learned from Walker's autobiography. I was very excited about reading the true story of a person with mixed ethnicity and backgrounds. Personally, I thought Walker spent too much time revisiting the 80s and listing various coming-of age events and not enough time really getting into details of her mixed background. The book seemed a little rough throughout without much tying together of themes, particularly the end. I do think Walker writes extremely well; I just didn't really enjoy this particular book.
Rating:
Summary: No Profound Truths Here
Review: A very sad book but not for the reasons the author intends. According to Walker, she has rhythm because of her black lineage (which of course makes her incredible in bed). She can withstand the cold because of her white blood. And she is a neurotic, overanalytical mess because of her Jewish heritage. Has the dialogue about race and religion progressed so little that someone of Walker's keen intelligence would try to pass off these inanities as profound truth?
Rating:
Summary: completely forgettable
Review: Given the slants on the traditional coming-of-age story, I was astounded at how boring and shallow this book was. After 50 pages, I no longer cared what brand of jeans Walker was wearing, what color her current boyfriend/best friend was, or what drugs she was taking at the time of their relationship. Her teenage escapades blurred together because not a single character was developed and explored. Nor were Walker's feelings of ambivalence other than a few token tries thrown in here and there. She goes from someone who apparently did anything to fit in to a high school senior militantly proud of her African American identity. And we are glad she has apparently resolved some major issues. However we are left with absolutely no clue as to why. In the end, I couldn't figure out if I was missing something or if there was simply nothing to miss.
Rating:
Summary: Raises Important Issues of Mixed Race Identity
Review: Rebecca Walker's book, Black, White, and Jewish, is a fascinating, well-written memoir of life on the borderlands between the African American and Jewish worlds in the modern United States. Walker's engaging prose allows the reader to catch a glimpse of what she experienced as a mixed race Black/Jewish person growing up, including her difficulties, the challenges, and the insights gained from her mixed race life. As intermarriage increases, more stories like Walker's undoubtedly will be told, with increasing complexities arising in them as the racial mixtures become increasingly complex. Mixed race autobiography, which includes such notable works as James McBride's The Color of Water, is a small but growing genre. Walker's experiences, including her uncertainty about how she fit into this nation's race picture and how this affected virtually every aspect of her life (including her early sex life, which is given in-depth discussion), were thought-provoking and are well worth the read. Despite its positives, however, the book left me thinking that much important background was left out of the full story. Having written in this genre myself, I understand the difficulties of autobiography, especially its potentially damaging impact on family and friends that may inhibit telling the "whole" story. However, Walker seemed to go out of her way to be tough on her parents and their role (or lack thereof) in her upbringing. One wonders whether she was unduly harsh, perhaps failing to appreciate how difficult it must have been for her African American mother and Jewish father to live in a racist world in which Black/white marriages were frowned upon, if not vociferously (at times violently) condemned. Indeed, the tensions caused by the racially turbulent world in which her parents lived may well have contributed to their marital break-up. The near-exclusive focus on the difficulties faced by Rebecca Walker, with virtually no discussion of those faced by her famous mother (Alice Walker) and civil rights lawyer father, was troubling. Some readers may be left with the impresssion that the book was self-indulgent. It was telling to me that Walker's parents are not expressly mentioned in the book's acknowledgements.
Rating:
Summary: Not the universal biracial experience
Review: I'm also black, white and Jewish and was hoping to see myself in these pages....alas, I did not. I did relate to one or two things but for the most part, I found the book lacking. It is important for biracial literature to be out there in the marketplace but readers should note that there are many aspects of biraciality and that this book is not the universal biracial experience; particularly since she is someone of a very privileged background - daughter of a writer and a lawyer, a Yale grad, a worker on a movie set as a teenager. That's pretty rare for anyone, regardless of what race the person is. Furthermore, while she is very open about her biraciality, she is very vague about her bisexuality. Why? Perhaps that is her next book...
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