Caucasia

Rating:
Summary: This book should be taught in high school
Review: This outstanding coming-of-age book will have you pondering identity and the nature of race, while touching your heart with joy, laughter, and sadness. I think it would be a great modern day alternative to many of the classic texts taught in high school. A MUST read!

Rating:
Summary: this book put me in a hypnotic and ecstatic state!
Review: At first, i flipped through this book at the bookstore but it didn't really catch my interest, so i put it back. Then, I saw it on Amazon.com, and I decided to read some reviews of it. After reading what others thought was a fantastic book, I decided to give it another try. Quite honestly, I was amazed. This book was a page turner from page one and I felt so close to Birdie throughout the trials in her young life. I felt that there were parts to the book that were over-the-top, but for the majority of the book, I cheered, cried, and faught right alongside Birdie. I would like to write to Danzy Senna and explain to her that she has given life to fiction and made me fall in love with writing again because she writes so lucidly and beautifully! I have been buying copies of this book and sending it to my friends! READ IT!

Rating:
Summary: A reader from Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read! It gives the reader a very vivid picture of life in Boston compared to life in the country during the 60's and 70's without a lot of dull history details. It was told through the eyes of a young interracial child who was seperated from her father and sister by her mother and taken into hiding. This novel explains what it was like growing up black and white during this time period. I'm 15 years old so I can relate to the hard time the main character had fitting in in both the lives she lead ( as a black person and a white one). This book was very thought provoking, and is bound to give any reader new thoughts on how to deal with their problems and the destiny of the human race. I think this is an important book to read, especially for people my age because it gives you lessons on how to treat other and how to accept who you are as a person. I highly recommend this book to any one interested in the contrasting life styles of black and white people or any of the things I have written above. IT'S A BEAUTIFUL NOVEL!!!

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book --a must read.
Review: CAUCASIA was one the best books that I have read in a long time. As a person who lived in the Boston area during the the 70's, the author provided me with so many windows and mirrors of what was happening during those years. I couldn't put the book down. I couldn't wait to finish the book and then when I did, I wanted more. This book should be on every high school's reading list.

Rating:
Summary: I enjoyed this book immensely.
Review: What a book. I was completely immersed in it for 2 days. A real quick read. Danzy Senna writes in a way very similar to James Mcbride, The colour of Water. Both books were favorates of mine this year.

Rating:
Summary: Entralling!
Review: Read this book for a book group. I loved it and really could not put the book down. I found the characters so real and involving. The only problem I has was the "Cointelpro" stuff really escaped me. Loved the mystery of it all. A must read.

Rating:
Summary: Well Written; Fascinating Story; Interesting Perspective
Review: This book is my book of the year. It is a "Can't stop reading" book. Enjoyable characters. Fascinating perspective of a twin seeing herself by looking at her sister except in this case a product of a mixed race marriage, thus not seeing herself realistically. I enjoyed this book and was provoked to think about my youth during the time of 60's.

Rating:
Summary: Danzy Senna"s Caucasia is superb!!
Review: This is one of the best books that I have read in a long time. Danzy Senna writes with such care and precision that I read this book with so much zeal that I could not put it away. I admit that when this book first appeared in bookstores and I read the "blurbs" about it, I thought that it would be the typical "tragic mulatto" story. However, Ms. Senna goes beyond such sterotyping to tell the story of a biracial girl and her coming of age in a place we call America that is obsessed with race. I admire her courage to tell her story. Her writing is first class. Without hesitation I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a friend in a book for the weekend.

Rating:
Summary: Every social sciences syllabus should include this book
Review: Born to a white mother and a Black father, both intellectuals and civil rights activists, Birdie Lee and her older sister Cole invent ways to survive the racist tangle of 1970's America. The sisters are so close they speak a secret language they call Elemeno, after their favorite letters in the alphabet. The survival of the imaginary Elemeno people, Cole explains, depends on their ability to move chameleon-like, through their surroundings. To survive they must blend in. Birdie asks, "What is the point of surviving if you have to disappear?" [...] The book's honesty is surprising. In essence, it is the story of a mulatto girls' survival at the expense of her identity. Through Birdie's wise innocence we are invited to wander with her through a labyrinth of stereotypes where she must navigate a path of survival without losing who she is, simultaneously black and white. Senna's story warms the reader to the overdone subject of race without being even the slightest bit preachy. Senna is able to stick a needle into the immovable issue of race and weave a beautiful tale of loss and reality. The answer to the Elemeno's paradox of surviving is answered smoothly and without romance. Senna captures the flavor of time and place so vividly that the reader is left sitting at the table long after the feast with explicit reflection. The characters are funky, quirky and very human. Told in the first person, Birdie is a believably courageous and apt heroine. It is a privilege to visit the world through her eyes and impossible to take your own off the page.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful writing, uplifitng, positive story.
Review: Senna put me in Boston in the 1970s and 80s--I could feel the place and the people. The story shows how overcoming conflict builds strength and really make us better people. It was the hardships that Birdie experienced that made her a stronger and a more empathic person. This story is more evidence that diversity is better! I look forward to more great stories from Senna.