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New People
Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, VOGUE, TIME MAGAZINE, NPR and THE ROOT
Named A 2017 BEST SUMMER READ BY
Vogue - Elle - Harper's Bazaar - Glamour - Buzzfeed - In Style - Men's Journal - Bustle - Ms. Magazine - Pop Sugar - Newsday - The Millions - Time Out - Bitch - CNN's The Lead - The Fader
"[A] cutting take on race and class...part dark comedy, part surreal morality tale. Disturbing and delicious." -People
"You'll gulp Senna's novel in a single sitting--but then mull over it for days." - Entertainment Weekly
"Everyone should read it." - Vogue
From the bestselling author of Caucasia, a subversive and engrossing novel of race, class and manners in contemporary America.
As the twentieth century draws to a close, Maria is at the start of a life she never thought possible. She and Khalil, her college sweetheart, are planning their wedding. They are the perfect couple, "King and Queen of the Racially Nebulous Prom." Their skin is the same shade of beige. They live together in a black bohemian enclave in Brooklyn, where Khalil is riding the wave of the first dot-com boom and Maria is plugging away at her dissertation, on the Jonestown massacre. They've even landed a starring role in a documentary about "new people" like them, who are blurring the old boundaries as a brave new era dawns. Everything Maria knows she should want lies before her--yet she can't stop daydreaming about another man, a poet she barely knows. As fantasy escalates to fixation, it dredges up secrets from the past and threatens to unravel not only Maria's perfect new life but her very persona.
Heartbreaking and darkly comic, New People is a bold and unfettered page-turner that challenges our every assumption about how we define one another, and ourselves.
Named A 2017 BEST SUMMER READ BY
Vogue - Elle - Harper's Bazaar - Glamour - Buzzfeed - In Style - Men's Journal - Bustle - Ms. Magazine - Pop Sugar - Newsday - The Millions - Time Out - Bitch - CNN's The Lead - The Fader
"[A] cutting take on race and class...part dark comedy, part surreal morality tale. Disturbing and delicious." -People
"You'll gulp Senna's novel in a single sitting--but then mull over it for days." - Entertainment Weekly
"Everyone should read it." - Vogue
From the bestselling author of Caucasia, a subversive and engrossing novel of race, class and manners in contemporary America.
As the twentieth century draws to a close, Maria is at the start of a life she never thought possible. She and Khalil, her college sweetheart, are planning their wedding. They are the perfect couple, "King and Queen of the Racially Nebulous Prom." Their skin is the same shade of beige. They live together in a black bohemian enclave in Brooklyn, where Khalil is riding the wave of the first dot-com boom and Maria is plugging away at her dissertation, on the Jonestown massacre. They've even landed a starring role in a documentary about "new people" like them, who are blurring the old boundaries as a brave new era dawns. Everything Maria knows she should want lies before her--yet she can't stop daydreaming about another man, a poet she barely knows. As fantasy escalates to fixation, it dredges up secrets from the past and threatens to unravel not only Maria's perfect new life but her very persona.
Heartbreaking and darkly comic, New People is a bold and unfettered page-turner that challenges our every assumption about how we define one another, and ourselves.
256 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2017
534 people are currently reading
13972 people want to read
About the author
Danzy Senna
12 books1,066 followersDanzy Senna is an American novelist, born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts in 1970. Her parents, Carl Senna, an Afro-Mexican poet and author, and Fanny Howe, who is Irish-American writer, were also civil rights activists.
She attended Stanford University and received an MFA from the University of California at Irvine. There, she received several creative writing awards.
Her debut novel, Caucasia (later republished as From Caucasia With Love), was well received and won several awards including the Book-Of-The-Month Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction, and the Alex Award from the American Library Association.
Her second novel, Symptomatic, was also well received. Both books feature a biracial protagonist and offer a unique view on life from their perspective.
Senna has also contributed to anthologies such as Gumbo.
In 2002, Senna received the Whiting Writers Award and in 2004 was named a Fellow for the New York Public Library's Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.
Danzy Senna is married to fellow writer Percival Everett and they have a son, Henry together. Their residences have included Los Angeles and New York City.
She attended Stanford University and received an MFA from the University of California at Irvine. There, she received several creative writing awards.
Her debut novel, Caucasia (later republished as From Caucasia With Love), was well received and won several awards including the Book-Of-The-Month Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction, and the Alex Award from the American Library Association.
Her second novel, Symptomatic, was also well received. Both books feature a biracial protagonist and offer a unique view on life from their perspective.
Senna has also contributed to anthologies such as Gumbo.
In 2002, Senna received the Whiting Writers Award and in 2004 was named a Fellow for the New York Public Library's Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.
Danzy Senna is married to fellow writer Percival Everett and they have a son, Henry together. Their residences have included Los Angeles and New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 994 reviews
July 27, 2017
Interesting and ambitious novel about multiracial identity. Maria is a strong protagonist--frustrating, hard to really know, intelligent, strange. The overall tone of the book is moody and wry and meditative. Interesting structure with the heavy use of flashbacks. Feels... incomplete. While Maria is fully drawn, everyone else feels a bit typecast. Definitely worth reading. Just didn't grab ME but overall it's a smart and interesting book.
November 17, 2017
New People by Senna Danzy is a 2017 Riverhead Books publication.
Unconventional, a little disturbing, but thought provoking and exceptionally written-
Despite its brevity, this book packs a potent punch, written in a quirky, offbeat prose, that captured my attention and forced me to stay focused.
The novel is, without a doubt, about race. ‘New People’ meaning ‘biracial'. However, there is more to the story than meets the eye.
Maria and her fiancé Khalil are both biracial- Maria’s adoptive mother was black, but Maria is very fair skinned, as is Khalil, whose background is eclectic.
Maria is doing her dissertation on the ‘Jonestown Massacre’, while planning her wedding. But, her relationship with Khalil is tested when she develops a crush on a poet, who is not biracial. Suddenly, her stable life becomes very erratic as she searches for that elusive something that remains just out of reach.
The book is almost satirical at times, has a wry sense of humor, but is also very tense. Maria has a dark secret she’s kept from Khalil and she practically stalks her ‘crush’, as well as exhibiting a few other very odd behaviors that had me sitting on the edge of my seat.
Maria is the prominent character, the one whose narrative we follow as she sends herself down a path of self-discovery, a very risky journey that could upend her life as she knows it. She is a most unusual person, not necessarily a likeable young lady, or someone I felt I could bond with or feel empathy towards, but I found her choices almost hypnotic. At times I couldn’t bear to watch and at others I couldn’t bear to look away. I had to see what, if any, consequences or repercussions there would be for her actions.
The Jonestown topic runs in the background as it harkens back to the themes that brought the cult followers to such a point in their lives and is juxtaposed against the attitudes that came about in the nineties, especially in campus life. It’s an interesting force in Maria’s search for her own identity.
The ending is a bit abrupt. Khalil appears oblivious to Maria’s angst or past sins, so we are left to wonder if Maria’s thirst has been quenched or if her search will continue or evolve to include her fiancé.
I found Maria to be one of the most interesting characters I’ve been introduced to recently and this book did make me stop and think about many of the topics addressed here, even days after finishing the novel.
I enjoyed the style of writing, and the refreshing change of pace this book provided. This is my first book by this author, but I will definitely keep an eye out for her work in the future.
4 stars
Unconventional, a little disturbing, but thought provoking and exceptionally written-
Despite its brevity, this book packs a potent punch, written in a quirky, offbeat prose, that captured my attention and forced me to stay focused.
The novel is, without a doubt, about race. ‘New People’ meaning ‘biracial'. However, there is more to the story than meets the eye.
Maria and her fiancé Khalil are both biracial- Maria’s adoptive mother was black, but Maria is very fair skinned, as is Khalil, whose background is eclectic.
Maria is doing her dissertation on the ‘Jonestown Massacre’, while planning her wedding. But, her relationship with Khalil is tested when she develops a crush on a poet, who is not biracial. Suddenly, her stable life becomes very erratic as she searches for that elusive something that remains just out of reach.
The book is almost satirical at times, has a wry sense of humor, but is also very tense. Maria has a dark secret she’s kept from Khalil and she practically stalks her ‘crush’, as well as exhibiting a few other very odd behaviors that had me sitting on the edge of my seat.
Maria is the prominent character, the one whose narrative we follow as she sends herself down a path of self-discovery, a very risky journey that could upend her life as she knows it. She is a most unusual person, not necessarily a likeable young lady, or someone I felt I could bond with or feel empathy towards, but I found her choices almost hypnotic. At times I couldn’t bear to watch and at others I couldn’t bear to look away. I had to see what, if any, consequences or repercussions there would be for her actions.
The Jonestown topic runs in the background as it harkens back to the themes that brought the cult followers to such a point in their lives and is juxtaposed against the attitudes that came about in the nineties, especially in campus life. It’s an interesting force in Maria’s search for her own identity.
The ending is a bit abrupt. Khalil appears oblivious to Maria’s angst or past sins, so we are left to wonder if Maria’s thirst has been quenched or if her search will continue or evolve to include her fiancé.
I found Maria to be one of the most interesting characters I’ve been introduced to recently and this book did make me stop and think about many of the topics addressed here, even days after finishing the novel.
I enjoyed the style of writing, and the refreshing change of pace this book provided. This is my first book by this author, but I will definitely keep an eye out for her work in the future.
4 stars
dnf
January 8, 2018Nope. This woman is messy and ridiculous. Bye, gurl. #DNF
September 19, 2017
I was once a PhD student in ethnomusicology, so to find a protagonist with that shared experience was a huge surprise and definitely added a start to my reading of this novel. I loved Maria and her weird obsessions, but she did start making puzzling decisions near the end. I enjoyed the ongoing discussion of identity within biracial realities, and am intrigued/terrified of the music of Jonestown!
Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
May 26, 2022
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A disquieting yet hypnotic novel New People makes for a quick but far from forgettable read. Set in the 1990s in New York the story follows Maria, a twenty-something woman who, alongside her fiancee, Khalil, will star in a documentary called 'New People' which focuses on biracial and multiracial young people in NY. Maria's pale skin often leads others to assume that she is white or Mexican, a fact that has always made her feel on the outskirts of her Black community (even if her adoptive mother was Black). Maria and Khalil met in college and everyone seems to think that they are perfect for each other: “Their skin is the same shade of beige. Together, they look like the end of a story”. Maria, however, grows infatuated with a Black poet (we never learn his name, he is referred to as 'the poet') and seems to believe that he reciprocates her feelings. Believing that they share a connection Maria engages in some creepy and stalkerish behavior that sees her crossing all sorts of lines. As the narrative progresses we learn more of Maria's past, and what we learn is not particularly pretty (that 'prank' she pulls on Khalil...yeah). We also see her previous relationship, many with white boys, the latest of whom reinvented himself as Chicano. Maria's uneasy feelings towards racial identity are rendered in stark detail. Senna touches upon the 'tragic mulatto' trope by providing a far more modern and relevant commentary on multiracial identity. Senna also captures with uncomfortable clarity Maria's frame of mind: obsession, delusion, anger, repulsion, despair. While readers are not meant to like her they will feel some degree of sympathy towards her (no doubt to Maria's own discontent). The narrative has a feverish quality to it, one that really emphasizes Maria's downwards spiral. Shrewd and occasionally scathing the novel explores subjects such as race, identity, belonging, hatred, obsession, and alienation without providing easy answers. The questions and discussions that emerge in New People brought to mind the ones in Nella Larsen's work, particularly Quicksand.
I do wish some things had been handled differently. I would have liked more of Khalil and his sisters and less of Greg. And, although I did appreciate the narrative's foray into hysterical realism I did find some of the guys to be too cartoonish (such as Khalil's friend who apparently speaks in clichés:“I love Khalil like a brother. Okay? So if you hurt him, you are going to have to contend with me.”).
I wouldn't recommend this book to a lot of readers. Maria is a character who exhibits some perturbing behavior and the narrative doesn't paint anyone in a good light. The story seems in fact intent on showing how hypocritical and performative people are (and in making you freak out about what Maria is getting up to). The ending lessened also my overall appreciation as it felt both weak and predictable. Yet, I do think that the author told, for the most part, a unique story with a real edge to it. If you are into novels about self-destructive and alienated young women such as My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Luster, and Pizza Girl you should give New People a try.
PS: The book has no quotation marks which is why I opted for the audiobook.
re-read: while not as emotionally encompassing as Caucasia or as incisive as Symptomatic, this book is a really accomplished character study and should definitely appeal to fans of the “she’s not feeling so good” subgenre.
“When she was just a kid, Gloria told her never to trust a group of happy, smiling multiracial people. Never trust races when they get along, she said. If you see different races of people just standing around, smiling at one another, run for the hills, kid. Take cover. They’ll break your heart.”
A disquieting yet hypnotic novel New People makes for a quick but far from forgettable read. Set in the 1990s in New York the story follows Maria, a twenty-something woman who, alongside her fiancee, Khalil, will star in a documentary called 'New People' which focuses on biracial and multiracial young people in NY. Maria's pale skin often leads others to assume that she is white or Mexican, a fact that has always made her feel on the outskirts of her Black community (even if her adoptive mother was Black). Maria and Khalil met in college and everyone seems to think that they are perfect for each other: “Their skin is the same shade of beige. Together, they look like the end of a story”. Maria, however, grows infatuated with a Black poet (we never learn his name, he is referred to as 'the poet') and seems to believe that he reciprocates her feelings. Believing that they share a connection Maria engages in some creepy and stalkerish behavior that sees her crossing all sorts of lines. As the narrative progresses we learn more of Maria's past, and what we learn is not particularly pretty (that 'prank' she pulls on Khalil...yeah). We also see her previous relationship, many with white boys, the latest of whom reinvented himself as Chicano. Maria's uneasy feelings towards racial identity are rendered in stark detail. Senna touches upon the 'tragic mulatto' trope by providing a far more modern and relevant commentary on multiracial identity. Senna also captures with uncomfortable clarity Maria's frame of mind: obsession, delusion, anger, repulsion, despair. While readers are not meant to like her they will feel some degree of sympathy towards her (no doubt to Maria's own discontent). The narrative has a feverish quality to it, one that really emphasizes Maria's downwards spiral. Shrewd and occasionally scathing the novel explores subjects such as race, identity, belonging, hatred, obsession, and alienation without providing easy answers. The questions and discussions that emerge in New People brought to mind the ones in Nella Larsen's work, particularly Quicksand.
I do wish some things had been handled differently. I would have liked more of Khalil and his sisters and less of Greg. And, although I did appreciate the narrative's foray into hysterical realism I did find some of the guys to be too cartoonish (such as Khalil's friend who apparently speaks in clichés:“I love Khalil like a brother. Okay? So if you hurt him, you are going to have to contend with me.”).
I wouldn't recommend this book to a lot of readers. Maria is a character who exhibits some perturbing behavior and the narrative doesn't paint anyone in a good light. The story seems in fact intent on showing how hypocritical and performative people are (and in making you freak out about what Maria is getting up to). The ending lessened also my overall appreciation as it felt both weak and predictable. Yet, I do think that the author told, for the most part, a unique story with a real edge to it. If you are into novels about self-destructive and alienated young women such as My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Luster, and Pizza Girl you should give New People a try.
PS: The book has no quotation marks which is why I opted for the audiobook.
re-read: while not as emotionally encompassing as Caucasia or as incisive as Symptomatic, this book is a really accomplished character study and should definitely appeal to fans of the “she’s not feeling so good” subgenre.
September 13, 2017
This book was so strange, so compelling and so uncomfortable, I could have read another 200 pages and never grown tired of it.
It's the 1990s and Maria and her fiancé Khalil are, as the documentary they're starring in puts it, "new people." Born in the late 60s to early 70s, new people are "the progeny of the Renaissance of Interracial Unions." As a light-skinned biracial woman, Maria struggles with the challenge of not fitting in with either race.
While a large part of this book is a dry social satire about race and identity, it's also a deep dive into Marie's psyche: her ambivalence about her upcoming marriage, her infatuation with a local poet, her dissertation on the Jonestown massacre, and her increasingly odd behavior as she faces the expectations of a seemingly perfect life she may not even want.
I was completely captivated by Senna's writing. She does a lot of telling, which is something I don't always enjoy, but her voice is so wry, peculiar, and clever that I couldn't get enough. I'll definitely be reading more of her backlist.
It's the 1990s and Maria and her fiancé Khalil are, as the documentary they're starring in puts it, "new people." Born in the late 60s to early 70s, new people are "the progeny of the Renaissance of Interracial Unions." As a light-skinned biracial woman, Maria struggles with the challenge of not fitting in with either race.
While a large part of this book is a dry social satire about race and identity, it's also a deep dive into Marie's psyche: her ambivalence about her upcoming marriage, her infatuation with a local poet, her dissertation on the Jonestown massacre, and her increasingly odd behavior as she faces the expectations of a seemingly perfect life she may not even want.
I was completely captivated by Senna's writing. She does a lot of telling, which is something I don't always enjoy, but her voice is so wry, peculiar, and clever that I couldn't get enough. I'll definitely be reading more of her backlist.
August 17, 2017
The narrative of the rudderless twenty-something in New York City takes on new life when there's a real reason for the lack of direction. In NEW PEOPLE Senna introduces us to Maria, who is working hard to create a specific identity for herself as a mixed-race woman. She's created the kind of life she thinks that woman should have and as she comes closer to obtaining all of it, things start to fall apart at the seams.
Chief among these crises are her relationships to men. Her fiance, Khalil, has the same skin color as she does and fits the ideal she's created for herself, but she can't shake her sexual attraction to a black man and her memories of the passionate sexual relationship she had once with a white man.
Many readers like me will be beyond frustrated with Maria. The choices she makes are often bizarre and even dangerous, and we never know exactly why she's doing what she does. She exists as more of a cipher than a fully drawn character, but in this book that felt very purposeful. Her lack of drive and motivation is the central theme of the book. Maria will make hardly any choices you agree with or appreciate as a reader, it is the kind of book that makes you cringe or even want to throw it. I sometimes had to read it in short bursts because I would get so annoyed with Maria. But I still felt like Senna was doing something different here and I wanted to go with her on that journey.
Chief among these crises are her relationships to men. Her fiance, Khalil, has the same skin color as she does and fits the ideal she's created for herself, but she can't shake her sexual attraction to a black man and her memories of the passionate sexual relationship she had once with a white man.
Many readers like me will be beyond frustrated with Maria. The choices she makes are often bizarre and even dangerous, and we never know exactly why she's doing what she does. She exists as more of a cipher than a fully drawn character, but in this book that felt very purposeful. Her lack of drive and motivation is the central theme of the book. Maria will make hardly any choices you agree with or appreciate as a reader, it is the kind of book that makes you cringe or even want to throw it. I sometimes had to read it in short bursts because I would get so annoyed with Maria. But I still felt like Senna was doing something different here and I wanted to go with her on that journey.
January 2, 2023
Mundane at best. I couldn't stand the main character, she's losing it and totally unrelateable. The authors writing style will give you a headache, I tried so so hard to like this and to get into this book but I just couldn't. The ending was such a disappointment. I pushed on and finished the book expecting it to eventually get better, but it never did. Mundane and not memorable.
April 25, 2020
Weird. This whole book was strange in the best way. I want to know what made Maria so delusional. I’ve always heard so many things about — you know, I can’t talk kitchen talk on Goodreads. LOL
I was gonna spill long discussed concepts black folks hold about mixed people and adopted people and the way those things intersect, but that’s not a discussion for Goodreads.
I will say tho, that this book was interesting in a hilarious, somewhat absurdist sort of way. Danzy Senna’s writing style is unique in her handling of the psychology of the wanted vs their emotional state as the abandoned. It makes sense when you read the book.. I love the way she writes so deeply into Maria’s ruminations and personal recriminations about her sexual exploits with white men (in contrast to the rest of her life).. her chasing this black dude “the poet”, and what it means to want to be with white men sexually vs black men to build a family.
Danzy also goes into what it means to really go after what you want and what it means to settle for what you should want.. the madness vs the passivity.
I love that she incorporates hair and what hair means in the black community into the novel. I love that she goes through so much about Maria in the foreground while creating a landscape where Maria is doing absolutely crazy shit in the background.
Overall this was a super enjoyable read.
I was gonna spill long discussed concepts black folks hold about mixed people and adopted people and the way those things intersect, but that’s not a discussion for Goodreads.
I will say tho, that this book was interesting in a hilarious, somewhat absurdist sort of way. Danzy Senna’s writing style is unique in her handling of the psychology of the wanted vs their emotional state as the abandoned. It makes sense when you read the book.. I love the way she writes so deeply into Maria’s ruminations and personal recriminations about her sexual exploits with white men (in contrast to the rest of her life).. her chasing this black dude “the poet”, and what it means to want to be with white men sexually vs black men to build a family.
Danzy also goes into what it means to really go after what you want and what it means to settle for what you should want.. the madness vs the passivity.
I love that she incorporates hair and what hair means in the black community into the novel. I love that she goes through so much about Maria in the foreground while creating a landscape where Maria is doing absolutely crazy shit in the background.
Overall this was a super enjoyable read.
July 18, 2017
Not exactly what I was expecting. On the surface it's a simple story of obsession interspersed with bits about the narrator's dissertation on Jonestown and a few shining moments discussing race/class differences. Like other reviewers, the ending had me quite puzzled — the book feels only half finished? I need a smarter person to tie it all together for me.
October 18, 2017
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I really enjoyed New People and was intrigued by who the description, “new people”, referred to. Maria and Khalil are a seemingly happy, engaged couple living in Brooklyn, both light skinned, mixed race. Khalil, a technology consultant, comes from a solid, intact family unit and is close with his parents and sister who is darker skinned than he is. Maria has no relatives; she was adopted by a black woman who was hoping to raise a “mini me” and has since passed away. She is spending her time writing her dissertation on Jamestown and busy learning about the mass suicides, how this could happen, and how those people kept going as long as they did. Maria’s previous boyfriend was white and although something about him made her despise him as a person, they had unrivaled physical chemistry. She now is planning her wedding to Khalil, but is distracted by her attraction to a black poet who she keeps running into.
Maria has done something in her past that is dishonest and cruel to Khalil. He is unaware and loves her very much. Now that she is obsessed with another man she makes questionable decisions which lead her into some dicey circumstances but the details are not revealed to Khalil so the reality of who she is and what she does in her life remain hidden. She has been and continues to be deceitful, yet for me, she is still likable and worthy of compassion.
I believe Maria’s studying of Jamestown, the people who were looking for their true selves and a place to belong in this world, and the music that enriched, was a representation of her personal quest for belonging. With a college friend she doesn’t even remember, she has a brush with Scientology, as she allowed this former classmate to perform some tests on her, and then she feels a pull, back to the ideal life of Khalil and his family. She looks white but feels black so her identity is unclear as she seems to be searching for people she can relate to, often feeling disconnected. Maria’s bad judgement and and questionable decisions lead to some unusual situations that were humorous and uncomfortable. New People, referring to mixed race people, this story of identity, relationships and communication was enjoyable, short and easy to read and I highly recommend it.
I really enjoyed New People and was intrigued by who the description, “new people”, referred to. Maria and Khalil are a seemingly happy, engaged couple living in Brooklyn, both light skinned, mixed race. Khalil, a technology consultant, comes from a solid, intact family unit and is close with his parents and sister who is darker skinned than he is. Maria has no relatives; she was adopted by a black woman who was hoping to raise a “mini me” and has since passed away. She is spending her time writing her dissertation on Jamestown and busy learning about the mass suicides, how this could happen, and how those people kept going as long as they did. Maria’s previous boyfriend was white and although something about him made her despise him as a person, they had unrivaled physical chemistry. She now is planning her wedding to Khalil, but is distracted by her attraction to a black poet who she keeps running into.
Maria has done something in her past that is dishonest and cruel to Khalil. He is unaware and loves her very much. Now that she is obsessed with another man she makes questionable decisions which lead her into some dicey circumstances but the details are not revealed to Khalil so the reality of who she is and what she does in her life remain hidden. She has been and continues to be deceitful, yet for me, she is still likable and worthy of compassion.
I believe Maria’s studying of Jamestown, the people who were looking for their true selves and a place to belong in this world, and the music that enriched, was a representation of her personal quest for belonging. With a college friend she doesn’t even remember, she has a brush with Scientology, as she allowed this former classmate to perform some tests on her, and then she feels a pull, back to the ideal life of Khalil and his family. She looks white but feels black so her identity is unclear as she seems to be searching for people she can relate to, often feeling disconnected. Maria’s bad judgement and and questionable decisions lead to some unusual situations that were humorous and uncomfortable. New People, referring to mixed race people, this story of identity, relationships and communication was enjoyable, short and easy to read and I highly recommend it.
September 20, 2017
I'm not even sure what that was? Was Maria mentally unstable? Was she looking for an excuse to bust up her engagement? Was the grass supposed to be greener? What could be a great book about race, interracial couples, and society was totally overshadowed by her weird ass single, half-white female obsession. The ending is also super random and left open. I couldn't wait for it to end.
September 13, 2017
This has the disjointed feel of Jami Attenberg's All Grown Up, but stronger. (Not better.)
Heads up: the only thing I read before listening to this book on audio was the synopsis on the inside flap at the bookstore. Reading a review now I see it was meant to be in the same satirical vein of the Sellout but it went over my head.
Senna's storytelling is so subtle sometimes I thought I misheard or missed out on key details/segues. Strange timeline jumping between college and present and Maria's research on Jonestown. Plenty of symbolism. I think.
Maria has a few months before her wedding but suddenly she's in love with someone else, crushed she can't be with him?! She stalks the other guy. Hangs out with him once. She's delusional he wants her back.
Didn't understand her personality or actions (when she goes along with being mistaken as Consuela?!) and I wanted to slap her out of this quarter-life crisis she's (maybe) having. Spent most of listening holding my face in agony- my visceral response to the overwhelmingly awkward situations. I was so angry with Maria. I actually shouted out loud "No!" And "WHY?" a few times.
Senna is a great writer but this wasn't fleshed out and I liked the idea but not like this. Might have played out better in a short story collection.
Heads up: the only thing I read before listening to this book on audio was the synopsis on the inside flap at the bookstore. Reading a review now I see it was meant to be in the same satirical vein of the Sellout but it went over my head.
Senna's storytelling is so subtle sometimes I thought I misheard or missed out on key details/segues. Strange timeline jumping between college and present and Maria's research on Jonestown. Plenty of symbolism. I think.
Maria has a few months before her wedding but suddenly she's in love with someone else, crushed she can't be with him?! She stalks the other guy. Hangs out with him once. She's delusional he wants her back.
Didn't understand her personality or actions (when she goes along with being mistaken as Consuela?!) and I wanted to slap her out of this quarter-life crisis she's (maybe) having. Spent most of listening holding my face in agony- my visceral response to the overwhelmingly awkward situations. I was so angry with Maria. I actually shouted out loud "No!" And "WHY?" a few times.
Senna is a great writer but this wasn't fleshed out and I liked the idea but not like this. Might have played out better in a short story collection.
March 26, 2019
Maria Pierce and Khalil Mirskys are engaged to be married. But, the poet keeps floating on Maria's mind. She fantasizes and dreams of the poet. She finds his Pittsburgh Steeler cap and keeps it for six days, smelling his scents and feeling aroused, before returning his possession hoping to be invited to his apartment. In her obession for the poet, she babysits a baby under the guise of been a Latina. She enters his apartment and hides under his bed. What will she do next?
Maria and Khalil are the new wave bougie blacks. They are the mulattos who found their blackness in college and since graduation will show the world how black they truly can be.
Before dating Khalil, Maria only dated white men, and found the sex with Khalil not up to par. But, his other characteristics keeps her attached. As well as her mother's encouragement, Khalil is a keeper, no matter what. Will Maria and Khalil marry? Will this new wave of bougie sustain them? What other secrets is Maria hiding?
Quotes:
Everybody loves mulattos. Nobody will grow bored of us, ever.
He said black women ripened slowly, like wine , and come to fruition in middle age. Son, Nigel said, that's why a black woman is a good investment; she's sweetest when she's fifty.
As she and the man walked past, the woman held out her hand and dumped a handful of change into Gloria's coffee.
Maria and Khalil are the new wave bougie blacks. They are the mulattos who found their blackness in college and since graduation will show the world how black they truly can be.
Before dating Khalil, Maria only dated white men, and found the sex with Khalil not up to par. But, his other characteristics keeps her attached. As well as her mother's encouragement, Khalil is a keeper, no matter what. Will Maria and Khalil marry? Will this new wave of bougie sustain them? What other secrets is Maria hiding?
Quotes:
Everybody loves mulattos. Nobody will grow bored of us, ever.
He said black women ripened slowly, like wine , and come to fruition in middle age. Son, Nigel said, that's why a black woman is a good investment; she's sweetest when she's fifty.
As she and the man walked past, the woman held out her hand and dumped a handful of change into Gloria's coffee.
September 17, 2017
Some of the sharpest satire I've read in ages. It reminded me of other excellent racial satires such as Mislaid, Delicious Foods, Welcome to Braggsville and The Sellout. I gulped down the first third of this book only to have it slow down on me in the middle but it came home strong and I loved the weird ending. Senna takes us deep into the weird mind of her ambivalent protagonist Maria and it's a fun and frustrating place to be. I was happy there.
February 18, 2018
In his blurb on the back of the book, Marlon James states that “New People” reminds us that “the worst kind of hell is always the one we raise”, and I don’t think I can put it any better. This is a book about identity and obsession, perfection and truth.
Maria and her fiancé Khalil are mixed race, mulatta and mulatto, planning their wedding and ready to embark on their life together as “new people”. By their definition, new people are “the progeny of the Renaissance of Interracial Unions” in late 60s and early 70s. They are a picturesque couple, though Maria is not content. She is light skinned with straight hair, people often assuming she is Jewish or white, and struggles to find her place among her peers. She becomes infatuated with a black man known only as “the poet”, leaving the reader to contemplate what she’s running from, and what she’s chasing.
It’s the 90’s, and Maria is observing how her generation of mixed people adapt to the world – how Khalil speaks differently around his white friend Ethan than he does around other “new people”. Maria starts to do strange things, and her behavior grows increasingly bizarre, embarrassing, and self-destructive. We’re never witness to the eruption, but you can feel it on the horizon. As an adopted child of a black mother, it’s easy to understand Maria’s sense of lost identity.
I really enjoyed Senna’s style – honest, dry wit that kept me flipping the pages quickly. There’s also a thread throughout this book about Jonestown which I haven’t touched on, but it certainly adds a dynamic layer to the whole story. This book won’t be for everyone, but it hit a surprising chord with me (I’m mixed as well). I’ll be picking up Senna’s book “Caucasia” soon!
Maria and her fiancé Khalil are mixed race, mulatta and mulatto, planning their wedding and ready to embark on their life together as “new people”. By their definition, new people are “the progeny of the Renaissance of Interracial Unions” in late 60s and early 70s. They are a picturesque couple, though Maria is not content. She is light skinned with straight hair, people often assuming she is Jewish or white, and struggles to find her place among her peers. She becomes infatuated with a black man known only as “the poet”, leaving the reader to contemplate what she’s running from, and what she’s chasing.
It’s the 90’s, and Maria is observing how her generation of mixed people adapt to the world – how Khalil speaks differently around his white friend Ethan than he does around other “new people”. Maria starts to do strange things, and her behavior grows increasingly bizarre, embarrassing, and self-destructive. We’re never witness to the eruption, but you can feel it on the horizon. As an adopted child of a black mother, it’s easy to understand Maria’s sense of lost identity.
I really enjoyed Senna’s style – honest, dry wit that kept me flipping the pages quickly. There’s also a thread throughout this book about Jonestown which I haven’t touched on, but it certainly adds a dynamic layer to the whole story. This book won’t be for everyone, but it hit a surprising chord with me (I’m mixed as well). I’ll be picking up Senna’s book “Caucasia” soon!
June 6, 2018
I stepped out of my normal comfort zone here (genre wise) and books like this wish I hadn’t. I couldn’t get into this book from the first chapter but my rule is if I start it I must finish.
Maria, a young girl who is engaged is our speaker and narrator of the story. She’s enthralled with a young poet even though she’s engaged to marry another. The story weaves in and out of her own life and past and the present with her new man and the poet and then her dissertation she is writing on a “cult” of sorts let by Jones, a man who led people to their own death.
The whole thing read to me like something I would forget very easily. I hate giving books bad ratings but I didn’t like it.
It was well written and a fast read (but for me that’s about it).
Maria, a young girl who is engaged is our speaker and narrator of the story. She’s enthralled with a young poet even though she’s engaged to marry another. The story weaves in and out of her own life and past and the present with her new man and the poet and then her dissertation she is writing on a “cult” of sorts let by Jones, a man who led people to their own death.
The whole thing read to me like something I would forget very easily. I hate giving books bad ratings but I didn’t like it.
It was well written and a fast read (but for me that’s about it).
September 9, 2017
I usually give three stars to books that I liked just enough. In the case of this book, I'm not happy rating it so low, especially now that I want to read everything else Danzy Senna has written. But I can't think of any other way to express my disappointment that it felt so rushed to its end. An attempt is made to resolve most of the internal conflicts Maria faces, but it's all too hasty and ambiguous to be satisfying. A novel of much longer length could have been written about these characters.
June 8, 2018
So new people by Danzy Senna was deeply odd and uncomfortable and I really liked it. It was about a young biracial phd candidate who was in the process of completing her dissertation and ambivalently preparing for her impending wedding to another biracial person in the late 90’s while both running from and seeking something I can’t quite describe. The title is based on the idea that this generation of young biracial people, born in the late sixties and early seventies were “new people” and in their marrying one another and having these double mixed children, they were creating a generation of “new people”. The protagonist in this book was deeply odd, and awful, and unlikeable, and that was okay. It was so upsetting to read her life, because she was a nightmare. But the book also captured so much of the idealism of college race politics, and the righteousness of black and white approaches to equity before life forces so many compromises, and what it is to come into identity in an academic setting, and how much our otherness ties us all together, but sometimes with little else to hold in common. Senna is so hard to describe, her writing is like nothing else. I would love to pick her brain, because where does she come up with these storylines? She’s a delight, read it!
August 13, 2017
Full Review at https://craftyscribblescom.wordpress....
February 14, 2019
I’m not quite sure what I just read....
July 8, 2018
I’m in the minority of readers because I enjoyed this book immensely. It’s a beautifully crafted but oh so eerie novel.
I’d recommend the book to those who loved Zadie Smith’s ‘Swing Time.’ Like Smith, Senna is clever, witty, and skilled beyond measure in her craft. Like ‘Swing Time,’ ‘New People’ is a satirical yet insightful novel about Blackness, Black culture, and Black life as told through a cast of absurd mixed-race characters. Both novels should really be read twice. However, whereas ‘Swing Time’ gained criticism because of its length, ‘New People’s' shortcoming is its brevity.
Maria, a light-skinned woman of Black (Creole?) heritage from Cane River, Louisiana, is adopted by Gloria, a young PhD candidate studying Black feminism and African American literature at Harvard. While in college at Stanford, Maria meets Khalil, the son of a Black mother and Jewish father, who has dreams of creating a profitable tech company. Khalil and Maria move to Brooklyn after graduation, become engaged, and find themselves as members of an elite social clique. They are upwardly mobile, light skinned, Black in a political sense (but not radical enough as to isolate white friends), and mostly only friends with those who are, like them, also mixed race. They become the subjects of a documentary called, ‘New People,’ an exploration of mixed-race people in the U.S. and their alleged uniqueness. The point of the documentary is to show that the ‘New People’ are symbolic of the dawning of a new, post-racial. The novel is set in the mid-1990s.
Meanwhile, Maria is breaking down—mentally and emotionally—bit by bit. She is trying to finish a PhD in Ethnomusicology, and her dissertation is about the Jonestown Massacre. As it turns out, the overwhelming majority of the church’s members were Black, and half (or more than half?) of those members who forcibly committed suicide were poor Black women. Maria explores this as she works on her dissertation, and she also thinks of Gloria, who died in Maria’s senior year of college. When Gloria died, she possessed nothing but a mountain of debt and her unfinished dissertation on Black feminist principles in African American literature.
In the midst of all this, Maria develops a strange infatuation with “the poet,” the one non-mixed Black person in their circle. She questions whether she and Khalil are properly yoked, and yearns for the poet’s love and affection.
The thing to keep in mind about this novel is that there are three themes that are simultaneously explored and intersecting: race, culture, and class, Jonestown, and psychosis. If you know that these things are all connected, the ending—which is admittedly bizarre and abrupt—will make more sense.
The best part of this novel, by far, is Senna’s literary style and meditations on race. Senna’s writing is sharp, insightful, and full of dry humor. Her characters are, like those in ‘Swing Time,’ caricatures—and it should also be said that like the narrator in ‘Swing Time,’ Maria is irreverent to the core—but it works. They suffer from the “woe-is-me-tragic-mulatto” syndrome and perform Blackness in wild ways; they also see themselves as the possessors of unique racial insight and proof that post-racialism is possible and dawning. Senna, thankfully, does not coddle them or attempt to persuade her reader that they are right. She mocks them and turns the “tragic mulatto” narrative on its head. That is the greatest fun of the novel indeed.
The subtle indications of Maria’s impending psychotic break are present yet harder to catch. I think that the novel most definitely could have benefitted from additional chapters to explore this in more depth and detail. Doing so wouldn’t have made the novel any less strange and dark, but it would have made the reader far more understanding and prepared for the story’s trajectory.
I really enjoyed ‘New People,’ but I recognize that it’s got a rare bite. I’d recommend this if you’re a fan of ‘Swing Time’ or you like literature that contradicts the notion of mixed race singularity (and superiority?) in the complicated web that is Black identity. However, do know that this tale is an eerie one and, if you can, read it twice. It’s a fast read that can be finished in about 3 or so hours time.
I’d recommend the book to those who loved Zadie Smith’s ‘Swing Time.’ Like Smith, Senna is clever, witty, and skilled beyond measure in her craft. Like ‘Swing Time,’ ‘New People’ is a satirical yet insightful novel about Blackness, Black culture, and Black life as told through a cast of absurd mixed-race characters. Both novels should really be read twice. However, whereas ‘Swing Time’ gained criticism because of its length, ‘New People’s' shortcoming is its brevity.
Maria, a light-skinned woman of Black (Creole?) heritage from Cane River, Louisiana, is adopted by Gloria, a young PhD candidate studying Black feminism and African American literature at Harvard. While in college at Stanford, Maria meets Khalil, the son of a Black mother and Jewish father, who has dreams of creating a profitable tech company. Khalil and Maria move to Brooklyn after graduation, become engaged, and find themselves as members of an elite social clique. They are upwardly mobile, light skinned, Black in a political sense (but not radical enough as to isolate white friends), and mostly only friends with those who are, like them, also mixed race. They become the subjects of a documentary called, ‘New People,’ an exploration of mixed-race people in the U.S. and their alleged uniqueness. The point of the documentary is to show that the ‘New People’ are symbolic of the dawning of a new, post-racial. The novel is set in the mid-1990s.
Meanwhile, Maria is breaking down—mentally and emotionally—bit by bit. She is trying to finish a PhD in Ethnomusicology, and her dissertation is about the Jonestown Massacre. As it turns out, the overwhelming majority of the church’s members were Black, and half (or more than half?) of those members who forcibly committed suicide were poor Black women. Maria explores this as she works on her dissertation, and she also thinks of Gloria, who died in Maria’s senior year of college. When Gloria died, she possessed nothing but a mountain of debt and her unfinished dissertation on Black feminist principles in African American literature.
In the midst of all this, Maria develops a strange infatuation with “the poet,” the one non-mixed Black person in their circle. She questions whether she and Khalil are properly yoked, and yearns for the poet’s love and affection.
The thing to keep in mind about this novel is that there are three themes that are simultaneously explored and intersecting: race, culture, and class, Jonestown, and psychosis. If you know that these things are all connected, the ending—which is admittedly bizarre and abrupt—will make more sense.
The best part of this novel, by far, is Senna’s literary style and meditations on race. Senna’s writing is sharp, insightful, and full of dry humor. Her characters are, like those in ‘Swing Time,’ caricatures—and it should also be said that like the narrator in ‘Swing Time,’ Maria is irreverent to the core—but it works. They suffer from the “woe-is-me-tragic-mulatto” syndrome and perform Blackness in wild ways; they also see themselves as the possessors of unique racial insight and proof that post-racialism is possible and dawning. Senna, thankfully, does not coddle them or attempt to persuade her reader that they are right. She mocks them and turns the “tragic mulatto” narrative on its head. That is the greatest fun of the novel indeed.
The subtle indications of Maria’s impending psychotic break are present yet harder to catch. I think that the novel most definitely could have benefitted from additional chapters to explore this in more depth and detail. Doing so wouldn’t have made the novel any less strange and dark, but it would have made the reader far more understanding and prepared for the story’s trajectory.
I really enjoyed ‘New People,’ but I recognize that it’s got a rare bite. I’d recommend this if you’re a fan of ‘Swing Time’ or you like literature that contradicts the notion of mixed race singularity (and superiority?) in the complicated web that is Black identity. However, do know that this tale is an eerie one and, if you can, read it twice. It’s a fast read that can be finished in about 3 or so hours time.
November 22, 2018
**spoilers!! please beware**
Published in August 2017, the adult literary novel, "New People," by the acclaimed author Danzy Senna, has been lauded with rave reviews and recognition, including being named by Time magazine as one of the Top Ten Novels of 2017. This novel is meant to be a darkly comedic examination of a biracial woman's frustrating search for racial identity in 1990s Brooklyn, New York.
I appreciate that this book deals with microaggressions and their impacts. I appreciate that the author's own experience as a biracial woman informed parts of this novel.
But I found this book completely nihilistic. The plot is structured around a false equivalency that I found entirely problematic. The prose is not even enjoyable on its own, it's simply adequate writing that delivers a punishing and hopeless story. The novel excoriates microaggressions against black people, but then the prose commits microaggressions against other marginalized groups, such as the Roma. I do not recommend this novel to anyone, and I find myself deeply appalled by this book.
The main character of "New People," a young woman in her mid-twenties named Maria, is described as "a one-dropper, that peculiarly American creation, white in all outward appearances but black for generations on paper" (page 89).
Maria was born to a black mother but looks entirely white, and she has grown up suffering from "'that particular rage of the light-skinned individual'" (page 31). As a baby, Maria was adopted by a black woman named Gloria, who died at age 49 while trying to complete her dissertation for a PhD. In the story, it's clear that Maria suffers trauma from being an adopted child. She suffered additional hardships from being poor while her adoptive mother was in graduate school while Maria was growing up, and Maria is still grieving Gloria's death when the novel begins. The novel's primary focus, however, is on Maria's racial trauma as a one-dropper in modern America.
As a result of being black on paper but white in appearance, Maria grew up "hating" white people (page 31). "She felt she was allergic to them. She looked a lot like one of them, which made her understand how much they were getting away with every day of their lives. She flinched in white people's presence" (page 31).
It's clear that some of Maria's mistrust of white people came from Gloria. "When she was just a kid, Gloria told her never to trust a group of happy, smiling multiracial people. Never trust races when they get along, she said. If you see different races of people just standing around, smiling at one another, run for the hills, kid. Take cover. They'll break your heart" (page 29).
As an adult woman who is now in graduate school when the novel begins, Maria is studying the music of the Peoples Temple Choir of Jonestown, the infamous cult led by Jim Jones that committed mass suicide in Guyana, South America, in 1978. A total of 918 people died after drinking poisoned Kool-Aid in what came to be known as the Jonestown Massacre. Since Jim Jones began his preaching career in Indiana on the tenets of racial equality and social justice, the specter of Jonestown looms large in this novel, both in plot details for Maria as well as in overall thematic content. The tragedy of the Jonestown Massacre serves to uphold Gloria's dark view of life: that if you see different races of people just standing around, smiling at one another, run for the hills. If the people of Jonestown had only taken that advice, they wouldn't have died committing mass suicide in 1978.
Reading "New People" felt like reading "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," if Malcolm X had never taken that trip to Mecca and had continued his virulent hatred of the White Devil (i.e. all white people) until the day of his death. Fortunately for Malcolm X, he learned to question his racial prejudice and his hatred, and his autobiography was much richer for it. Maria, however, is full of extremely self-destructive self-loathing and self-hatred up until the end of the book. At one point she even admits this aloud to herself, when she tells her own reflection in the mirror, "I hate you" (page 162). The novel ends with Maria being consumed by her own self-destruction. After breaking and entering into a man's apartment, a man she has developed an unrequited and completely unhinged obsession for, she lies under his bed until morning, when her presence will be discovered by the man and his lover in the full light of day.
Other reviewers have noted that Maria seems sociopathic or deranged in her level of anger, aggression, and violence toward others in this novel. Twice, she breaks into a man's apartment, as well as another woman's apartment, she shakes a small baby in rage, she hits an ice skater in the head with an ice skate as a child, and as an undergrad college student, Maria called her own black boyfriend's campus phone pretending to be a white fraternity student, and left this message for him: "Me and the brothers, we're coming for you. We're gonna string you up by a fucking dreadlock, man, and light you on fire. Nigger boy." The entire university took the threat seriously, and responded as such, all while Maria never admits that *she* left the message. The entire event is played for dark humor in the book, treating her hate crime as silly, the situation as silly, and the university's response as silly.
If you are someone who believes the delightful myth that "college education cures prejudice" and that "we don't have white nationalists or Neo Nazis on modern college campuses," you will particularly enjoy this section of the book. Personally, I know too much about the presence and recruitment strategies of the alt-right on college campuses in America to find any of the novel's trivializing treatment toward Maria's "mock-up hate crime" funny.
The alt-right and the Neo Nazi terrorist groups of the alt-right are no joke. These people *do* make death threats and kill marginalized people. Seeing a black biracial main character mimic the alt-right for laughs in this book made me *really* upset. I would never give this book to any of my black friends to read. I found two black women readers online who posted YouTube reviews for this novel, and I wasn't surprised to hear that they both one-starred this book. I'm not saying every black or biracial person would dislike this novel, but as a white person myself, I certainly wouldn't recommend it to them.
Maria's entire narrative serves to draw a false equivalency between the Jonestown cult and the horrifying practices of Jim Jones, with the culture of modern America and its pressure to conform, which has taught Maria to be self-hating and self-destructive. The novel does not use the language of bell hooks to discuss the culture of modern America, but the ethos of the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy is always present in this narrative, as the dominant culture that Maria rages against.
So I would just like to say, emphatically, that popular culture, as well as Maria's upper-middle class life as a graduate student in modern America, is NOT the same as living in a cult. Especially not the Jonestown cult. I resent this book mightily for creating a narrative structure that compares these two things directly. Modern America is a white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, but it also embraces social justice movements that aren't simply lies, social justice movements that are inspired and organized by people who are 100% the opposite of Jim Jones and his victims. Maria's America of 1996 was also the America of Gloria Watkins/bell hooks, Dolores Huerta, and too many other badass people to name. Life in modern America can be overwhelming and sh*tty, but there are plenty of people who live here who aren't drinking poisoned Kool-Aid, and no one is forcing them to drink any, either.
Before I close, here are some examples of problematic exposition in this book.
After Maria receives a perm at a hair salon and a Brazilian bikini wax, the text states: "She rides the subway all dressed up in her outfit, her vagina bald and her head hair curly" (page 151). For the record: women don't wax their "vaginas." They wax their external genitalia, and the word for that is "vulva." The word vulva encompasses: the labia, clitoris, vaginal opening, and the opening to the urethra. When I read literary fiction in the voice of a third person narrator, a third person that sometimes reads as close third and sometimes as omniscient, then I want the words to be the right words. Literary prose does not sound edgy and smart when it's wrong. Honestly, the prose in this book read as lazy and dull, and sentences like this one did not help.
On page 153, the text relates the hardship of Maria's life as a child while Gloria was in graduate school. "Maria looked poor too [like Gloria]. She was only seven at the time, but in photos she had the look of one of the Roma you see on the streets of Paris. Her hair was always tangled, her pants too short, a perpetual stain of dirt and lollipop juice around the rim of her mouth." This appearance is also described as the look of "poverty" in the text (page 152).
This is one of those places of microaggressions committed in the text by its omniscient third person narrative voice. Reading those sentences, in a book that is taking a clear-eyed stance against microaggressions, just fills me with rage. If those sentences don't immediately sound racist, let me make this comparison: replace the word "Roma" with "Navajo," and the words "streets of Paris" with "reservation." Many avid readers of literary fiction in America would immediately know that categorizing "all Navajo people" as dirty and poor would BE RACIST. Because it's RACIST. But in 2018, I can read an award-winning novel with racist Roma content like this, and it's given a pass.
The text quoted above goes on to say this: "Harvard notwithstanding, she [Maria] lived like any other poor child on a steady diet of hot dogs and ramen noodles. She lived in a cement tower that looked -- if you blurred your eyes just right -- like any other housing project" (page 153).
This is classist on a number of levels, but I'll give two main reasons. First off: Maria has food. SHE HAS FOOD. Second: she has a place to live. SHE IS NOT HOMELESS. Maria and Gloria are never homeless. If you think that "any other poor child" in America means food and shelter is a given like this, then I would suggest reading Matthew Desmond's Pulitzer-winning nonfiction book, "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City" for a much-needed wake-up call. I suggest "Evicted" because it deals with urban poverty and is more applicable to Maria's situation than a book about rural poverty.
There were many other instances of class privilege and clueless classism in this novel, and they upset me as much as anything else in this book.
I don't know why books like this win awards, or arrive on "best of the year" lists. "New People" makes me despair.
One star. Not recommended.
Published in August 2017, the adult literary novel, "New People," by the acclaimed author Danzy Senna, has been lauded with rave reviews and recognition, including being named by Time magazine as one of the Top Ten Novels of 2017. This novel is meant to be a darkly comedic examination of a biracial woman's frustrating search for racial identity in 1990s Brooklyn, New York.
I appreciate that this book deals with microaggressions and their impacts. I appreciate that the author's own experience as a biracial woman informed parts of this novel.
But I found this book completely nihilistic. The plot is structured around a false equivalency that I found entirely problematic. The prose is not even enjoyable on its own, it's simply adequate writing that delivers a punishing and hopeless story. The novel excoriates microaggressions against black people, but then the prose commits microaggressions against other marginalized groups, such as the Roma. I do not recommend this novel to anyone, and I find myself deeply appalled by this book.
The main character of "New People," a young woman in her mid-twenties named Maria, is described as "a one-dropper, that peculiarly American creation, white in all outward appearances but black for generations on paper" (page 89).
Maria was born to a black mother but looks entirely white, and she has grown up suffering from "'that particular rage of the light-skinned individual'" (page 31). As a baby, Maria was adopted by a black woman named Gloria, who died at age 49 while trying to complete her dissertation for a PhD. In the story, it's clear that Maria suffers trauma from being an adopted child. She suffered additional hardships from being poor while her adoptive mother was in graduate school while Maria was growing up, and Maria is still grieving Gloria's death when the novel begins. The novel's primary focus, however, is on Maria's racial trauma as a one-dropper in modern America.
As a result of being black on paper but white in appearance, Maria grew up "hating" white people (page 31). "She felt she was allergic to them. She looked a lot like one of them, which made her understand how much they were getting away with every day of their lives. She flinched in white people's presence" (page 31).
It's clear that some of Maria's mistrust of white people came from Gloria. "When she was just a kid, Gloria told her never to trust a group of happy, smiling multiracial people. Never trust races when they get along, she said. If you see different races of people just standing around, smiling at one another, run for the hills, kid. Take cover. They'll break your heart" (page 29).
As an adult woman who is now in graduate school when the novel begins, Maria is studying the music of the Peoples Temple Choir of Jonestown, the infamous cult led by Jim Jones that committed mass suicide in Guyana, South America, in 1978. A total of 918 people died after drinking poisoned Kool-Aid in what came to be known as the Jonestown Massacre. Since Jim Jones began his preaching career in Indiana on the tenets of racial equality and social justice, the specter of Jonestown looms large in this novel, both in plot details for Maria as well as in overall thematic content. The tragedy of the Jonestown Massacre serves to uphold Gloria's dark view of life: that if you see different races of people just standing around, smiling at one another, run for the hills. If the people of Jonestown had only taken that advice, they wouldn't have died committing mass suicide in 1978.
Reading "New People" felt like reading "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," if Malcolm X had never taken that trip to Mecca and had continued his virulent hatred of the White Devil (i.e. all white people) until the day of his death. Fortunately for Malcolm X, he learned to question his racial prejudice and his hatred, and his autobiography was much richer for it. Maria, however, is full of extremely self-destructive self-loathing and self-hatred up until the end of the book. At one point she even admits this aloud to herself, when she tells her own reflection in the mirror, "I hate you" (page 162). The novel ends with Maria being consumed by her own self-destruction. After breaking and entering into a man's apartment, a man she has developed an unrequited and completely unhinged obsession for, she lies under his bed until morning, when her presence will be discovered by the man and his lover in the full light of day.
Other reviewers have noted that Maria seems sociopathic or deranged in her level of anger, aggression, and violence toward others in this novel. Twice, she breaks into a man's apartment, as well as another woman's apartment, she shakes a small baby in rage, she hits an ice skater in the head with an ice skate as a child, and as an undergrad college student, Maria called her own black boyfriend's campus phone pretending to be a white fraternity student, and left this message for him: "Me and the brothers, we're coming for you. We're gonna string you up by a fucking dreadlock, man, and light you on fire. Nigger boy." The entire university took the threat seriously, and responded as such, all while Maria never admits that *she* left the message. The entire event is played for dark humor in the book, treating her hate crime as silly, the situation as silly, and the university's response as silly.
If you are someone who believes the delightful myth that "college education cures prejudice" and that "we don't have white nationalists or Neo Nazis on modern college campuses," you will particularly enjoy this section of the book. Personally, I know too much about the presence and recruitment strategies of the alt-right on college campuses in America to find any of the novel's trivializing treatment toward Maria's "mock-up hate crime" funny.
The alt-right and the Neo Nazi terrorist groups of the alt-right are no joke. These people *do* make death threats and kill marginalized people. Seeing a black biracial main character mimic the alt-right for laughs in this book made me *really* upset. I would never give this book to any of my black friends to read. I found two black women readers online who posted YouTube reviews for this novel, and I wasn't surprised to hear that they both one-starred this book. I'm not saying every black or biracial person would dislike this novel, but as a white person myself, I certainly wouldn't recommend it to them.
Maria's entire narrative serves to draw a false equivalency between the Jonestown cult and the horrifying practices of Jim Jones, with the culture of modern America and its pressure to conform, which has taught Maria to be self-hating and self-destructive. The novel does not use the language of bell hooks to discuss the culture of modern America, but the ethos of the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy is always present in this narrative, as the dominant culture that Maria rages against.
So I would just like to say, emphatically, that popular culture, as well as Maria's upper-middle class life as a graduate student in modern America, is NOT the same as living in a cult. Especially not the Jonestown cult. I resent this book mightily for creating a narrative structure that compares these two things directly. Modern America is a white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, but it also embraces social justice movements that aren't simply lies, social justice movements that are inspired and organized by people who are 100% the opposite of Jim Jones and his victims. Maria's America of 1996 was also the America of Gloria Watkins/bell hooks, Dolores Huerta, and too many other badass people to name. Life in modern America can be overwhelming and sh*tty, but there are plenty of people who live here who aren't drinking poisoned Kool-Aid, and no one is forcing them to drink any, either.
Before I close, here are some examples of problematic exposition in this book.
After Maria receives a perm at a hair salon and a Brazilian bikini wax, the text states: "She rides the subway all dressed up in her outfit, her vagina bald and her head hair curly" (page 151). For the record: women don't wax their "vaginas." They wax their external genitalia, and the word for that is "vulva." The word vulva encompasses: the labia, clitoris, vaginal opening, and the opening to the urethra. When I read literary fiction in the voice of a third person narrator, a third person that sometimes reads as close third and sometimes as omniscient, then I want the words to be the right words. Literary prose does not sound edgy and smart when it's wrong. Honestly, the prose in this book read as lazy and dull, and sentences like this one did not help.
On page 153, the text relates the hardship of Maria's life as a child while Gloria was in graduate school. "Maria looked poor too [like Gloria]. She was only seven at the time, but in photos she had the look of one of the Roma you see on the streets of Paris. Her hair was always tangled, her pants too short, a perpetual stain of dirt and lollipop juice around the rim of her mouth." This appearance is also described as the look of "poverty" in the text (page 152).
This is one of those places of microaggressions committed in the text by its omniscient third person narrative voice. Reading those sentences, in a book that is taking a clear-eyed stance against microaggressions, just fills me with rage. If those sentences don't immediately sound racist, let me make this comparison: replace the word "Roma" with "Navajo," and the words "streets of Paris" with "reservation." Many avid readers of literary fiction in America would immediately know that categorizing "all Navajo people" as dirty and poor would BE RACIST. Because it's RACIST. But in 2018, I can read an award-winning novel with racist Roma content like this, and it's given a pass.
The text quoted above goes on to say this: "Harvard notwithstanding, she [Maria] lived like any other poor child on a steady diet of hot dogs and ramen noodles. She lived in a cement tower that looked -- if you blurred your eyes just right -- like any other housing project" (page 153).
This is classist on a number of levels, but I'll give two main reasons. First off: Maria has food. SHE HAS FOOD. Second: she has a place to live. SHE IS NOT HOMELESS. Maria and Gloria are never homeless. If you think that "any other poor child" in America means food and shelter is a given like this, then I would suggest reading Matthew Desmond's Pulitzer-winning nonfiction book, "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City" for a much-needed wake-up call. I suggest "Evicted" because it deals with urban poverty and is more applicable to Maria's situation than a book about rural poverty.
There were many other instances of class privilege and clueless classism in this novel, and they upset me as much as anything else in this book.
I don't know why books like this win awards, or arrive on "best of the year" lists. "New People" makes me despair.
One star. Not recommended.
September 13, 2017
3.75/5
Incomplete review. Draft 2 as of August 24, 2017
New People is a short, magnetic, strange, book. Strange in how Danzy Senna combines a perceptive biracial heroine Maria with opaque motives. Strange in how Senna pairs a lifeless main plot -- Maria has trepidations over whether to marry Khalil, a biracial character -- with a far more compelling side story -- the way music worked as a form of rebellion in the last days of Jim Jones' Jonestown in Guyana. Questions is why pair these two themes? Observations inside biracial commnities with escape from tjhe Jonestown cult?
Maria's actions baffled me. You see, Maria has a crush on another African American man, a poet. She purses this crush while she's engaged to be married. Maria waffles in whether to choose "mixed race" company, the title's "new people", or this AfAm man whose tastes align with upbringing by single Black mother Ph.D. student.
So much of New People focses on Maria's capers to track down the mystery man crush, which bored me. Danzy Senna is empathetic to the depression that caused how Maria is so passive in events that leading up to a marriage. Stilll, bored. Just let Khalil know you're not interested And it's 2017, you've got no reason to\ use the excuse "because he's a good man from a good family" isn't really . Caught up in indecision and lust for this guy, Maria moves thr her Brooklyn neighborhood in a mental fog.
Notably strange -- tone and why was I bored: So, Danzy Senna's debut novel Caucasia (1998) did exceedingly well. Published over a decade ago, her insights on how colorism and class inflect biracial identity were original, she offered up a language, a culture, a way to talk about mixed race identity and hostilities faced in an era when we still didn't when media was miles away from the Cheerios commercials of mixed race family. Years before , "Mixed Chicks" Shampoo was easily available at a CVS, Target, or your local drug store... and you had to send away for products tailored to multi-racial hair, skin, etc.
Now in 2017, Senna when addresses consequences of biracials marrying and embracing their "Check Other Box", what she says may be true, but feels dated. Senna's tone is lightly sarcastic -- the wit isn't biting enough, so her 'send ups' sound base and bored. Paul Beatty and her husband Percival Everett are known satirists who elevate race anxieties to absurd, in order to talk poignantly about rejection from both black and white communities.
(eta) . I'd call the final half a page-turner, because I longed to find out if she'd get caught in lies and immature risks. I read this book in 2 days, which means Danzy Senna grabbed my wavering attention - a feat.
More of review to be completed...
Incomplete review. Draft 2 as of August 24, 2017
New People is a short, magnetic, strange, book. Strange in how Danzy Senna combines a perceptive biracial heroine Maria with opaque motives. Strange in how Senna pairs a lifeless main plot -- Maria has trepidations over whether to marry Khalil, a biracial character -- with a far more compelling side story -- the way music worked as a form of rebellion in the last days of Jim Jones' Jonestown in Guyana. Questions is why pair these two themes? Observations inside biracial commnities with escape from tjhe Jonestown cult?
Maria's actions baffled me. You see, Maria has a crush on another African American man, a poet. She purses this crush while she's engaged to be married. Maria waffles in whether to choose "mixed race" company, the title's "new people", or this AfAm man whose tastes align with upbringing by single Black mother Ph.D. student.
So much of New People focses on Maria's capers to track down the mystery man crush, which bored me. Danzy Senna is empathetic to the depression that caused how Maria is so passive in events that leading up to a marriage. Stilll, bored. Just let Khalil know you're not interested And it's 2017, you've got no reason to\ use the excuse "because he's a good man from a good family" isn't really . Caught up in indecision and lust for this guy, Maria moves thr her Brooklyn neighborhood in a mental fog.
Notably strange -- tone and why was I bored: So, Danzy Senna's debut novel Caucasia (1998) did exceedingly well. Published over a decade ago, her insights on how colorism and class inflect biracial identity were original, she offered up a language, a culture, a way to talk about mixed race identity and hostilities faced in an era when we still didn't when media was miles away from the Cheerios commercials of mixed race family. Years before , "Mixed Chicks" Shampoo was easily available at a CVS, Target, or your local drug store... and you had to send away for products tailored to multi-racial hair, skin, etc.
Now in 2017, Senna when addresses consequences of biracials marrying and embracing their "Check Other Box", what she says may be true, but feels dated. Senna's tone is lightly sarcastic -- the wit isn't biting enough, so her 'send ups' sound base and bored. Paul Beatty and her husband Percival Everett are known satirists who elevate race anxieties to absurd, in order to talk poignantly about rejection from both black and white communities.
(eta) . I'd call the final half a page-turner, because I longed to find out if she'd get caught in lies and immature risks. I read this book in 2 days, which means Danzy Senna grabbed my wavering attention - a feat.
More of review to be completed...
August 28, 2017
"People say children are resilient, Nora says, but it's not true. If kids were so resilient, why would we have a world of broken people out there? Why would we have so many people paying to talk to strangers? Childhood is a series of traumas that build up and make you forget who you really are." 27
I did stay up late to finish this book, racing through it only to be met by a frustratingly ambiguous ending. New People reads as disjointed to me, there are many different storylines and characters at play but they never quite manage to come together. I didn't know much about the Jonestown massacre so I was captivated by Maria's research but at the same time I had hoped she would draw stronger conclusions to her own life via her dissertation process. I did find her specific focus, the music of Jonestown, amusingly specific/odd which seems to be a comment on the absurdity of academia at times. Or that some big secret would be revealed, I didn't particularly understand how her obsession with Jonestown came to exist in the first place. There's also a documentary being filmed that focuses on her and Khalil's relationship but little comes to fruition from it and Maria's relationship with her adoptive mother seems extremely interesting but is also left hanging. Likewise with one of her former boyfriends from college and her former friend Claudette, intriguing stories that we never revisit. I was also curious as to how Khalil and Maria knew how to enter the world of the Black elite, Maria makes it clear she grew up working class and while Khalil did not, it doesn't sound like he hung out with wealthy Black people growing up since Maria is the one who introduced him to 'markers' of Black identity/culture.
There is a gray presence constantly mentioned, I assumed it signified depression but I welcome additional thoughts, I read in LARB that it more signifies the constant surveillance faced by people of color/Maria herself. Ultimately this read to me as another novel about the tragic mulatta and it might have been more satisfying if Maria had truly been forced to come to terms with all the complexities in her life. Unfortunately the reader is denied that opportunity with the open (and somewhat terrifying) ending. There are hints at her being a sociopath but we aren't allowed to fully delve into those moments and wrestle with what that means which I think would have created a more complete novel.
Other favorite quote; "She [Maria] once overheard her mother saying to a friend, with a smirk of pride, that Maria had 'that particular rage of the light-skinned individual.'" (31)
I did stay up late to finish this book, racing through it only to be met by a frustratingly ambiguous ending. New People reads as disjointed to me, there are many different storylines and characters at play but they never quite manage to come together. I didn't know much about the Jonestown massacre so I was captivated by Maria's research but at the same time I had hoped she would draw stronger conclusions to her own life via her dissertation process. I did find her specific focus, the music of Jonestown, amusingly specific/odd which seems to be a comment on the absurdity of academia at times. Or that some big secret would be revealed, I didn't particularly understand how her obsession with Jonestown came to exist in the first place. There's also a documentary being filmed that focuses on her and Khalil's relationship but little comes to fruition from it and Maria's relationship with her adoptive mother seems extremely interesting but is also left hanging. Likewise with one of her former boyfriends from college and her former friend Claudette, intriguing stories that we never revisit. I was also curious as to how Khalil and Maria knew how to enter the world of the Black elite, Maria makes it clear she grew up working class and while Khalil did not, it doesn't sound like he hung out with wealthy Black people growing up since Maria is the one who introduced him to 'markers' of Black identity/culture.
There is a gray presence constantly mentioned, I assumed it signified depression but I welcome additional thoughts, I read in LARB that it more signifies the constant surveillance faced by people of color/Maria herself. Ultimately this read to me as another novel about the tragic mulatta and it might have been more satisfying if Maria had truly been forced to come to terms with all the complexities in her life. Unfortunately the reader is denied that opportunity with the open (and somewhat terrifying) ending. There are hints at her being a sociopath but we aren't allowed to fully delve into those moments and wrestle with what that means which I think would have created a more complete novel.
Other favorite quote; "She [Maria] once overheard her mother saying to a friend, with a smirk of pride, that Maria had 'that particular rage of the light-skinned individual.'" (31)
March 8, 2019
Wow. What a whirlwind. It read almost like a literary thriller, a page turning story of deception, mixed with compelling questions of identity, race, and life choices. The story is told in third person, but from the perspective of a young woman who is like the antagonist of her own story. I felt like I was watching a train wreck but couldn’t look away, my heart literally pounding at points. It was a quick, rich, thoughtful page-turner that left me wanting to read more from Senza.
December 13, 2019
This book is ok. The main character is seriously flawed, but who isn't. One of the things that are standing out to me is her dissertation on Another America, "Jonestown". The book is making me really want to read more about it. I am in the last few pages and this is pretty much all I have to say about this one.
August 19, 2017
A short, offbeat story of multiracial identity and coming of age in 1990's Brooklyn--goofy in parts, but also thought-provoking and touching. Think of it as a descendant of Fran Ross's satirical classic, Oreo, which Senna wrote about in the New Yorker in 2015.
November 21, 2020
I've been meaning to reread Caucasia for years, so when I heard about this recent Danzy Senna book that has vibes similar to
Luster
/
Such a Fun Age
(two books I found moving and powerful), I put it on hold immediately.
And when I started listening, I couldn't put it down
...even though I cringed the whole way through.
So I've been writing a literary analysis essay (to model the process for my honors sophomores) about Moushumi in The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, and I thought about her a lot while watching Maria self-destruct. In The Namesake, Moushumi, a second generation Bengali American, clings to relationships in an attempt to figure out her own identity. She rebels against her parents and moves to Paris where she becomes engaged to a white American who turns out to be abusive. Soon after the engagement ends, she reunites with and marries a childhood friend who is also Bengali (and the novel's protagonist) and keeps her firmly attached to her parents and her Bengali background. Spoiler alert, but that marriage ends swiftly when she seeks out an affair with an unattractive and unimpressive white man. It surprises her that she "allows" this man to ruin her marriage, and yet she does -- almost passively. Because she hasn't figured out her own identity, she cannot maintain healthy relationships. Moushumi really only gets one chapter in The Namesake, but she stole the show for me. I wanted a whole novel with her at the center.
In a way New People is that kind of novel. Maria faces a similar struggle. She can't figure out how to identity as black and white and mixed race, and her feelings about her race and race in general changes depending on whom she's dating. In the months leading up to her wedding to Khalil, who is also mixed race and whom everyone tells her is perfect, the ideal man, she realizes she isn't all in. But she can barely admit that to herself. So rather than have a conversation with Khalil or her friends or ANYONE, she becomes obsessed with another man, a black poet she doesn't know but who looks like someone her white neighbors would call the cops on. And things spiral from there.
There are moments of absurdity that almost remind me of Parakeet by Marie-Helene Bertino, another recent read that slayed me. In one scene, Maria -- who is writing a dissertation on Jonestown -- suddenly finds herself being recruited into the search of Scientology. In another, a stranger mistakes her for her nanny ("Consuela") and before she correct the woman, she suddenly finds herself babysitting this stranger's baby. In another scene, she finds herself under a bed while another couple has sex.
And maybe that's what makes it hard to feel connected to this book despite its similarities to other books I've loved. Maria seems to have very little agency. So much of the novel is a series of whoops!-es that don't seem to align with what we know of her character.
And when I started listening, I couldn't put it down
...even though I cringed the whole way through.
So I've been writing a literary analysis essay (to model the process for my honors sophomores) about Moushumi in The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, and I thought about her a lot while watching Maria self-destruct. In The Namesake, Moushumi, a second generation Bengali American, clings to relationships in an attempt to figure out her own identity. She rebels against her parents and moves to Paris where she becomes engaged to a white American who turns out to be abusive. Soon after the engagement ends, she reunites with and marries a childhood friend who is also Bengali (and the novel's protagonist) and keeps her firmly attached to her parents and her Bengali background. Spoiler alert, but that marriage ends swiftly when she seeks out an affair with an unattractive and unimpressive white man. It surprises her that she "allows" this man to ruin her marriage, and yet she does -- almost passively. Because she hasn't figured out her own identity, she cannot maintain healthy relationships. Moushumi really only gets one chapter in The Namesake, but she stole the show for me. I wanted a whole novel with her at the center.
In a way New People is that kind of novel. Maria faces a similar struggle. She can't figure out how to identity as black and white and mixed race, and her feelings about her race and race in general changes depending on whom she's dating. In the months leading up to her wedding to Khalil, who is also mixed race and whom everyone tells her is perfect, the ideal man, she realizes she isn't all in. But she can barely admit that to herself. So rather than have a conversation with Khalil or her friends or ANYONE, she becomes obsessed with another man, a black poet she doesn't know but who looks like someone her white neighbors would call the cops on. And things spiral from there.
There are moments of absurdity that almost remind me of Parakeet by Marie-Helene Bertino, another recent read that slayed me. In one scene, Maria -- who is writing a dissertation on Jonestown -- suddenly finds herself being recruited into the search of Scientology. In another, a stranger mistakes her for her nanny ("Consuela") and before she correct the woman, she suddenly finds herself babysitting this stranger's baby. In another scene, she finds herself under a bed while another couple has sex.
And maybe that's what makes it hard to feel connected to this book despite its similarities to other books I've loved. Maria seems to have very little agency. So much of the novel is a series of whoops!-es that don't seem to align with what we know of her character.
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