Black Girl/White Girl: A Searing Literary Novel of Identity and Morally Gray Choices in Post-Vietnam America

by Joyce Carol Oates

Fifteen years ago, in 1975, Genna Hewett-Meade's college roommate died a mysterious, violent, terrible death. Minette Swift had been a fiercely individualistic scholarship student, an assertive—even prickly—personality, and one of the few black girls at an exclusive women's liberal arts college near Philadelphia. By contrast, Genna was a quiet, self-effacing teenager from a privileged upper-class home, self-consciously struggling to make amends for her own elite upbringing. When, partway through their freshman year, Minette suddenly fell victim to an increasing torrent of racist harassment and vicious slurs—from within the apparent safety of their tolerant, "enlightened" campus—Genna felt it her duty to protect her roommate at all costs.

Now, as Genna reconstructs the months, weeks, and hours leading up to Minette's tragic death, she is also forced to confront her own identity within the social framework of that time. Her father was a prominent civil defense lawyer whose radical politics—including defending anti-war terrorists wanted by the FBI—would deeply affect his daughter's outlook on life, and later challenge her deepest beliefs about social obligation in a morally gray world.

Black Girl / White Girl is a searing double portrait of "black" and "white," of race and civil rights in post-Vietnam America, captured by one of the most important literary voices of our time.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, The United States Of America, Race, Contemporary, Literature, Book Club

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel Them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).
Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters. She now teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Oates was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016.
Pseudonyms: Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.

Reviews

[Mark Porton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Black Girl/White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates is described as an intimate depiction of ‘black’ and ‘white’ America in the post-Vietnam War era. I’m not so sure it’s really about this at all, well not entirely. This book is really about the relationship and interactions between two freshman nineteen-year-old students, Minette (black girl) and Genna (white girl).

Sure, there are constant references to race issues and the troubles of the times throughout this work. Indeed, these were troubling times. But the fractious relationship between the two girls who attend a progressive arts college predominates. Genna is the product of an uber-liberal, dysfunctional family, the father is an activist lawyer – a hero of the left - who spends his time defending draft dodgers, anti-war protestors and the like. This very liberal mindset has been imbued into young Genna, she is big-hearted, kind but also a little naïve into the ways of the world. She is keen to reach out and be friends with Minette, in fact she’s obsessed with it.

What is it like to be a descendent of heroic individuals? Do you share in their stature, or are you diminished by it? Do you share in their idealism? Their courage? Their faith?

Minette on the other hand is a taciturn, misanthropist (putting it bluntly). She is the daughter of a minister of the church, and her faith is very, very strong. This coloured young woman, overtly repels Genna’s advances for friendship and often doesn’t even acknowledge her very existence. This seems to make Genna more consumed with trying to make friends. To be sure, Minette is unlikable. To be sure, Genna becomes increasingly determined.

But the question I have in my mind, and the message Oates may be trying to convey here is – should Minette give Genna more slack? Should she be friendlier towards Genna because she is a supporter of black rights, sympathetic to the blight of people of colour? Should black people in general automatically like, and even strike friendships with accepting, progressive, left-wing types?

Well, to me, the answer to these questions is obvious – NO, but I’m happy to be challenged.

Genna reflecting on what her father would think:

I wondered what my father would think of my roommate: a black girl who doesn’t much care that she’s black, and doesn’t care at all for your caring

This story doesn’t follow any real standard formula, it certainly isn’t plot driven, and for that reason I found this story intriguing. As well as the fascinating interplay between our main characters, the author weaves in racial tensions, a lynching, war protesters, Nixon and Watergate, arson, conspiracy to murder, prison-life, dysfunctional relationships, religion and we even get a whiff of a whodunnit.

I really enjoyed this.

4 stars
This story referenced Billie Holiday’s song ‘Strange Fruit’. This disturbing, sadly moving song can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DGY9...

[d4 · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title and book description are misleading. The book has very little to do with race relations, and more to do with the white girl's dysfunctional relationship with her politically controversial father and her own feelings of guilt. The characters are not at all likable, or even ones I could relate to or understand. The white girl tries obnoxiously hard to befriend her black roommate, who everyone else--including the other black students--finds intolerable. The white girl's fixation is rather obsessive, repulsive, and beyond comprehension. It continues despite obvious resentment from her roommate, who eventually becomes the target of anonymous racist acts. Since the novel is narrated by the white girl, who comes off as mentally unbalanced, I kept expecting at any moment it would reveal that she was actually stalking her roommate and committing the racist harassments herself. At what seems like an obvious stopping point, the narration continues and the black girl becomes more of a footnote than anything else; her death serves only as a catalyst, propelling the white girl towards an emotional breakdown in which she must finally face the truth about her father. The story isn't that compelling--it's just odd. The last part of the book doesn't even seem like it is written by the same character.

[Dagio_maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Forse alcune verità sono bugie.
Ma nessuna bugia è una verità"


Passando del tempo tra un libro e l'altro, mi capita, a volte, leggendo la Oates, di dimenticare che l'inizio di ogni sua storia non è un cammino comodo ed illuminato.
Il problema del "non capire", perchè non si riesce a contestualizzare o riannodare i fili, rischia, allora, di annoiarmi.
Poi, però mi ricordo che devo aver pazienza e...all'improvviso tutto torna.

E' come un ordito di cui all'inizio non vedi che piccoli intrecci di fili che sembrano casualmente appaiati.
Ma, poi, inizia ad apparire il tessuto e prorompe una potenza di significato che, personalmente, mi lascia senza fiato (rima non voluta..).

Così è stato per questo romanzo che raccoglie la confessione della bianca Genna e di quello che successe nel 1975 alla sua compagna di stanza (nera)al college.
Ragazza nera, ragazza bianca...

Questa storia oltre allo sfondo storico dei movimenti radicali americani, racconta di un rapporto tormentato tra una figlia ed un padre.
Una storia di parole ed abbracci mancati dove ancora una volta ci si serve della scrittura come strumento per liberare la sofferenza.

[Maggio 2014]

[Rachel Louise Atkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for my American Postmodernism class. This is a novel that attempts to demonstrate and examine the American college experience for a person of colour, yet as a white author Oates is careful not to adopt a false voice on behalf of black college students, but instead writes from the perspective of a white girl sharing a dorm with a black girl. What follows is a juxtaposition of the two, working as both a contrast and bonding for the two characters who are aware of their societal differences, and let this become the basis for their encounters.

I enjoyed this so much because I absolutely love campus novels, and only two chapters into the book I had already warmed to the voice and the setting. Yet studying this novel in light of my wider reading, which happened to be on structural and embedded racism in higher education, there was also a lesson to be taken from this which I value strongly in my continued interests in Black and African American literature. Whilst this is obviously not African American literature, it still adds something to the discourse of racism in American college education which is going continuously unnoticed as a result of the people who enforce it.

After this I'd love to read more of Oates' work because I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I would recommend for anybody interested in campus literature, and although it does attempt to be a part of the black experience narrative, I would recommend going straight to novels written by Black writers for a more stimulating look into that. Nevertheless, I wouldn't pass this book up because I'm really glad we were given this to read.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the title of this book and the soundbites on the back cover you would assume this is a book about race in 1960s America. And it is, but it is also a book about a lot more. Mostly, to me, it seemed to be a book about white middle class guilt and political correctness.

The story is written as the 'confession' of Genna Meade, a white 18 year old girl from a rich yet extremely dysfunctional family. Genna's parents are aging radical hippies who have rejected their elitist upbringing and inheritance to fight against the inequalities in society. They are particularly incensed by racial inequality and so at the age of 18 Genna finds herself willingly sent to Schuyler College (established and endowed by her own family), living in a mixed race dormitory of students who have mostly been selected through 'merit programmes', i.e. positive discrimination.

Genna's room-mate is Minette Swift, daughter of a preacher from Washington. Minette is aloof, rude, unfriendly and altogether unlikeable, but because she is black Genna excuses all these flaws and bends over backwards to accommodate her. As the story progresses we also come to learn that Minette is struggling academically at Schuyler College and she becomes more defensive and unpleasant as her inadequacies become apparent. Ugly, racist attacks start happening to Minette and the all the students in the dorm come under suspicion. As Genna comes to realise the truth behind these incidents she lies to protect Minette.

Underlying this story is the story of Genna's father Max. He has been an absent figure for much of Genna's life. A father of bipolar proportions who shifts between 'kind Max' and 'mad Max', Genna has always been desperate for him to spend time with her and notice her. Her mother, Veronica, is an embarrassing follower of Max. Genna and her brother have had a very neglected childhood as their parents pursued their causes and the hippie lifestyle. Her brother left home at 16 to embrace conservatism, Genna is left with the legacy of a lifetime of politically correct indoctrination and a desperate need for her father to care for her.

As the story unfolds and Minette spirals into depression, Max's life also spirals downwards. His activism in the past assisting draft dodgers is revealed as being more serious than he has ever admitted. As Genna learns the truth of what Max is, Minette dies in a fire that Genna feels she could have prevented by telling the truth. The truth finally spills out of Genna, but it is the truth about Max, not Minette, and it destroys Max. The story ends with Genna handing this manuscript to her father where he will learn of her betrayal.

This is a good book. It makes you think, makes you question, makes you uncomfortable, but never fails to entertain and engage. I have never read any books by Joyce Carol Oates before but I will definitely be reading more.

[Sherese · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was completely misled by the summary of this book in the inside jacket. I really thought " Black Girl/White Girl" was about the mysterious circumstances surrounding the murder of black liberal arts student at predominately white private school and her roommates finally admiting 15 years later that show was involved and/or know who killed her. Boy, was I mistaken. This is probably the lamest book I've read in years. Minnette Swift "The black girl" is one of the most unlikeable characters in literature. Seriously, who can anyone ever care about her after reading her characterization by Ms. Oates. In fact, I could not wait for someone to kill this character and could not for the life of me understand why the hell it took so long... umm "'ScuseMe, die already" ( if you read the book you know exactly what I'm talking about). Perhaps less annoying but still unlikeable is " The White Girl" Genna Meade, Minnette's roommate and gulit-ridden daughter of rich, liberal white attorney and his medicate wife. Genna is incredibly weak and socially challenged. This book is a complete waste of time and the paper it was printed on. Given my experience of reading this novel, I may have to remove "We Were The Mulvaneys" from my reading list as I don't think I can bare to read more from this author if this book is any indication of her skill.

[Jae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Truth in advertising would require this book to be called White Girl. Ostensibly about two college roommates, one the scion of a white liberal family with a long history of progressive politics and the other the daughter of an African-American minister, it's really about Genna, the white girl of the title, and her relationship w/her radical chic parents and her longing to befriend and be trusted by Minette, the black girl of the title. We see Minette through Genna's eyes, and as even fifteen years later when the adult Genna looks back she doesn't have much understanding of who Minette was and what happened to her. While the book is about the reasons why Genna and Minette couldn't truly see or know each other, for reasons both personal and racial, I wish that the book had had some of the even-handedness of the title. I enjoyed Genna's story but wanted more of Minette's.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I was expecting superior writing from a novelist as celebrated as Oates (this was my first one) and didn't consistently find it, I have to give her credit for tackling an unusual and difficult subject. White Girl's unrequited yearning for friendship with her (Black Girl) roommate rings true for the time and place depicted. It's a little mysterious as to why Oates chose to make Black Girl so strange and troubled. But then White Girl was pretty troubled too, probably par for the course for this author. I also was confounded by the narrator's repeated references to nappy hair and oily dark skin - what was that about?

This is a spare book. I would have preferred more focus on the girls' relationship without the major plot intrusion of the radical left father.

[Larry Bassett · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was a 10 years old Cub Scout having a regular meeting at TW’s house, his mother found a piece of cake behind the couch; it seemed important to her to determine who had dropped it there. When no one accepted responsibility she took us aside one by one to be questioned about our possible guilt or our possible knowledge of who was guilty. Later I heard that the criminal was found out, but not how or who. That same year I dropped a quarter behind a couch in my house and couldn’t find it no matter how hard I looked. I wondered why I couldn’t find my quarter while TW’s mother easily found the cake. Fifty-four years later I still wonder. Some things stick with you. The quarter never did turn up.

What does this have to do with Black Girl White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates? Imagine how you would feel if the RA at your college residence took all eighteen girls aside for a “conversation, that was not an interrogation” to try to determine fault in damaging a text book of a ‘prickly’ black student. And that was just the beginning. In JCO it is rarely easy to determine the truth at first or even second glance.

I had to leave. I was becoming upset. Childish tears sprang into my eyes. There was such a powerful yearning in me, to side with them, against Minette! You are made to understand the terrible yearning of the lynch mob at such a moment. You are made to understand your terrible weakness. How in the smallest matters, you can betray another’s trust.

The two college roommates in 1990 are well developed, complex characters. I have not read a lot of JCO but gather that many of her characters have an edge that is tense and quirky. I have enjoyed her characterizations. Not exactly a surprise ending but definitely not obvious. The theme of unspoken thoughts and feelings appears over and over. “Of course, Minette had told me nothing. Nor had I asked. I would not have dreamt of asking!”

Is Genna’s radical lawyer father central to the story or a distraction? There is not agreement among reviewers here so each reader will have to determine for him/herself. But the author seems to give a pretty strong clue.

As the months passed and the text became longer and more complicated, I came to doubt the wisdom of giving it to Max. For, unwittingly, as I composed my text about Minette Swift, I was composing a shadow-text that had little to do with her. I’d intended to compose an inquiry into Minette Swift’s life/death exclusively, but like an eclipse of the sun the shadow-text began to intrude. I could not seem to prevent it! The shadow-text is an inquiry into Max Meade and a portrait of the daughter who betrayed him.

My other JCO books have been We Were the Mulvaneys and Will You Always Love Me. I expect to add a few more to the list in the coming months. I find that I can read Oates at a couple of different levels depending on how much effort I want to put in. I like a story where I can enjoy reading it but still know that there is more there if I want to take it to a deeper level. I might not pursue it but I like the lurking complexity that I choose to ignore.

[Sara (Sbarbine_che_leggono) · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Ragazza nera, ragazza bianca” di Joyce Carol Oates ha due nuclei tematici: da un lato abbiamo il rapporto della protagonista (ragazza bianca) con la sua famiglia, una famiglia che le ha sempre fatto percepire come una colpa “il privilegio bianco”(il romanzo comincia nel 1974, quando Nixon sta per dimettersi) e una famiglia disfunzionale che questa figlia sente il bisogno disperato di compiacere; dall’altro abbiamo il racconto della fissazione di ragazza bianca per ragazza nera, la sua compagna di appartamento al college. La protagonista vuole a tutti i costi esserle amica, conquistarla, aiutarla...ragazza nera è un personaggio enigmatico, che vediamo praticamente solo attraverso gli occhi di ragazza bianca e che, nonostante il ruolo che gioca nella storia, rimane ai margini del racconto, sembra svicolare via.
⠀
“Ragazza nera, ragazza bianca” ci regala uno spaccato di un’America spietatamente mediocre, descritta senza finzioni e senza idealismi. Dentro c’è tantissimo altro, oltre ai semplici fatti raccontati: il sentimento di essere figlia, la rabbia martellante di un’adolescente antipatica (ragazza nera), la società americana vista attraverso gli occhi di chi non riesce a comprenderla del tutto (ragazza bianca), la solitudine soffocante della giovinezza, l’impotenza di una vittima di fronte a istituzioni che sembrano esistere da sempre solo per schiacciarla...
⠀
Ero restia nel tornare a leggere la Oates, che a un primo approccio non mi aveva convinto, e invece dopo aver letto questo romanzo mi sono totalmente ricreduta: la sua scrittura densissima mi ha intrappolato e tenuto avvinta fino all’ultima pagina. Sono annegata nella sua prosa e leggerla mi ha dato il piacere di una nuotata in acque profonde ma cristalline.

// Parlo di libri anche su Instagram — @sbarbine_che_leggono

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shy Genna Meade is descended from hippie activists and abolitionist quakers. Self assured Minette Swift is the daughter of a preacher and one of the few Black students at Schuyler College. Can Genna overcome Minette's tough exterior to reach the person underneath she desperately wants to connect to?

I actually put this down when I first bought it, after a few chapters I couldn't seem to get into it. I picked it up 2 years later and sped right through. Joyce Carol Oates prose is absolutely beautiful, Genna's 'voice' comes right out of the page to the reader. While the author paints a painful picture of the main character I did find myself wishing at the end that some of the other 'mysteries' were a little more clear. Still, I found this book haunting.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't get it, and like the another reviewer, I found the author's infatuation with oily black skin, and greasy nappy hair annoying. Or maybe that's how it's supposed to be. Genna had liberal parents and a father who seemed to protest for civil rights and stressed "White Guilt". And maybe the author wrote the way she did in order to stress Genna's white guilt. Something that comes from an utter lack of knowing, of never having been around any Black people to know who they are. Of having certain expectations on what encompasses Blackness and the confusion when none of those expectations are displayed.

Genna seemed to want something from Minette. Wanted Minette to play the tragic minority, to bemoan her Blackness and her American experience. To say 'all is forgiven between my people and yours, let us embrace, my Sister!" I'm not sure what she expected of Minette, but the entire time they spent as room mates, Genna was constantly studying Minette, dissecting the way she spoke, her 'helmet hair', the smell of her hair grease, the foods her mother baked, the pictures, and posters, and Bible on Minette's desk, the muscles of Minette's legs, as if her room mate were some rare archeological find instead of another human being. Perhaps if Genna has behaved normally instead of bending over backwards and trying to find someway to relate to Minette, they may have been friends. Minette knew. We know. I know when someone is trying to befriend me because they've never had a Black friend- they try too hard and it's obnoxious and an insult frankly.

Anyways, I take it that the entire time Minette was doing those things to herself, the nasty messages and the like. And that she killed herself, whether purposely or accidentally, with the candles she lit too near the curtains.

[Xenja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Due ragazze dividono la camera di un college prestigioso dell’Est, nel 1975. Una è ricca e wasp, viene da una famiglia di intellettuali progressisti e un po’ hippie, molto impegnati a lottare per i diritti civili e contro la guerra in Vietnam, e non hanno tempo per occuparsi di lei. L’altra è povera e nera, ha vinto una borsa di studio, viene da una famiglia di devotissimi cristiani, bigotti e ignoranti, originari del Sud. Niente di stereotipato però: personaggi e situazioni, nei romanzi della Oates, sono sempre realistici, autentici. Le due ragazze non potrebbero essere più diverse, eppure qualcosa in comune ce l’hanno: diciotto anni. Entrambe sono bruttine, una troppo magra e l’altra troppo grassa, entrambe sono sole, e studiose, e si divertono ben poco, entrambe sono goffe e insicure e suscettibili e non riescono a fare amicizia, anche se di questa amicizia avrebbero estremo bisogno. Mi è piaciuto moltissimo questo soggetto, così originale (quanto più banale sarebbe stata la storia di un’amicizia!) e così vero. Magistrale la Oates nel descrivere un’epoca –gli anni Settanta negli USA, con le questioni razziali ormai risolte eppure ancora rilevanti, la droga, la guerra, lo scandalo Nixon, il terrorismo – e al tempo stesso raccontare le insicurezze, le fragilità, le angosce dell’adolescenza. E, di quell’età, i rischi: a volte basta così poco, nella vita di un adolescente, basta un piccolo errore, una distrazione, un caso, una stupidaggine, un incontro sfortunato, un equivoco, un momento di sconforto, per mandare in malora, irrimediabilmente, la vita intera. È proprio così.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw some other reviews about how the title and inside jacket were misleading, and I too thought it was about one thing, when it really was about another, but I do not think that should dissuade anyone from reading this strangely suspenseful and mildly uncomfortable book.

I say suspenseful because there is a build up to this tragic death that we have all been waiting for since page 1, as Gemma Meade recalls 15 years later the months leading up to the day that her college roommate Minette Swift dies. And while disturbing events do occur that seemingly have to do with race relations at a private northeastern all girls college in the 1970's, this book is really about the dismantling of two very different young women, one black and one white. While Gemma, raised by a radical civil rights attorney tries to insinuate herself into her black roommate's life in a quietly obsessive way, and Minette, raised by a preacher, who wants nothing to do with Gemma, civil rights, or anyone at all for that matter because her fervent religious beliefs make her so painfully unapproachable it gives a new meaning to the term socially awkward. It's difficult to observe the slow mental breakdown of both girls, who like many children either want to emulate their parents because they believe them to be right or their parents force beliefs on them without allowing the child to ever question those beliefs. In this case it's both, and neither girl has the mental maturity to find their own path, while simultaneously trying to squeeze themselves into a preordained life.

I found this whole book a little unsettling and a little sad, but Oates being my favorite writer I think everything she has written should be read, at least so far. Nobody does angst and family drama quite like her.

[Snotchocheez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I guess it's inevitable that a prolific writer of 50+ novels would write a clunker or two. I've been a big fan of her dour prose for decades now, and not once have I disliked anything she's bestowed upon us.

And then there's the poorly-titled (if not -conceived) "Black Girl White Girl"...it starts promisingly enough, with our "white girl", a daughter of a wealthy liberal Quaker family (a family with ties to Black rights movements and the Underground Railroad) who goes off to college in the mid 70's and becomes roommate to our "Black Girl", a sullen daughter of a prominent DC preacher who disdains her blackness, yet perceives the world is out to get her because of her being black. We know from the get-go that the black girl dies; we presume the book will be an insightful look as to why this happens. When Ms. Oates sticks to this (somewhat contrived) storyline, the novel flows along in typical Oates-ian style: a taut, occasionally thrilling character study. Then something goes horribly awry about a third of the way into it that just about undermines the whole effort...when JCO explores the relationship between the "white girl" and her liberal parents: her Abbie Hoffman-ish lawyer father and her drug addled mother. It's almost as if Ms. Oates realized midway through that she hadn't enough material for a complete novel and started padding the initial story with superfluous crap.

Here's hoping that JCO was just going through a slump; I still think she's got the chops (as a septuagenarian!) to wow us with her somber tales, but this one was just didn't quite cut it for me.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Black Girl/White Girl is the first Joyce Carol Oates book I've read. I am not sure why I've steered away from her books but I am glad I picked this one up to read. I was able to relate to the racial tensions on the university campus in this book because the same tensions and protests were part of my university career. Many parts of the book drew me back into my 60s experiences. All in all this was a very good read for me.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Black Girl / White Girl tells the story of Genna Hewett-Mead who is reflecting on a traumatic event in her past. Fifteen years ago, in 1975 while attending an exclusive women’s liberal arts college near Philadelphia, her roommate Minette Swift died a mysterious and violent death. Minette was a scholarship student and one of the few African American women to be let into the college. Genna, a quiet woman of privilege got to witness the effects of racism first hand as the racist harassment escalated from vicious slurs to something far worse. However whoever was responsible for this murder still remains a mystery to this day. I had never read Joyce Carol Oates before and I thought this may be my chance to experience her writing. The premise of this novel intrigued me and I was looking forward to uncovering the mystery at play. However, this turned out to be a novel about reflecting on the changing times; I was interested in learning about racism within America during the time of civil rights movements but this focused too much on Genna.

I understand that Joyce Carol Oates may not want to write a novel from the perspective of a person of colour, since she is Caucasian and probably could not do the situation any justice. Rather she took on the perspective of a woman of privilege experiencing the issue first hand. This may have made the book a little more autobiographical and allowed Oates to still explore the issue of racism. While I enjoyed this book, I did not find anything special about it. Maybe this was not the best example of Joyce Carol Oates’ writing but I will try more of her novels in the future.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://www.knowledgelost.org/literatu...

[Jess Wisloski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good, but apparently not good enough for me to remember too well. I know it was compelling, and had something to do with a self-concious, but proud, young Southern black girl who wound up roommates with a self-hating liberal whitey from Pennsylvania. The black girl's own deliberate extracation of herself from the uppity school's largely white, but even black, female community baffles and intrigues her friend, who guiltily takes pride in having a black friend, and uses it as a token to converse with her ACLU-lawyer pops, who never has enough attention for her, what with all the defending of radical protestors and AWOL soliders he's got going on.

Tragedy strikes when the black girl dies - well, no spoiler there, it's in the first sentence - and our narrator, the scrawny white girl, realizes when her own family divides up, that she really has no home.

The book takes a strange twist though - possibly a metaphorical one that was just beyond me - but it was enough to shake free the tender insights and leave me scratching my head.

But despite feeling eft in the dark about this book's greater meaning, some of the repeated themes in the girls' lives rung true enough to give me a lot to digest, in my own somewhat ongoing battle to better understand at the core my own, and the country's historic racism.

[chucklesthescot · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a dreadful book with appalling characters. Minette is the 'Black Girl' from the title, a preacher's daughter. She is the rudest, most obnoxious, spiteful bitch that you can imagine and goes out of her way to make everyone despise her. 'White Girl' is her room mate Genna, who tries to be her friend but is constantly rebuffed. Genna is a complete wimp of a doormat who lets Minette walk all over her and you get the impression that she is too scared to admit she hates her in case people think she is racist. I wanted to slap Genna for continuing to excuse her room mate to everyone else and covering up for her behaviour.

What was the point to this book? Minette obviously had a chip on her shoulder about life in general and faked racial attacks to paint herself as a victim. The real victims in this story were the other girls who fell under suspicion for the so-called racist attacks. And Genna's decision to lie to cover up for a girl who sneers at her friendship and looks down on her is just incomprehensible. Snitch on the bitch! I hated the two girls so much and the plot really infuriated me to a point where I celebrated her suicide.

One of the worst books I've read and I won't be going near this author again.

[Abigail Hillinger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although this book took quite awhile to get into (169 pages, to be precise), I'm glad I read it. Joyce Carol Oates has written a ridiculous number of books, and I was worried her style would be like the female version of Nicholas Sparks--not quite chick-litty or romance, but just...I don't know, 'cheap'. She's definitely not.

There are several techniques she uses that other writers might want to try--her different formations for flashbacks, her repetition of certain phrases/thoughts, the clues of ambiguity about Genna's involvement with Minette's ultimate 'breakdown'. (I consider her death more of a breakdown.) However, I felt disconnected a lot, and confused at other parts; I'm not sure if the conclusion I reached at the end of the book is the correct one; and I didn't really believe in Jenna's character a lot. It wasn't that I didn't like her...I just didn't believe her.

I might pick up another book by her, since there are so many others to choose from...but I hope it will be easier to get into than this one.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

"'Scuseme."
"'Scuseme?"
"'Scuseme!"
"'Scuseme."

This was horrible. I can't believe a writer as talented and respected as Joyce Carol Oates would write such pointless drivel. Every single character is unlikable to the point that I hoped they all died, the plot is all over the place and the narrator is a dumbass. The title and jacket summary are misleading, too: The book isn't about race relations, a mysterious death or even the two girls. Hell, I flipped through the final pages so quickly just be done with the damn thing I barely remember how it all ended - And honestly, I don't care.

AND WTF IS WITH THE "'Scusemes"?!!?!?!

[Ana Castro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mais um autor que me foi apresentado pelo clube de leitura - Joyce Carol Oates
No seguimento de leitura das várias épocas da história dos Estados Unidos da América este romance passa-se nos anos 70 .
É um bom livro com uma história envolvente que nos perturba e nos faz pensar .
Li em inglês com relativa facilidade.
Gostei bastante.
Encontrei no kobo a tradução em português do Brasil dum outro livro dela - As cataratas - The falls que ganhou o prémio Femina em 2005.
Umas leituras levam a outras.

[Korey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oates does such a good job at exploring anxiety and neurosis . I could feel every ounce of the tension and social awkwardness between Genna and Minette, and I really got inside their crazy heads. This was a great snapshot of a particular moment in time as well as a fascinating character study.

I wasn't crazy about the subplot with Genna's father (it was one of those things that either needed more development or to just be dropped completely) but that's a minor nitpick.

[Leah Rachel von Essen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Joyce Carol Oates’s Black Girl / White Girl was immensely disappointing. Oates’s prose wasn’t as effortless as in her other works, but even if it was, it wouldn’t have been enough to save this novel, which fails to deliver what it promises. To be honest, I feel cheated: this novel made me angry, and not in the way that I think Oates meant it to.

The blurb on the back of this book cites the focus as “black girl” Minette Swift’s tragic death, although the main character and narrator is Genna Hewett-Meade, her “white girl” college roommate who is “painfully confronting her own past life and identity…and her deepest beliefs about social obligation in a morally gray world” 15 years after Minette’s death. The novel, it says, is “a searing double portrait of race and civil rights in post-Vietnam America.” All of this would be fine if any of it was what the novel was truly about. The reader instead suspects at the beginning and is told by the end that the novel is actually about Genna’s relationship to her white liberal, free-expressive, wire-tapped-by-the-FBI parents, in particular her father Max Meade who may or may not have at one point committed a crime in the name of his beliefs.

Minette Swift is a complex and well-rounded character. She doesn’t like to make friends, trying to keep Genna at an arms length so that she can focus on her grades, in which she struggles. She is a scholarship student who goes to church in town every Sunday, struggles to fit in on the college choir, and is gaining a steady freshman 15. In other words, she is a normal college student. Genna, a legacy student for whose relatives this college is named, gets high grades easily, and lives in the scholarship house because her parents would prefer she learn what the non-luxury college housing is like. Genna is fascinated with Minette, which includes stalking her, looking through her things, and attempting to shove her friendship onto her at every opportunity. Minette begins to be bullied - at first, with a stolen textbook thrown in the mud, later, with letters that tell her to go home using derogatory racist language. Minette is a fascinating, religious, believable character.

Until Oates ruins her. Because [spoilers] it turns out that Minette is the one who sent herself the letter with the n-word on it then reported it, and that she wrote the n-word also on her own door, possibly in order to escape the dorm in which she really was being bullied, possibly for racial reasons, but certainly because she is an introvert with a temper. Genna discovers this as her roommate. Genna lies for her. Later, Genna will visit her in her new dorm, on the night before Minette’s dorm burns down due to her own candles (which she is lighting for prayer) the night before Minette was to finally leave the college for health reasons. In the epilogue, Genna will say that while Minette was always praying for salvation, it is a shame that her “only salvation” was Genna. A white girl.

Minette Swift, along with the only interesting parts of the novel in which either Minette herself is described or in which Minette and Genna are compared in a outside, 3rd-pov omniscient sort of way, are all swallowed up by the storyline in which Genna “painfully confronts her own past life and identity and her deepest beliefs about social obligation.” It turns out none of these are about race. This confrontation is about [more spoilers] the fact that in the fever she contracted after Minette’s death - but more immediately after her father’s first visit to the university - she submits the - useless, as in her fever it would have went unrecorded as well as anonymous, making it make less and less narrative sense - testimony that allows the FBI to arrest her father and put him in prison for the murder of a black security guard many years ago. While in prison, her father is beaten up for being a white man.

I can’t describe how disappointed I was by this novel. Oates creates Minette Swift and then utterly abandons her for the bland character of Genna Hewett-Meade. If the point was to misdirect us so that we, like Genna, believe that we are hearing Minette rather than Genna’s story, then it worked. I feel cheated at the end of this novel, a feeling that began in the fourth chapter and steadily increased until my scrunched-up-nose faces at Genna’s “reflections” 15 years later and descriptions of her so proudly taking a job in Newark rather than at ivy leagues in the Epilogue. Is Oates aware how utterly well-meaning and condescending her main character is, and how little she grows? I hope so, because I have read and loved Oates’s novels before, and would like to believe that she is self-aware as well, even if it doesn’t show. (Update, as of 2019: I've followed her on Twitter now for a few years, and I'm fairly certain she is not self-aware of these aspects of her novel.)

[Jim Leckband · Rating 4 out of 5]

The problem when reading the works of a writer that is as accomplished as Oates is that it is hard to simply take what is on the surface as all there is. Ostensibly this is a book about two girl college roommates from very different backgrounds, one black and one white of course, who misunderstand each other from faulty assumptions. But I found myself trying to read into the first person narrative that the white girl is a very unreliable narrator.

The book is a narrative about how the white girl tries to befriend her roommate who does not want any friends. The white girl's motivations come from her father's civil and peace activist history, and it seems that the white girl does not approach her roommate as a person first, but as a black girl first, which can be regarded as kind of prejudice, if well-intentioned. But soon this befriending seems to morph into stalking and incidents happen to the black girl that look like racist attacks - a book is missing and found in mud, a window is cracked, an ancient photo of the Hottentot Venus is passed under the door and so on.

Nobody is ever linked to the attacks and this is where the dilemma of the book is. The reader is given enough clues that the perpetrator is not anyone else in the dorm, but either the black girl or the white girl. The drift of the book is that the black girl is having a mental breakdown and while some of the early attacks may have been accidental (window, book) or real (Venus), later on it is the black girl who is responsible as she twirls down into madness. At least that is the "unofficial" version seemed to be favored by the narrator. The "official" version is that all the attacks were real and the black girl died by a horrible accident.

This where the unreliable narrator comes into play. The white girl is writing this as a mea culpa for getting her father into jail, but I also think it is a confession for what she did to her roommate. She considered her roommate as a Victim from the start and when the black girl wasn't at first interested in playing the Victim to the white girl, the white girl was the one who went bonkers to make the black girl the victim she wanted to befriend and defend, like her father did.

Essentially the white girl escalates the "anonymous" attacks from being spurned by the black girl and then causes the fire that kills the black girl - and then years later writes this story to try to convince herself out of the final guilt that she can't own up to. She can own up to ratting out her dad as he had failed her in so many ways, but she cannot own up to what she did to an innocent girl - just like her dad cannot own up to what he did to an innocent man. Her dad spends his days writing up his defenses and extenuating circumstances but never addresses the core problem that somebody innocent died and he was partly at fault. Maybe this document we are reading is the same thing, but done by the daughter?

But maybe not? I don't know if Oates is playing these games or if I just have too much imagination. A writer of Oates's caliber is very capable of doing this, I would need to read this book again to gather up the clues to make a better case of my theory.

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Joyce Carol Oates is a very smart author. She knows a lot about location, a lot about history, and a lot about language. However, as a reader, I often find myself feeling very aware of these things as I read her books: that she, as the author, is going to tell me about this location or this event in history or that now, she is going to use this particularly literary device to tell this section of her story. Instead of enhancing her stories, it often fragments them for me, the reader.
In Black Girl/White Girl, there were too many literary devices being used--too many different narrative voices, too many subtle shifts in point of view/narration, too many plot deviations. I thought it was quite cunning to veil the true intent of the story throughout, but I found that by the end, I should have been able to discover that this was in fact the true intent all along instead of being just as surprised as the main character was to discover what the true story was about. Because I was so surprised, I found myself disappointed. I wanted to know what really happened to Minnette Swift. Was the racism all faked by her, or was some of it real? Was her death completely accidental?
Perhaps this would be a better book to teach in school, with its history subtext (turned main text...). Either way, it does not encourage me to return to Oates' work in the near future.

[Cris · Rating 1 out of 5]

gosh, i really disliked this book.. it was boring, the title was misleading, the characters totally unlikable..

i may be somewhat dense, but i just did not get what this book was about? a troubled black girl on a merit scholarship to a private northeast college in the mid 70s? or her equally troubled white roommate struggling with her wacky childhood growing up as the daughter of a radical lawyer?

i feel robbed of my time. the title was misleading- and the book itself is misleading-very early in the book you learn that minette dies -and the reader is certainly left to make some assumptions about why and how.. and again.. mislead..

the only upside? borrowed from the library-- the only thing waste.. my time

[Ryan Heaven · Rating 3 out of 5]

After having reading Oates' 'Black Water' I longed to read more of her work - and came to reading this one. Oates' characterisation is impeccable here and her control of plot and narrative is enviable. This book really does make you look into yourself and will lead you to find things that maybe you didn't want to notice. Although the political sections of the book dragged slightly, the mysterious characters of Genna and Minette kept me hooked. I'll most definitely be reading more of Oates' work soon - such a strong voice!

[Gabrielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

part of me: this is a great read about privilege and guilt. set in Pennsylvania at a College in the 70s, which frankly is refreshing.

another part of me: um, this story some chick's dad issues is not what i signed up for.

three stars.

[Geoff Young · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first 53 pages were aggressively tedious. The remaining 219 won't be read by me.