Community Reviews
thenextgoodbook.com
What’s it about?
Jane has been struggling with her second novel for years. She is teaching at a mid-level college and finally has a sabbatical and time to finish her sprawling book on mulattos. She and her artist husband Lenny, and their two children, are house-sitting for a friend while he is in Australia for a year. Life seems pretty manageable but that book….
What did it make me think about?
Race.
Should I read it?
This goes in an ever-expanding pile of books that I greatly admire and did not enjoy reading. I like Danzy Senna’s writing, and this book has gotten a lot of well-deserved hype. There are countless wry observations about race, marriage, L.A., the entertainment industry, publishing, etc. However, I did not like these people. Not a one! For me, this means I am not invested in the characters and don’t care too much about what happens to them. I did enjoy the last 30 pages of the book- but it was tedious getting there. This book is worth reading- but I don’t expect everyone will love it.
Quote-
“Jane’s father once told her that white people believed, deep in their hearts, that Black people would all choose to become white if they could. But Black people didn’t want to be white, he had told her. They only wanted to have what white people had. He had said race was always about money, and money was always about race. That’s what white people didn’t understand. Black people wanted only a big yellow Victorian on the hill, not to be the white people who lived there.”
What’s it about?
Jane has been struggling with her second novel for years. She is teaching at a mid-level college and finally has a sabbatical and time to finish her sprawling book on mulattos. She and her artist husband Lenny, and their two children, are house-sitting for a friend while he is in Australia for a year. Life seems pretty manageable but that book….
What did it make me think about?
Race.
Should I read it?
This goes in an ever-expanding pile of books that I greatly admire and did not enjoy reading. I like Danzy Senna’s writing, and this book has gotten a lot of well-deserved hype. There are countless wry observations about race, marriage, L.A., the entertainment industry, publishing, etc. However, I did not like these people. Not a one! For me, this means I am not invested in the characters and don’t care too much about what happens to them. I did enjoy the last 30 pages of the book- but it was tedious getting there. This book is worth reading- but I don’t expect everyone will love it.
Quote-
“Jane’s father once told her that white people believed, deep in their hearts, that Black people would all choose to become white if they could. But Black people didn’t want to be white, he had told her. They only wanted to have what white people had. He had said race was always about money, and money was always about race. That’s what white people didn’t understand. Black people wanted only a big yellow Victorian on the hill, not to be the white people who lived there.”
This was a good story, very well written, but I did not like It. Jane and her husband were INSUFFERABLE and their lives were chaotic. Whew! They stressed me clean out.
“Jane's father once told her that white people believed, deep in their hearts, that Black people would all choose to become white if they could. But Black people didn't want to be white, he had told her. They only wanted to have what white people had. He had said race was always about money, and money was always about race. That's what white people didn't understand. Black people wanted only a big yellow Victorian on the hill, not to be the white people who lived there.”
See Jane run. To LA. After struggling with her mixed-race identity, her faultering self-confidence as a writer, her love for her husband and family, and her envy and longing for the high life.
While comical at times, this is a satire that exposes some very uncomfortable things about the experience of being mixed race in America. It does so using some exaggerations and sterotypes, as well as with some ugly realities.
It's pretty niche for writers or those who know the Hollywood Machine, but one can still learn something here.
While I enjoyed the writing style, I was baffled by the points the author was attempting to make. For me, it's hard to read a book where the characters are not likeable. The main character here was not likeable in my view and I even found it hard to empathize with her. The book club had a robust discussion about this one.
It was clear what was going to happen with Jane’s manuscript from the beginning, but even so I really enjoyed the humor and voice of this novel.
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