Status
Available
Call number
Call number
F Sen
Genres
Collection
Publication
Riverhead Hardcover (1998), 353 pages
Description
Look out for Danzy Senna's latest book, New People, on sale in August! Birdie and Cole are the daughters of a black father and a white mother, intellectuals and activists in the Civil Rights Movement in 1970s Boston. The sisters are so close that they speak their own language, yet Birdie, with her light skin and straight hair, is often mistaken for white, while Cole is dark enough to fit in with the other kids at school. Despite their differences, Cole is Birdie's confidant, her protector, the mirror by which she understands herself. Then their parents' marriage collapses. One night Birdie watches her father and his new girlfriend drive away with Cole. Soon Birdie and her mother are on the road as well, drifting across the country in search of a new home. But for Birdie, home will always be Cole. Haunted by the loss of her sister, she sets out a desperate search for the family that left her behind. The extraordinary national bestseller that launched Danzy Senna's literary career, Caucasia is a modern classic, at once a powerful coming of age story and a groundbreaking work on identity and race in America. … (more)
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Original publication date
1998
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User reviews
LibraryThing member CBJames
I want to say that Danzy Senna writes about the margins of race. Does that convey what I'm thinking? Towards the end of her novel, Caucasia, several characters discuss whether or not race really exists. Is it something real, or just something society has constructed?
This question is vitally
While Birdie is favored by their rich white grandmother who only refers to Cole as your sister, Cole is favored by their father and by many of their black family and friends. The novel is set during the fading years of the 1960's and 70's Black Power movement which both of Birdie's parents are heavily involved in. They send their daughters to an all black school with a Pan-African curriculum. In spite of her nearly white skin, Birdie is basically raised as a black girl.
When her mother goes into hiding to escape the F.B.I. who want her for her involvement with violent radical groups she takes Birdie along. Her father keeps Cole. Years go by and Birdie never hears from either. Meanwhile, her mother gives her a new identity, as a Jewish girl named Jesse. The two settle down in rural New Hampshire where Birdie finds a kind of normalcy attending the local public schools and making friends with the white girls she meets there.
Because they think she is white the people she meets, even her close friends, feel free to openly be their racist selves. Since she believes her mother will be in danger if anyone ever finds out who she really is, Birdie must keep quite while her classmates make fun of the only black girl in the school and while her mother's boyfriend makes a casual remark unaware of how racist he is.
But none of this is why I like Caucasia so much. At its heart Caucasia is a book about family. What makes the first half work so well is the wonderful relationship between Birdie and her sister Cole. The two are fully drawn, complex believable characters, but there is a fantastic element to them, something kind of magic. Big sisters protect little ones, little sisters look up to big ones, but these two have a secret language. Their bond goes much deeper than blood, certainly deeper than skin color.
Once Birdie and her mother go underground together, the novel becomes a mother/daughter story. This bond is certainly deep, but it's not as wonderful. Birdie's mother is not someone who can be completely trusted. We never know what she did, in fact we soon begin to suspect that the only F.B.I. agents chasing her may be in her head. Birdie loves her, as any child loves her mother, but her love includes a healthy dose of hate. Did her mother only take her along because she couldn't go into hiding with a black daughter? Was Birdie her second choice? The second half of the novel is a portrait of this mother/daughter pairing. I was reminded of Mona Simpson's wonderful novel Anywhere but Here. Like that novel, I found reading Caucasia to be like spending time with friends. My favorite kind of character driven novel.
This question is vitally
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important to Birdie Lee, the narrator of Danzy Senna's novel Caucasia. Birdie's mother is white, the daughter of Boston Brahmans, born to wealth and priviledge. Her father is black, an academic and radical who teaches at Harvard. Birdie looks white like her mother. Her older sister, Cole, looks black like her father. While Birdie is favored by their rich white grandmother who only refers to Cole as your sister, Cole is favored by their father and by many of their black family and friends. The novel is set during the fading years of the 1960's and 70's Black Power movement which both of Birdie's parents are heavily involved in. They send their daughters to an all black school with a Pan-African curriculum. In spite of her nearly white skin, Birdie is basically raised as a black girl.
When her mother goes into hiding to escape the F.B.I. who want her for her involvement with violent radical groups she takes Birdie along. Her father keeps Cole. Years go by and Birdie never hears from either. Meanwhile, her mother gives her a new identity, as a Jewish girl named Jesse. The two settle down in rural New Hampshire where Birdie finds a kind of normalcy attending the local public schools and making friends with the white girls she meets there.
Because they think she is white the people she meets, even her close friends, feel free to openly be their racist selves. Since she believes her mother will be in danger if anyone ever finds out who she really is, Birdie must keep quite while her classmates make fun of the only black girl in the school and while her mother's boyfriend makes a casual remark unaware of how racist he is.
But none of this is why I like Caucasia so much. At its heart Caucasia is a book about family. What makes the first half work so well is the wonderful relationship between Birdie and her sister Cole. The two are fully drawn, complex believable characters, but there is a fantastic element to them, something kind of magic. Big sisters protect little ones, little sisters look up to big ones, but these two have a secret language. Their bond goes much deeper than blood, certainly deeper than skin color.
Once Birdie and her mother go underground together, the novel becomes a mother/daughter story. This bond is certainly deep, but it's not as wonderful. Birdie's mother is not someone who can be completely trusted. We never know what she did, in fact we soon begin to suspect that the only F.B.I. agents chasing her may be in her head. Birdie loves her, as any child loves her mother, but her love includes a healthy dose of hate. Did her mother only take her along because she couldn't go into hiding with a black daughter? Was Birdie her second choice? The second half of the novel is a portrait of this mother/daughter pairing. I was reminded of Mona Simpson's wonderful novel Anywhere but Here. Like that novel, I found reading Caucasia to be like spending time with friends. My favorite kind of character driven novel.
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LibraryThing member lvelazqu2000
Caucasia is amazingly written to reveal the experience of a child being born white and black. Birdie looks white and her sister looks black which for that reason alone are treated differently by their parents and respective families and society. This book clearly talks about identity and how
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culture and people can influence it. It also reveals a period in history in the 70's when there was radical thinking and a desire for radical change. Clearly, Danzy Senna intelligently described race and class issues in humanity. It's a very interesting and engaging book. Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member katydid-it
This was a great surprise of a book, chosen for our book club. The main character, Birdie, is wonderful for her honesty and naivete. The story was engrossing with enough depth to make it stick in your mind. Also, having grown up in Massachusetts during the same years, I felt a strong connection to
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the story. Show Less
LibraryThing member YAlit
When we first meet Birdie Lee, she is an 8-year-old whose whole world is her family: her beloved older sister Cole, her fiery and mercurial mother who has turned her back on her upper-class upbringing to do some unspecified underground activities, and her father, a professor at Boston U who writes
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about race. The fact that her mother is white and her father is black, and the setting is Boston in the 1970s, is critical to the story: although Birdie is sheltered, she is growing up in the middle of a racial powderkeg. From an early age, she sees a difference in the way she and Cole are treated; she is just figuring out that it is because she is light-skinned and Cole is dark, when her entire world shatters. Her father takes Cole and runs to Brazil, while Birdie and her mother go underground, fleeing whatever radical activities she had been involved in. As part of their disguise, Birdie is re-made as Jesse Goldman, a Jewish white girl. Birdie/Jesse is an unforgettable narrator, toughened by her experiences and suspicious of outsiders, but aching to find a way to belong – through race, through class, through sexuality, through choices, through family. Danzy Senna, the author, touches on all the ways we create our own identities Show Less
LibraryThing member mana_tominaga
Born to a biracial family in 1970s Boston, Birdie witnesses her family disintegrate from racial tensions. Her father and older sister move to Brazil, hoping for utopia, and Birdie and her mother go underground, adopting new identities. Birdie eventually sets out to find her sister and reconnect
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with and examine her past. A stimulating story about race and skin color, and how both have profound powers to shape our experiences. Show Less
LibraryThing member devonorrin
Birdie appears white, like her mother, but her sister appears black, like their father. Birdie's parents split up, each taking the daughter that appears most like them, and do not communicate with each other.
I've read an array of texts featuring caucasian and African-American heroines, but never a
I've read an array of texts featuring caucasian and African-American heroines, but never a
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biracial heroine with a story this compelling. Students can enjoy a plot-driven book, embedded with questions of morality and racism. Show Less
LibraryThing member sumariotter
I raced through this book--I was pretty immediately drawn in and couldn't put it down. I could strongly relate to the horror of Birdie's having to grow up as a liar, because she can not tell the truth (of her biracial heritage) for her family's safety. This seems a weird aspect of the book to grab
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me perhaps but I know what it is like to grow up with something about yourself that you can not tell other people and how that stops you from developing real relationships or trusting any relationships that you do develop. There are lots of other horrors in the book and her story illustrates well issues of racism in America. Her characterization is not that subtle...but it feels very real nonetheless, like an autobiography. Show Less
LibraryThing member Ladydncing
A heartwarming story about a biracial coming of age girl (Birdie) growing up in the 70's. I found the parents to be very dysfunctional and obsessed with race. Very powerful story about a biracial girl looking for her identity and place in society. Good read!
LibraryThing member Snukes
This is not my normal fare - I usually like my novels light and flaky. It came highly recommended however, and I found myself very quickly drawn in by the story and the characters. I enjoyed it very much. The end felt a little abrupt, but even that seemed to fit with the overall theme of seeking to
Recommended by: Anne R.
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find ways to define race and reality.Recommended by: Anne R.
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LibraryThing member CGaile
I know I’ve read a great book when I can’t stop thinking about it. Initially, this book captured my interest because I share some similar history. As an African American teenager living in Cambridge during the 70s, I remember that exciting and passionate time of Black Power and revolution.
The
Senna puts the Lee family in an unusual situation and we watch what happens. Radical mom goes undercover to escape the CIA and takes Birdie, the white looking daughter, with her because they are a color match. Birdie, who worked so hard to fit in as black kid must now pass for white.
This book puts a human face to abstract issues of race and class. We feel everything through Birdie. As our country limps along, trying not to deal with race and class—our most crippling issues—works of fiction like Caucasia can help us get into the heads of others and begin to understand what it’s like.
The
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characters in this book are so well made; I could pick them out in a crowd. Between Deck and Sandy Lee, we get an excellent sense of the jumble of idealism, didactic bravado, conflicting and overlapping ideologies, and drama of people trying to understand themselves as individuals and members of a troubled society. Unfortunately, their daughters get lost in the shuffle. The parents seem to forget that their daughters are kids and not just part of some noble experiment. Through younger daughter Birdie’s eyes, we see the larger implications of ashy knees and hair that won’t stay in cornrows while the sisters struggle with their identities and a place to belong as racially mixed children.Senna puts the Lee family in an unusual situation and we watch what happens. Radical mom goes undercover to escape the CIA and takes Birdie, the white looking daughter, with her because they are a color match. Birdie, who worked so hard to fit in as black kid must now pass for white.
This book puts a human face to abstract issues of race and class. We feel everything through Birdie. As our country limps along, trying not to deal with race and class—our most crippling issues—works of fiction like Caucasia can help us get into the heads of others and begin to understand what it’s like.
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LibraryThing member CSTaylor24
A stunning look into the life of a young mixed-race girl as she tries to find her place in her family, the world, and within herself. Set in the 1970s and early 80s, Birdie's journey from 8 year old girl to 15 year old young woman, growing up in a highly politicized household is an extraordinarily
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candid look at both what race is as well as realizing that race is nothing but a society constructed idea. Beautifully executed, Senna's characters are human and flawed in a way that makes them identifiable and empathetic, even when it is sometimes difficult to like them. Show Less
LibraryThing member viviennestrauss
what a terrific journey! I couldn't put this book down and at the same time didn't want it to end.
LibraryThing member engpunk77
One of my favorite books of all time--tied for second place with She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. This convincing, contemporary "coming of age" story about a girl who is technically both "black" and "white" will draw you in and prompt you to think critically about the idea of "race." Narrated from
I LOVE this novel and could read it again and again. I laughed and cried throughout.
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the perspective of a strong girl who doesn't play the victim of race wars but rather wishes she could, I left this novel with contentment rather than outrage for the injustices committed by "the white man" like I usually do!I LOVE this novel and could read it again and again. I laughed and cried throughout.
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LibraryThing member kristina_brooke
This novel left me speechless and emotional. As a mom of of biracial daughter it moved me on levels that are quite obvious but pushed me to think about things that are all too personal to me. Definitely worth reading. Any one who is interested in the complexities of race relations, self-identity,
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and the personal connections. I want more! So much more. Show Less
LibraryThing member pinkcrayon99
amazing story line!
LibraryThing member TheLoisLevel
This novel is kind of an African American/Caucasian version of "The Parent Trap". When the parents split up, the Black parent takes the darker kid, and the Caucasian parent takes the lighter kid. This story is told through the perspective of the lighter kid, who knows about as much about the
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location of her father and sister for most of the novel as the girls in "The Parent Trap". Somehow, improbably in my opinion, Senna makes it all work. Show Less
Pages
353