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pattydsf's review against another edition
3.0
I would not want to be the child of a celebrity. Add to that the fact that Rebecca Walker is biracial and her parents had a bizarre joint custody agreement and you have the makings of fascinating story.
I think that Rebecca Walker is trying as honestly as she can to tell her story. The fact that she and her mother disagree about her version just makes this more interesting.
I recommend this book to those folks who think they know what their kids are up to. I am parent to two wonderful children and I think we have done a good job of bringing each other to adulthood. However, I don't want to know this much about my kids life.
I think that Rebecca Walker is trying as honestly as she can to tell her story. The fact that she and her mother disagree about her version just makes this more interesting.
I recommend this book to those folks who think they know what their kids are up to. I am parent to two wonderful children and I think we have done a good job of bringing each other to adulthood. However, I don't want to know this much about my kids life.
marie_gg's review against another edition
3.0
Memoir of Alice Walker's black-Jewish daughter--I found this book to be sad, as she was caught between two worlds, feeling as if she belonged nowhere.
chirson's review against another edition
3.0
After thirty pages I was sure I was going to give the book a full four stars, but things became a little repetitive afterwards. The style especially. The non-linear fragments were interesting stylistically, but at times made it difficult to follow the trajectory, so to speak. I was never quite sure how old Walker was at any given time, unless she specifically mentioned her age.
I am looking forward to reading her second memoir, the famously controversial one.
(And I do not mean to sound judgmental, and it is not a criticism of the book - or Rebecca Walker - but I found it so strange to read about her early teen sexual experience. At that age my friends and I watched Sailor Moon and imagined making out with Mamoru (or the various gender-shifting characters on that show).)
I am looking forward to reading her second memoir, the famously controversial one.
(And I do not mean to sound judgmental, and it is not a criticism of the book - or Rebecca Walker - but I found it so strange to read about her early teen sexual experience. At that age my friends and I watched Sailor Moon and imagined making out with Mamoru (or the various gender-shifting characters on that show).)
rokinjaguar's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This was a very interestingly-written memoir. Artistic, emotional, and a little abstract, the author focuses more on how details tasted and smelled than a clear timeline, which I enjoyed. It had a lot of interesting insights and I got a lot from it. :)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Abortion, Alcohol, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Drug use, Pregnancy, Bullying, Classism, Death of parent, Homophobia, Child abuse, Antisemitism, and Domestic abuse
jack_jack231's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
honeydewfelon's review against another edition
4.0
A quick and interesting read. Part of my deep dive into the idea of "split identity." Rebecca Walker is the daughter of Pulitzer-winner Alice Walker and civil rights lawyer Mel Leventhal, who would later divorce. This is the story of reconciling her identity, of feeling anchor-less, parent-less. I couldn't stop thinking how hard it must be to grow up in Alice Walker's shadow. What a complex and interesting figure. I got lost in all the different characters that Walker refers to in this book. Did she intend for that to be disorienting? Generally a compelling book.
razishiri's review against another edition
3.0
Black White & Jewish is a compilation of compulsively readable memoirs by Rebecca Walker, who happens to be Alice Walker's daughter. I call them "memoirs" rather than autobiography because the author makes many stylistic choices which, astute though they may be, definitely mar the chronological format. The chapters are also artistically brief, sometimes mere vignettes, divided once again by theme. This singular style, compounded with Walker's direct but moving prose, is what makes her story so easy to fall into.
As for the actual content... from reading other reviews, I've seen some complaints about too much sex and relationships. I may just be a hormonal teenager, but this didn't bother me at all. There are many parallels to be drawn between sexual and racial identity, and while the author could have drawn these parallels more clearly, her experiences are still relevent. That's another reason I put this book under the category of "memoir" and not "autobiography"; it is primarily emotive and does not attempt much of an intellectual or moral message. This may leave the reader feeling unsatisfied at the end, for we leave Walker's world as abruptly as we dive into it. Even during the story, the reader is sometimes left floundering, unsure of where we are in Walker's life, deprived of a deeper understanding of characters as importance as her own parents. Still, Rebecca Walker has a lot of interesting things to say about being a biracial person, and her voice cannot be easily forgotten.
As for the actual content... from reading other reviews, I've seen some complaints about too much sex and relationships. I may just be a hormonal teenager, but this didn't bother me at all. There are many parallels to be drawn between sexual and racial identity, and while the author could have drawn these parallels more clearly, her experiences are still relevent. That's another reason I put this book under the category of "memoir" and not "autobiography"; it is primarily emotive and does not attempt much of an intellectual or moral message. This may leave the reader feeling unsatisfied at the end, for we leave Walker's world as abruptly as we dive into it. Even during the story, the reader is sometimes left floundering, unsure of where we are in Walker's life, deprived of a deeper understanding of characters as importance as her own parents. Still, Rebecca Walker has a lot of interesting things to say about being a biracial person, and her voice cannot be easily forgotten.