Reviews

Black & White by Dani Shapiro

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peej210's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

krobart's review

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3.0

I had an ambivalent reaction to this novel about a woman who feels she was abused by her mother's obsessive photographic documentation of her life as a child. I felt that the novel bought in too wholeheartedly to the notion that reconciling with one's abuser is healing for the abused.

See my complete review here:

http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/tag/black-&-white/

asurges's review

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3.0

A woman is called home to New York City because her estranged mother is dying, but the daughter was the subject of the mother's only compelling photographic work, the work that made her famous. Really well written, as are all this author's books, but it started to lose me toward the end, and I wasn't sure about the ending. It felt too neat and came too abruptly.

notrachel's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I wanted to like this because I love Shapiro's memoirs. But I just can't get past the MC's mom basically exploiting her for "art" and so few people trying to do anything to protect the girl. And those pictures vaulted her mom (and subsequently her) to fame...so there were a lot of fans/proponents who never thought that the MC deserved privacy or that her mom was wrong for what she was doing.

Content Warnings

pammoore's review

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4.0

Gripping, powerful... a story of family, loyalty, identity. Can we escape our past? Should we?

Spoiler alert:

I probably would have given it 5 stars except the ending felt a little too tidy and improbable to me. It was hard for me to understand how Clara spends her adult life being estranged from her mom and then just magically goes ahead with the Clara book.