Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
Wow, this memoir was raw, thoughtful and eloquently written. Carroll shows us how unhinged and vulnerable she was growing up in a rural town in New Hampshire, how she continuously questioned her blackness and ultimately found her meaning within the world
Surviving the White Gaze is an extremely powerful memoir from black cultural critic Rebecca Carroll as she recalls her experiences growing up in an all whites family and town. I enjoyed reading this book and recommend for many!
* I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada in exchange for my honest review
* I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada in exchange for my honest review
Unlike any biography you’ve read, Rebecca Carroll’s heart pouring and enlightening memoir, Surviving the White Gaze, brings to light adoption and racism in a pervasively influenced world of whiteness.
I was encouraged to read Carroll’s novel by her publishers and I’m glad I took them up on their suggestion. I’m ashamed to say how little I knew about the issues Carrol raises. This was a good book to begin my education about issues people of colour face today.
Rebecca Carroll, a black cultural critic, shares her poignant account of being raised since birth by loving white parents after being given up for adoption by her white mother and black father. Although well accepted by the all-white community and raised in a happy home in rural New Hampshire, Carroll was never encouraged to explore her black culture. Just as she begins to question her heritage, she’s introduced to her distant and thoughtless mother who, instead of completing Carroll, ends up harming her with her blatant disregard for her daughter’s black identity. Carroll tailspins into a harmful behaviour as she tries to discover who she is and how she fits into her world. Thankfully, she meets her chosen family, a black family, who jump-start her healing process. It’s more than just a biracial baby being adopted by a white family, it’s a story about the delicate web of threads; love, family, fitting in, and overcoming. It’s about a girl who reaches into her depths to find out who she is and painfully struggles to overcome and be accepted. It's about what defines a family and the role they play in orchestrating your success in life. You’ll be familiarized with the concept of ‘white gaze’ and revisit racism that is so prevalent in America today. Hopefully, you’ll be left with an overwhelming sadness that will ignite your desire for tolerance and acceptance and use it to help America heal. Look for this must-read on February 2, 2021.
Thank you to Rebecca Carroll, Simon and Schuster Canada, and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
I was encouraged to read Carroll’s novel by her publishers and I’m glad I took them up on their suggestion. I’m ashamed to say how little I knew about the issues Carrol raises. This was a good book to begin my education about issues people of colour face today.
Rebecca Carroll, a black cultural critic, shares her poignant account of being raised since birth by loving white parents after being given up for adoption by her white mother and black father. Although well accepted by the all-white community and raised in a happy home in rural New Hampshire, Carroll was never encouraged to explore her black culture. Just as she begins to question her heritage, she’s introduced to her distant and thoughtless mother who, instead of completing Carroll, ends up harming her with her blatant disregard for her daughter’s black identity. Carroll tailspins into a harmful behaviour as she tries to discover who she is and how she fits into her world. Thankfully, she meets her chosen family, a black family, who jump-start her healing process. It’s more than just a biracial baby being adopted by a white family, it’s a story about the delicate web of threads; love, family, fitting in, and overcoming. It’s about a girl who reaches into her depths to find out who she is and painfully struggles to overcome and be accepted. It's about what defines a family and the role they play in orchestrating your success in life. You’ll be familiarized with the concept of ‘white gaze’ and revisit racism that is so prevalent in America today. Hopefully, you’ll be left with an overwhelming sadness that will ignite your desire for tolerance and acceptance and use it to help America heal. Look for this must-read on February 2, 2021.
Thank you to Rebecca Carroll, Simon and Schuster Canada, and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
I enjoyed this memoir but there were parts that didn't ring true for me. It felt superficial at times.
This book started out a little flowery and corny, which turned me off, but once I got past the first twenty pages or so, I realized that Carroll was intentionally relating unrealistic, unbelievable memories from her early childhood to contrast with the rest of her life, which involved her doing her best to cope with a huge amount of bulls**t (to put it crudely).
In short, this memoir was good. Carroll has an impressive ability to analyze her motivations, thoughts and feelings as she dealt with the challenges of creating an identity after being raised by white parents who basically ignored the fact that their daughter was Black, and then re-connecting with her white birth mother who also denied her own daughter's blackness.
I wish the book had been a little longer; the final chapter ends abruptly and leaves some "plot points" (can a memoir have plot points?) unresolved. But, such is life!
In short, this memoir was good. Carroll has an impressive ability to analyze her motivations, thoughts and feelings as she dealt with the challenges of creating an identity after being raised by white parents who basically ignored the fact that their daughter was Black, and then re-connecting with her white birth mother who also denied her own daughter's blackness.
I wish the book had been a little longer; the final chapter ends abruptly and leaves some "plot points" (can a memoir have plot points?) unresolved. But, such is life!
One of the best books I’ve read yet this year. I do think it could’ve benefited from another round of edits. Sometimes found timeline and order of events incongruous. It felt like it had been rushed out the door. Still well worth the time to read it.
As a person of color, there were so many good quotes in here where I was "oh! That's how I would have put it if I had the words". She's great at saying: when we are young and we place a lot on the respect of our guardian figures.
Some books invite you on a ride, buckle you in, and don’t let you go until its last word. Life becomes solely about reading the book. When you disembark, you forgot who you were before you boarded. “Surviving the White Gaze” is some books.
I love a good memoir and this was a super interesting perspective.