JCO: Re: Black Girl/ White Girl

hi all

i liked BG/WG quite a bit. It interests me that, as in Because It Is Bitter, JCO is using a white girl who has a family, but a malfunctioning one, as a means of exploring the shadowlands of race.  Genna, like Iris (and the girl in I'll Take You There) is seeking a completely different 'family' than the one she was born into (or "pledged" in ITYT) and is approaching a black individual who doesn't seem to need her -- at all, and who doesn't want to be used as a 'type'.  Interesting too that the more affluent and educated Hewett-Meades do an even lousier job raising their kids than Persia does with Iris.  Yet the three novels seem so very different too.  But yeah, I liked it.  It reminded me of Lessing's middle Martha Quest novels like Ripple from the Storm where the irony is so deep in the grain that it is impossible to decipher if its "origins" are hope or despair...  For me, the two themes Dave noted merge in this thicket of irony.

Rick Oehling

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