Re: JCO: Black Girl/ White Girl -- Warning plot discussed herein
It's been such a long time since I'm messaged this site that I forgot to put in the warning that I'm discussing a JCO novel's plot. Will be more careful next time.
Hello, Dave. I'm emailing you at your aol address because my Tone Cluster postings don't always get through. BG/WG is to me a story of daughters vs fathers. Minette is defeated by her offstage struggle with her father (which remains hidden from us readers.) Genna, by contrast, triumphs over her father Max (and his blonde "mistress/assistant) at the novel's end. Max is Genna's totally disarmed prisoner in the final chapter. Minette succumbs to madness: she is herself the one scrawling racist graffiti around the campus and the fire at the historic stone cottage is Minette's own mad self-destruction. Genna's last visit with Minette at the stone cottage has its model in Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov: Ivan's final interview with his "secret" sibling Smerdyakov, who commits suicide immediately afterward, as does Minette. The Brothers Karamazov is a great favorite of JCO, who has alluded to it in many of her other novels.
Hello, Dave. I'm emailing you at your aol address because my Tone Cluster postings don't always get through. BG/WG is to me a story of daughters vs fathers. Minette is defeated by her offstage struggle with her father (which remains hidden from us readers.) Genna, by contrast, triumphs over her father Max (and his blonde "mistress/assistant) at the novel's end. Max is Genna's totally disarmed prisoner in the final chapter. Minette succumbs to madness: she is herself the one scrawling racist graffiti around the campus and the fire at the historic stone cottage is Minette's own mad self-destruction. Genna's last visit with Minette at the stone cottage has its model in Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov: Ivan's final interview with his "secret" sibling Smerdyakov, who commits suicide immediately afterward, as does Minette. The Brothers Karamazov is a great favorite of JCO, who has alluded to it in many of her other novels.
Best,
Cyrano
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posted by Admin at
7:26 PM
