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Caucasia
In 䲹ܳ�Danzy Senna's extraordinary debut novel andnational bestseller—Birdie and Cole are the daughters of a black father and a white mother, intellectuals and activists in the Civil Rights Movement in 1970s Boston. The sisters are so close that they have created a private language, yet to the outside world they can't be sisters: Birdie appears to be white, while Cole is dark enough to fit in with the other kids at the Afrocentric school they attend. For Birdie, Cole is the mirror in which she can see her own blackness. Then their parents' marriage falls apart. Their father's new black girlfriend won't even look at Birdie, while their mother gives her life over to the Movement: at night the sisters watch mysterious men arrive with bundles shaped like rifles.
One night Birdie watches her father and his girlfriend drive away with Cole—they have gone to Brazil, she will later learn, where her father hopes for a racial equality he will never find in the States. The next morning—in the belief that the Feds are after them—Birdie and her mother leave everything behind: their house and possessions, their friends, and—most disturbing of all—their identity. Passing as the daughter and wife of a deceased Jewish professor, Birdie and her mother finally make their home in New Hampshire.
Desperate to find Cole, yet afraid of betraying her mother and herself to some unknown danger, Birdie must learn to navigate the white world—so that when she sets off in search of her sister, she is ready for what she will find. At once a powerful coming-of-age story and a groundbreaking work on identity and race in America, "Caucasia deserves to be read all over" (Glamour).
One night Birdie watches her father and his girlfriend drive away with Cole—they have gone to Brazil, she will later learn, where her father hopes for a racial equality he will never find in the States. The next morning—in the belief that the Feds are after them—Birdie and her mother leave everything behind: their house and possessions, their friends, and—most disturbing of all—their identity. Passing as the daughter and wife of a deceased Jewish professor, Birdie and her mother finally make their home in New Hampshire.
Desperate to find Cole, yet afraid of betraying her mother and herself to some unknown danger, Birdie must learn to navigate the white world—so that when she sets off in search of her sister, she is ready for what she will find. At once a powerful coming-of-age story and a groundbreaking work on identity and race in America, "Caucasia deserves to be read all over" (Glamour).
413 pages, Paperback
First published February 2, 1998
504 people are currently reading
24.3k people want to read
About the author
Danzy Senna
12books947followersDanzy Senna is an American novelist, born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts in 1970. Her parents, Carl Senna, an Afro-Mexican poet and author, and Fanny Howe, who is Irish-American writer, were also civil rights activists.
She attended Stanford University and received an MFA from the University of California at Irvine. There, she received several creative writing awards.
Her debut novel, Caucasia (later republished as From Caucasia With Love), was well received and won several awards including the Book-Of-The-Month Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction, and the Alex Award from the American Library Association.
Her second novel, Symptomatic, was also well received. Both books feature a biracial protagonist and offer a unique view on life from their perspective.
Senna has also contributed to anthologies such as Gumbo.
In 2002, Senna received the Whiting Writers Award and in 2004 was named a Fellow for the New York Public Library's Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.
Danzy Senna is married to fellow writer Percival Everett and they have a son, Henry together. Their residences have included Los Angeles and New York City.
She attended Stanford University and received an MFA from the University of California at Irvine. There, she received several creative writing awards.
Her debut novel, Caucasia (later republished as From Caucasia With Love), was well received and won several awards including the Book-Of-The-Month Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction, and the Alex Award from the American Library Association.
Her second novel, Symptomatic, was also well received. Both books feature a biracial protagonist and offer a unique view on life from their perspective.
Senna has also contributed to anthologies such as Gumbo.
In 2002, Senna received the Whiting Writers Award and in 2004 was named a Fellow for the New York Public Library's Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.
Danzy Senna is married to fellow writer Percival Everett and they have a son, Henry together. Their residences have included Los Angeles and New York City.
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April 1, 2020
It is an injustice that this book is not more popular. I so loved the main character’s voice, as well as everything else about Caucasia. The story follows Birdie Lee, a young girl living in 1970s with her white mother, a fiery activist who does her best to renounce her Boston Blue Blood background, her black father, an intellectual who is fervently obsessed about theories of race and racism, and her sister, Cole, who shares her biracial identity as well as a secret language the two of them concocted together. Birdie passes as white while Cole is recognizably black, yet the two possess an unconditional love for one another and an understanding of their parents� dysfunctional marriage. When their parents split the sisters are then separated, with Cole and their father moving to Brazil while Birdie and their mother run away where no one can find them. As Birdie navigates growing up biracial in a white world without Cole, she comes to understand what she must do to recover the parts of herself that she lost when her sister left. In searching for the missing parts of her family and her identity, Birdie learns to reclaim herself.
I absolutely fell in love with Birdie’s voice in a way I have not felt for another character in a long time. Danzy Senna captures her charming innocence, her poignant observations about the world, her struggle for self-discovery, and so much more with such understated yet beautiful writing. By the middle of the book I would often mark passages with just “OMG, I’m SO emo about Birdie’s love for Cole� and “Birdie’s emotion of wanting to fit in, WHEW.� Caucasia contains a lot of important commentary about race and family, yet Birdie’s voice forms the emotional core that really made me feel so darn dedicated to the book. I cared so much about her, because Senna writes her voice in such a believable and raw way, that when she suffered, I felt like I suffered or that I wanted to protect her. When she felt joy or relief, I felt that too, or at least some strong sense of like, thank goodness, I just want the best for this character perhaps even more than I want the best for myself.
The strong themes of family and race took this book to even more soaring heights. I loved the earnest emotions Senna managed to capture regarding growing up as biracial, such as the shame of not belonging or fitting in cleanly with one racial group, or the yearning to reclaim a part of your identity that you felt has been stolen from you. Through Birdie’s struggle and persistent desire to own and honor her blackness, Senna shifts the predominant narrative of glorifying whiteness and that whiteness equals ideal. Birdie and Cole’s parents felt so fleshed out and important too. Senna captures a myriad of intricate yet deeply felt emotional dynamics between the four of them: their father favoring Cole because of her black skin and the effect that has on Birdie, the way their mother is unable to style Cole’s hair and how she refuses to own up to it and how that affects their relationship moving forward, the way that both their mother and father love revolutionary politics yet have clear limitations in the way they love or do not love their own children. Several scenes in this novel between these characters, and even in moments of Birdie’s quiet self-reflection, literally made me pause because I felt dizzy in the best possible way about the poignancy of emotions Senna captures: their yearning for love and connection and forgiveness and understanding, across racial boundaries and borders.
I loved this book a lot and would highly recommend it to everyone. I hesitated to pick it up because the word Caucasian is racist, but through her characters� struggles Senna shows the ways in which the social construction of race and as well as the realities of racism can tear us apart from one another. I will cherish Birdie Lee’s voice and character for a long time. Her coming of age, though fictional, felt so real, so visceral in its search for true identity, that I will wonder about her and wish the best for her for years to come.
I absolutely fell in love with Birdie’s voice in a way I have not felt for another character in a long time. Danzy Senna captures her charming innocence, her poignant observations about the world, her struggle for self-discovery, and so much more with such understated yet beautiful writing. By the middle of the book I would often mark passages with just “OMG, I’m SO emo about Birdie’s love for Cole� and “Birdie’s emotion of wanting to fit in, WHEW.� Caucasia contains a lot of important commentary about race and family, yet Birdie’s voice forms the emotional core that really made me feel so darn dedicated to the book. I cared so much about her, because Senna writes her voice in such a believable and raw way, that when she suffered, I felt like I suffered or that I wanted to protect her. When she felt joy or relief, I felt that too, or at least some strong sense of like, thank goodness, I just want the best for this character perhaps even more than I want the best for myself.
The strong themes of family and race took this book to even more soaring heights. I loved the earnest emotions Senna managed to capture regarding growing up as biracial, such as the shame of not belonging or fitting in cleanly with one racial group, or the yearning to reclaim a part of your identity that you felt has been stolen from you. Through Birdie’s struggle and persistent desire to own and honor her blackness, Senna shifts the predominant narrative of glorifying whiteness and that whiteness equals ideal. Birdie and Cole’s parents felt so fleshed out and important too. Senna captures a myriad of intricate yet deeply felt emotional dynamics between the four of them: their father favoring Cole because of her black skin and the effect that has on Birdie, the way their mother is unable to style Cole’s hair and how she refuses to own up to it and how that affects their relationship moving forward, the way that both their mother and father love revolutionary politics yet have clear limitations in the way they love or do not love their own children. Several scenes in this novel between these characters, and even in moments of Birdie’s quiet self-reflection, literally made me pause because I felt dizzy in the best possible way about the poignancy of emotions Senna captures: their yearning for love and connection and forgiveness and understanding, across racial boundaries and borders.
I loved this book a lot and would highly recommend it to everyone. I hesitated to pick it up because the word Caucasian is racist, but through her characters� struggles Senna shows the ways in which the social construction of race and as well as the realities of racism can tear us apart from one another. I will cherish Birdie Lee’s voice and character for a long time. Her coming of age, though fictional, felt so real, so visceral in its search for true identity, that I will wonder about her and wish the best for her for years to come.
January 4, 2024
“It’s funny. When you leave your home and wander really far, you always think, ‘I want to go home.� But then you come home, and of course it’s not the same. You can’t live with it, you can’t live away from it. And it seems like from then on there’s always this yearning for some place that doesn’t exist. I felt that. Still do. I’m never completely at home anywhere. But it’s a good place to be, I think. It’s like floating. From up above, you can see everything at once. It’s the only way how.�
re-read: This is my favorite coming of age novel of all time. It makes for such an immersive reading experience. The characters, Birdie’s voice, the events that take place and come to shape her childhood and adolescence, they are all rendered in incredible, if painful, realism. Yet, despite the mood of ambivalence permeating Birdie’s coming of age, I have come to consider Caucasia a comfort read. Senna's descriptions have a cinematic quality to them and so many scenes & moments are imbued with a sense of nostalgia. My heart ached for Birdie, for the way she is made to feel both hypervisible and invisible, someone who is made to feel perpetually on the outside looking in. Her longing to belong, and most of all, her desire to be reunited with her sister, are portrayed with great empathy and nuance.
Enthralling and haunting, Caucasia makes for a dazzling coming-of-age story. With piercing and heart-wrenching clarity, Danzy Senna captures on the page the psychological and emotional turmoils experienced by her young protagonist. Similarly to her later novels, Symptomatic and New People, Caucasia is a work that is heavily concerned with race, racial passing, and identity. But whereas Symptomatic and New People present their readers with short and deeply unnerving narratives that blur the lines between reality and the fantastical, Caucasia is a work that is deeply grounded in realism. Its structure takes a far more traditional route, something in the realms of a bildungsroman novel. This larger scope allows for more depth, both in terms of character and themes. Birdie’s world and the people who populate it are brought to life in striking detail. Senna’s prose, which is by turns scintillating and stark, makes Birdie’s story truly riveting and impossible to put down.
Caucasia is divided in three sections, each one narrated by Birdie. The novel opens in Boston during the 1970s Civil Rights and Black Power movements when the city’s efforts to desegregate schools was met with white resistance and exacerbated existing racial tensions. Enter Birdie: her father Deck is a Black scholar who is deeply preoccupied with theories about race; her mother, Sandy, is from a blue-blood white woman who has come to reject her Mayflower ancestry and is quite active in the ‘fight� for Civil Rights. Birdie is incredibly close to her older sister Cole, so much so that the two have created and often communicate in their own invented language. Before their parents� rather messy break-up the two have been homeschooled, something that has sheltered them somewhat from the realities of the world. Even so, they both have been made aware of their ‘differences�. Whereas Cole resembles her dad, Birdie is paler and has straight hair, something that leads people to assume that she is white or perhaps Hispanic. During their rare visits to their maternal grandmother, Cole is completely ignored while Birdie receives all of her (unwanted quite frankly) attention. Later on, Deck’s new girlfriend is shown to be openly intolerant of Birdie for not being Black enough. When the girls begin attending a Black Power School, Birdie is teased and bullied. While Birdie is in awe of Cole and dreams that she could look like her, she's also peripherally aware of the privileges afforded to her by her appearance. We also see how Sandy, their mother, for all her talk, treats Birdie and Cole differently (there is a scene in which she implies that unlike Birdie Cole should not be worried about paedophiles/serial killers). Sandy also struggles to help Cole with her hair, and soon their mutual frustration with each other morphs into something more difficult to bridge. When Sandy gets involved in some 'shady' activities her relationship with Cole sours further.
Birdie’s life is upended when Sandy, convinced the FBI is after her, flees Boston. In pursuit of racial equality Deck and his girlfriend go to Brazil, taking Cole with them, while Birdie is forced to leave Boston with Sandie.
Sandie believes that the only way to escape the feds is to use Birdie’s ‘ambiguous� body to their advantage. Not only does Birdie have no choice but to pass but it is her mother who chooses her ‘white� identity, that of Jesse Goldman.
The two settle in New Hampshire where Birdie struggles to adjust to new life. While the two spend some time in a women’s commune, they eventually move out and into a predominantly white town. Sandy’s paranoia leads her to distrust others, and secretiveness and suspicion become fixtures in their lives. Being forced to pass and being forced to pretend that her sister and father never existed alienate Birdie (from her own self, from Sandy, and from other people). She cannot truly connect to those around her given that she has to pretend that she is a white Jewish girl. She eventually makes friends and in her attempts to fit in emulates the way they speak and act. Because the people around her believe she is white they are quite openly racist, and time and again Birdie finds herself confronted with racist individuals. other people’s racism.
Senna captures with painful clarity the discomfort that many girls experience in their pre and early teens. For a lot of the novel, Birdie doesn’t really know who she is and who she wants to be, and because of this, she looks at the girls and women around her. But by doing this, she is merely imitating them, and not really figuring out her identity. In addition to having to perform whiteness, Birdie denies her own queerness.
As with Symptomatic and New People, Senna provides a razor-sharp commentary on race and identity. While Caucasia is easily the author's least disquieting work, it still invokes a sense of unease in the reader. On the one hand, we are worried for Birdie, who is clearly unhappy and lost. On the other hand, we encounter quite a few people who are horrible and there are many disquieting scenes. Yet, Senna doesn’t condemn her characters, and in fact, there are quite a few instances where I was touched by the empathy she shows towards them (I’m thinking of Sandy in particular).
It provides a narrative in which its main character is made to feel time and again 'Other', which aggravates the disconnect she experiences between her physical appearance and self. The people around her often express a binary view of race, where you are either/or but not both. Because of this Birdie struggles to define herself, especially when she has to pass as white.
Senna subverts the usual passing narrative: unlike other authors, she doesn’t indict her passer by employing the ‘tragic mulatta� trope. Throughout the narrative, Senna underscores how racial identity is a social construct and not a biological fact. However, she also shows the legacies of slavery and segregation in this supposedly ‘post-racial� America as well as the concrete realities that race have in everyday life (Deck being questioned by the police, the disparities between the way Cole and Birdie are treated, the racism and prejudice expressed by so many characters, the way Samantha is treated at school).
Throughout the narrative Senna raises many thought-provoking points, opening the space for in-depth and nuanced discussions on identity, performativity, peer pressure, and sexuality.
The realism of Birdie’s experiences was such that I felt that I was reading a memoir (and there are some definite parallels between Birdie and Senna). If you found and to be compelling reads I thoroughly recommend you check out Caucasia. I can also see this coming of age appealing to fans of Elena Ferrante's The Lying Life of Adults. While they do not touch upon the same issues, they both hone in on the alienation experienced by young girls whose fraught path from childhood to adolescence make them aware of painful truths and realizations (that they are not necessarily good or beautiful, that the people around them aren’t either, that adults and parents can be selfish and liars, that not all parents love their children). I would also compare Caucasia to Monkey Beach which is also an emotionally intelligent and thoughtful coming-of-age. And, of course, if you are interested in passing narratives such as Passing and The Vanishing Half you should really check out all of Senna's books.
The novel's closing act is extremely rewarding and heart-rendering. Curiously enough the first time I read this I appreciated it but did not love it. This second time around…it won me over. Completely. Birdie is such a realistic character, and I loved, in spite or maybe because, of her flaws. Her story arc is utterly absorbing and I struggled to tear my eyes away from the page (even if I had already read this and therefore knew what would happen next). Senna’s dialogues ring true to life and so do the scenarios she explores. Birdie’s voice is unforgettable and I can’t wait to re-read this again.
edit: I will say that although Birdie yearns to be seen as Black and is generally dismissive of whiteness and western beauty standards, she inevitably, given to all the racism and colourism she is exposed to in New Hampshire and by her grandmother, struggles with internalised racism. The way she views and describes the girls and women around her might also come across as dated, especially when it comes to her mother's weight. Additionally, at school Birdie is also thrown into a microcosm where ableism, fatphobia, and slut-shaming are the norm. Given that this was published in the late 90s and that the story is set in the 70s and 80s, I saw it as reflecting a particular voice (that of a teen) and time period...so I guess if you do not vibe with books with content like that you might want to put this on the back-burner.
July 4, 2020
Think about the things you say when you think you are in a safe space. Think about the things that your safe space is composed of. The tangible, the intangible, the physical, the mental, the emotional. For Birdie, the star of Caucasia, there were moments when her skin was a safe space to some. Because she was a white girl.
But that's only halfway true since she was also a Black girl. You just wouldn't know by looking at her that her father was Black. Some characters in this novel might have adjusted some of their comments & reserved them for a space they deemed "more safe" had they possessed this information.
Caucasia is an autobiographical debut on a few levels. Danzy Senna, like Birdie Lee, is a fair-skinned biracial individual. Like Birdie Lee, she was born in Boston. Like Birdie Lee, her mother is white, her father Black. Like Birdie Lee, both of her parents were Civil Rights activists. That personal experience helped this novel shine & become a novel that stands next to Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye as a great foundation for tackling race in fiction.
In Caucasia Birdie Lee has a darker skinned older sister named Cole who she wants to be just like. They are so close-knit that they developed their own language called elemeno. Their parents Deck (the father) & Sandy (the mother) are both revolutionaries whose relationship is going through a trying time, not only because of the revolution, but also because of wandering interests. One thing leads to another & the family splits up. Fittingly by their skin tones since Deck takes off with Cole & Sandy with Birdie.
After the split we follow Sandy & Birdie from the 70s through to the 80s as they both "pass." The main mission: Birdie gets a reunion with Cole.
Not only is Caucasia a great starting point for race being tackled in fiction, but it also hilarious. A novel of deception, coming of age, performance & exposure. Exposure of the foolishness of that exists within race & exposure of the complete foolishness that is racism.
Caucasia does the thing best that many people claim to do with their humor & entertainment: it helps you laugh at your pain.
But that's only halfway true since she was also a Black girl. You just wouldn't know by looking at her that her father was Black. Some characters in this novel might have adjusted some of their comments & reserved them for a space they deemed "more safe" had they possessed this information.
Caucasia is an autobiographical debut on a few levels. Danzy Senna, like Birdie Lee, is a fair-skinned biracial individual. Like Birdie Lee, she was born in Boston. Like Birdie Lee, her mother is white, her father Black. Like Birdie Lee, both of her parents were Civil Rights activists. That personal experience helped this novel shine & become a novel that stands next to Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye as a great foundation for tackling race in fiction.
In Caucasia Birdie Lee has a darker skinned older sister named Cole who she wants to be just like. They are so close-knit that they developed their own language called elemeno. Their parents Deck (the father) & Sandy (the mother) are both revolutionaries whose relationship is going through a trying time, not only because of the revolution, but also because of wandering interests. One thing leads to another & the family splits up. Fittingly by their skin tones since Deck takes off with Cole & Sandy with Birdie.
After the split we follow Sandy & Birdie from the 70s through to the 80s as they both "pass." The main mission: Birdie gets a reunion with Cole.
Not only is Caucasia a great starting point for race being tackled in fiction, but it also hilarious. A novel of deception, coming of age, performance & exposure. Exposure of the foolishness of that exists within race & exposure of the complete foolishness that is racism.
Caucasia does the thing best that many people claim to do with their humor & entertainment: it helps you laugh at your pain.
May 14, 2008
The first time I read this book was on a a rainy bus ride in the San Francisco bay area, and I surprised myself by finding myself crying, for it in many ways spoke of my own multiracial experience, albeit in highly fictionalized form.
's first novel, Caucasia, is a story of traumatic dislocation, disorientation, and confused ethnic identity, set in 1970s and 80s Boston and intermittently in other places. It's the story of Birdie Lee, her older sister, and her parents--the neurotic, broken white mother, and the proud, embittered academic father. Both parents are torn apart in the very maelstrom of racial tension that divides 1970's Boston. Senna uses the time backdrop expertly in conveying the tension and the give and take of racial dynamics in America. While some of the storytelling is uneven, particularly in some of the stretches where Birdie and her mother take to the road (the commune is one of the weaker stretches, New Hampshire one of the best), I was entranced by a novel that unflinchingly spoke of a yearning, a depression, a central conflict that I could so deeply understand. The title, that of an imaginary Caucasia that race boxes have depicted, speaks achingly across the void the Lee family experiences, and continues throughout the entirety of the novel. A gripping read, that I'd recommend to everyone, and one of my favourite books ever written.
's first novel, Caucasia, is a story of traumatic dislocation, disorientation, and confused ethnic identity, set in 1970s and 80s Boston and intermittently in other places. It's the story of Birdie Lee, her older sister, and her parents--the neurotic, broken white mother, and the proud, embittered academic father. Both parents are torn apart in the very maelstrom of racial tension that divides 1970's Boston. Senna uses the time backdrop expertly in conveying the tension and the give and take of racial dynamics in America. While some of the storytelling is uneven, particularly in some of the stretches where Birdie and her mother take to the road (the commune is one of the weaker stretches, New Hampshire one of the best), I was entranced by a novel that unflinchingly spoke of a yearning, a depression, a central conflict that I could so deeply understand. The title, that of an imaginary Caucasia that race boxes have depicted, speaks achingly across the void the Lee family experiences, and continues throughout the entirety of the novel. A gripping read, that I'd recommend to everyone, and one of my favourite books ever written.
October 3, 2024
As perfect as perfect can get.
March 21, 2017
In a world where we struggle to find our place, issues of race, sex, gender, sexuality and religion strive to complicate matters. In this debut novel of , she explores all five, without the goal of solving their complexities, but understanding them better.
Birdie Lee, a daughter of the revolution, deciphers a society where she was born to "pass" as a spy of sorts between black and white - never grasping hold of her fit. Where does she belong among the nuances of both camps? Since her parents are 1970s radicals, one camp forces itself upon her as her white mother, Sandy, informs her that she will live as a white, Jewish girl in New Hampshire to protect the both of them from the FBI. Birdie's never comfortable with the implications of such a choice, but she deals, while searching for her sister, Cole, also mixed but able to fit inside the black camp, and her father, Deck.
While playing spy, she realizes what some whites say and feel where comforted by anonymity, away from those they may offend. Such experiences drive her to seek her black side and live with them. But, she's not as comfortable as she expects (though she does feel better among them) as there are communal survival tips she has to master to fully feel "in". Will she meet the members of her other half again? Will they accept her and welcome her back in their newly-fanged lives? .
Pros: Birdie's naivete is slight and she grasps matters as they come in a bittersweet way, never happy or cliched. Fast paced. Well-developed characters. Understanding of a muddled world - nothing's tidied by the book's end, which some books can try to "pass" off onto their readers.
No cons. Sorry. It's a good read for a debut novel. I can't help but think Senna put in some of herself in this novel because the words read true, not from her imagination, as a mixed woman herself.
Highly recommended. Read with open eyes, not closed minds.
Birdie Lee, a daughter of the revolution, deciphers a society where she was born to "pass" as a spy of sorts between black and white - never grasping hold of her fit. Where does she belong among the nuances of both camps? Since her parents are 1970s radicals, one camp forces itself upon her as her white mother, Sandy, informs her that she will live as a white, Jewish girl in New Hampshire to protect the both of them from the FBI. Birdie's never comfortable with the implications of such a choice, but she deals, while searching for her sister, Cole, also mixed but able to fit inside the black camp, and her father, Deck.
While playing spy, she realizes what some whites say and feel where comforted by anonymity, away from those they may offend. Such experiences drive her to seek her black side and live with them. But, she's not as comfortable as she expects (though she does feel better among them) as there are communal survival tips she has to master to fully feel "in". Will she meet the members of her other half again? Will they accept her and welcome her back in their newly-fanged lives? .
Pros: Birdie's naivete is slight and she grasps matters as they come in a bittersweet way, never happy or cliched. Fast paced. Well-developed characters. Understanding of a muddled world - nothing's tidied by the book's end, which some books can try to "pass" off onto their readers.
No cons. Sorry. It's a good read for a debut novel. I can't help but think Senna put in some of herself in this novel because the words read true, not from her imagination, as a mixed woman herself.
Highly recommended. Read with open eyes, not closed minds.
December 28, 2016
Caucasia was a really good novel.
In fact, I had known that it was so intriguing a read, I would have read it sooner. This was a book that has been on the shelves for so long that I actually forgot about it. It may be a book that has been out for so long that many have forgotten about it because I never hear it mentioned in book circles nor have I seen it on anyone's reading list to remind us of its existence. I think it would be a great book club or discussion read because it brings up so many points about race in our ever changing yet stagnant society that it leads one into a mode of self assessment. I started asking myself questions about how I view things, how I have been viewed and what I have observed about the viewing of race. All these things become a topic of discussion because of a story about two girls who are the same, yet different and their adventure in a world that likes to talk about equality but acts with difference.
Sisters Cole aka Colette and Birdie Lee's parents were a mixed race couple who married in the late sixties. Their father Deck was a professor and their mother Sandy was a liberal from a well to do Boston family. They were ver active in politics and the Black Power movement. They both seemed to view their family in the scope of the Revolution. Sandy seemed to constantly want to prove that she was not a part of the racist white upper middle class. She wanted to prove that she was tough, that she got along with everyone regardless of their from her and that she was down for the cause by any means necessary and she wasn't afraid to put action behind it. Deck was philosophical about his views on race. He was obsessed with proving his sociological points about race that not only was it his constant subject of conversation but it seemed he viewed his own mixed family as a scientific experiment that he wrote books about.
Of the two mixed children, Cole is more brown with curly hair and is unmistakable a black child. Birdie is more fair skinned with straight hair and could pass. This book deals a lot with how the two were excepted in the world and even by their own parents. Add on top of these issues the adventure and it makes for very interesting reading. The adventure? The adventure really begins when their parents political views in 1976 cause a reaction that changes all their lives forever. I don't want to give the story away but it's monumental and you will be emotionally involved in this book. Two narcissists in the name of freedom affect two young lives.
I'm giving this 4 stars. I definitely recommend reading this: it's historical, geographical, to understand race, to identify with race, to ask yourself some heavy race questions, to note how parental actions shape or break young lives. I related to a lot of things a lot and was educated on a point of view for others. I can't believe no one is talking about this book anymore. It is worth so much dissection. I would read more by this author.
Sisters Cole aka Colette and Birdie Lee's parents were a mixed race couple who married in the late sixties. Their father Deck was a professor and their mother Sandy was a liberal from a well to do Boston family. They were ver active in politics and the Black Power movement. They both seemed to view their family in the scope of the Revolution. Sandy seemed to constantly want to prove that she was not a part of the racist white upper middle class. She wanted to prove that she was tough, that she got along with everyone regardless of their from her and that she was down for the cause by any means necessary and she wasn't afraid to put action behind it. Deck was philosophical about his views on race. He was obsessed with proving his sociological points about race that not only was it his constant subject of conversation but it seemed he viewed his own mixed family as a scientific experiment that he wrote books about.
Of the two mixed children, Cole is more brown with curly hair and is unmistakable a black child. Birdie is more fair skinned with straight hair and could pass. This book deals a lot with how the two were excepted in the world and even by their own parents. Add on top of these issues the adventure and it makes for very interesting reading. The adventure? The adventure really begins when their parents political views in 1976 cause a reaction that changes all their lives forever. I don't want to give the story away but it's monumental and you will be emotionally involved in this book. Two narcissists in the name of freedom affect two young lives.
I'm giving this 4 stars. I definitely recommend reading this: it's historical, geographical, to understand race, to identify with race, to ask yourself some heavy race questions, to note how parental actions shape or break young lives. I related to a lot of things a lot and was educated on a point of view for others. I can't believe no one is talking about this book anymore. It is worth so much dissection. I would read more by this author.
October 21, 2007
From this book came the passage that inspired the amazing Seattle hip hop duo, Canary Sing:
"The mulatto in America functions as a canary in a coal mine. Canaries were used by coal miners to gauge how poisonous the air underground was. They would bring a canary in with them, and if it grew sick and died they knew the air was bad and eventually everyone would be poisoned by the fumes. Likewise, mulattos have historically been the gauge of how poisonous American race relations were. The fate of the mulatto in history and literature will manifest the symptoms that will eventually infect the rest of the nation. We are the first generation of canaries to survive, a little injured perhaps, but alive!"
"The mulatto in America functions as a canary in a coal mine. Canaries were used by coal miners to gauge how poisonous the air underground was. They would bring a canary in with them, and if it grew sick and died they knew the air was bad and eventually everyone would be poisoned by the fumes. Likewise, mulattos have historically been the gauge of how poisonous American race relations were. The fate of the mulatto in history and literature will manifest the symptoms that will eventually infect the rest of the nation. We are the first generation of canaries to survive, a little injured perhaps, but alive!"
August 9, 2015
Someone somewhere said that this author was underrated and they were right. This book was so good it hurt. Being biracial myself I idebtified with a lot, but also ached for the protagonist and her forced separation from her community. So, so good.
February 16, 2024
Engaging and enjoyable coming of age novel about biracial sisters in the 1970s. Narrator Birdie and her older sister Cole are biracial, and when we meet them as young children, their parents� marriage is coming apart - parents Sandy and Deck are both radicals, but their personalities and different perspectives on radicalism are pulling them in different directions. An additional tension is that Birdie looks white, while Cole looks black. At their Black pride-oriented school, Birdie is the odd one out, and her father’s new girlfriend looks down on her. However, their blue-blooded grandmother ignores Cole. The girls� lives take dramatically different paths, as they are split between the parents, leaving Birdie to grapple with ‘passing� for white in her new life with her mother.
There was so much to think about in this - the freedom and the enormous constraints Birdie faces while passing, the racist things she hears her new friends say - the role played by class, as Birdie’s mom wants her to get to know the salt of the earth people in their new home - the changing ideas of race that various characters have. Birdie’s voice and some of the things she’s able to do were maybe not quite in keeping with her age, but it was a meaty, good read.
There was so much to think about in this - the freedom and the enormous constraints Birdie faces while passing, the racist things she hears her new friends say - the role played by class, as Birdie’s mom wants her to get to know the salt of the earth people in their new home - the changing ideas of race that various characters have. Birdie’s voice and some of the things she’s able to do were maybe not quite in keeping with her age, but it was a meaty, good read.
April 10, 2024
This book has been on my TBR for years, nearly forgotten, until I read an interview with Percival Everett where he mentioned that Senna is his wife, and according to him the funny one in the family. I hate to admit that I finally picked up this book because of Senna's spouse, but it is true -- not because she married well, but because I trust Everett's taste in literature without question and I assume he would not marry a bad writer. This is illogical, but I am a romantic. In this case, it also appears I am 100% correct. Senna is a wonderful writer and has a unique perspective, a sharp dry wit, and an eye for finding pathos in the most unexpected places. I also love that Senna is not afraid to leave giant questions to the reader, if you are afraid of ambiguity this is not for you. This book lives in that gray truth, that everyone is experiencing everything differently, that you can be sitting beside someone having an experience, and only parts of it are shared, most of the experience is what each unique person brings to the moment.
I don't want to talk too much about the story because I don't think I can do that without ruining some of its surprises, but I will share the setup. We see this story through the eyes of Birdie Lee, the youngest daughter of an interracial couple in 1960s Boston. Her parents are both involved in the Black Power movement, her Black father as an academic and her White mother as a committed if erratic revolutionary running from her Boston Brahmin past. Birdie and her sister Cole are collateral damage as their parents' marriage and the Black Power movement implode. Cole is dark-skinned and nappy-haired (the only family member able to pick out a decent afro) and Birdie is light-skinned and straight-haired, with people assuming she is Sicilian, Puerto Rican, and Jewish in different parts of the story. Their lives after the implosion (and to a lesser extent even before the implosion) are defined in many ways by the way people perceive their race. It was interesting how Senna ground the "race is a construct" discussion under her heel because for these purposes, for these little girls, it just does not matter if it is a construct, it is their reality and the world makes them choose up sides, or more accurately the world chooses for them. They create an alternate world and language, Elemeno, where there is no such thing as race, and where everyone can transform at will, but sadly they are the only two who live there.
This is where I am going to stop talking about what happens in the story, though for those interested I am sure other reviews cover it. I have not read other reviews, and I enjoyed being surprised by the way the story rolled out. I will say that the story places Birdie in different environments, and those changes impact everything about her life. I liked seeing how race was a sort of aggravating factor in other experiences and facts such as physically maturing, being the new kid in school, connecting to romantic partners, and pursuing academic success.
Ultimately I found this story challenging and moving and also really engrossing. Birdie is a great companion to travel with. She is wise and a bit world-weary but she is also a child and Senna never loses sight of that.
I don't want to talk too much about the story because I don't think I can do that without ruining some of its surprises, but I will share the setup. We see this story through the eyes of Birdie Lee, the youngest daughter of an interracial couple in 1960s Boston. Her parents are both involved in the Black Power movement, her Black father as an academic and her White mother as a committed if erratic revolutionary running from her Boston Brahmin past. Birdie and her sister Cole are collateral damage as their parents' marriage and the Black Power movement implode. Cole is dark-skinned and nappy-haired (the only family member able to pick out a decent afro) and Birdie is light-skinned and straight-haired, with people assuming she is Sicilian, Puerto Rican, and Jewish in different parts of the story. Their lives after the implosion (and to a lesser extent even before the implosion) are defined in many ways by the way people perceive their race. It was interesting how Senna ground the "race is a construct" discussion under her heel because for these purposes, for these little girls, it just does not matter if it is a construct, it is their reality and the world makes them choose up sides, or more accurately the world chooses for them. They create an alternate world and language, Elemeno, where there is no such thing as race, and where everyone can transform at will, but sadly they are the only two who live there.
This is where I am going to stop talking about what happens in the story, though for those interested I am sure other reviews cover it. I have not read other reviews, and I enjoyed being surprised by the way the story rolled out. I will say that the story places Birdie in different environments, and those changes impact everything about her life. I liked seeing how race was a sort of aggravating factor in other experiences and facts such as physically maturing, being the new kid in school, connecting to romantic partners, and pursuing academic success.
Ultimately I found this story challenging and moving and also really engrossing. Birdie is a great companion to travel with. She is wise and a bit world-weary but she is also a child and Senna never loses sight of that.
July 22, 2015
Sandy is the daughter of a white New England family steeped in certain WASPish traditions and perspectives, a way she is familiar with, yet wishes to challenge both physically and vociferously. Deck Lee was one of Sandy's father's students,an intellectual, his head full of ideas, his motivation always to pursue them and commit them to paper. The two fall in love, their marriage Sandy's ultimate rebellious act, Deck is black.
But the story isn't really about these two, the intellectual and the practical parent, but their daughters, Birdie and Cole, girls who have traces of their parents and grandparents within them, traces they won't see until much later.
Birdie and Cole are so close, they have their own made up language they speak fluently, that no one else can understand. The rest of society judges them on appearance, for Birdie appears white and her older sister Cole appears to be black.
When their parents relationship comes under the strain of their mother's activism (activities that atract the attention of the FBI), and their father's intellectual distance and obsession with pursuing it, the girls are separated, Cole going to Brazil with her father, attracted by her father's black girlfriend who knows how to deal with her hair, acting on adolescent impulses and Birdie whose lighter skin means she can pass as a white girl, goes on the run with her mother assuming a new identity.
The novel is seen through the eyes of Birdie, growing up as just another daughter of these two parents and yet marked by the colour of her skin. The sisters are close and yet their experiences are different, they will slip in and out of identites only to come back to who they always were, a mix of everything that came before and that unique aspect that makes them themsemves.
While their parents are together it is less of an issue, but once they separate and move away from each other, each daughter departing with one parent, they will discover how much their colour dictates other people’s perceptions of them. Cole leaves for Brazil with her father and Birdie is on the run with her white activist mother fleeing the authorities.
The story is narrated from the point of view of Birdie and although she feels just like her sister, there were already signs of their differences in the behaviour of those closest to them. Her white grandmothers favouritism, and her father’s new girlfriend who won’t look her in the eye, favoured by one, rejected by the other.
Birdie travels with her mother, losing all contact with her sister and father and integrates into a new life and school as someone she is not, she accepts it, but the truth seethes beneath the surface of all her interactions, she becomes numb to the misconceptions about who she is, until she has had enough and decides to go looking for Cole and her father.
It is a gripping coming of age story of a girl who must deal with so much more than growing up, being forced to subsume another identity, neither one thing nor the other, without a role model to guide her.
A courageous effort to place the reader in the mind of a character who is like a changeling, crossing racial and geographic boundaries, making choices that will ensure not just her survival, but that she gets the answers she is looking for. A thought provoking debut, with a memorable narrator, in a situation that deserves to be experienced or at least imagined by everyone.
My complete review , including a discussion of Senna's New Yorker review of Fran Ross'es overlooked classic Oreo, republished in July 2015.
But the story isn't really about these two, the intellectual and the practical parent, but their daughters, Birdie and Cole, girls who have traces of their parents and grandparents within them, traces they won't see until much later.
Birdie and Cole are so close, they have their own made up language they speak fluently, that no one else can understand. The rest of society judges them on appearance, for Birdie appears white and her older sister Cole appears to be black.
When their parents relationship comes under the strain of their mother's activism (activities that atract the attention of the FBI), and their father's intellectual distance and obsession with pursuing it, the girls are separated, Cole going to Brazil with her father, attracted by her father's black girlfriend who knows how to deal with her hair, acting on adolescent impulses and Birdie whose lighter skin means she can pass as a white girl, goes on the run with her mother assuming a new identity.
The novel is seen through the eyes of Birdie, growing up as just another daughter of these two parents and yet marked by the colour of her skin. The sisters are close and yet their experiences are different, they will slip in and out of identites only to come back to who they always were, a mix of everything that came before and that unique aspect that makes them themsemves.
While their parents are together it is less of an issue, but once they separate and move away from each other, each daughter departing with one parent, they will discover how much their colour dictates other people’s perceptions of them. Cole leaves for Brazil with her father and Birdie is on the run with her white activist mother fleeing the authorities.
The story is narrated from the point of view of Birdie and although she feels just like her sister, there were already signs of their differences in the behaviour of those closest to them. Her white grandmothers favouritism, and her father’s new girlfriend who won’t look her in the eye, favoured by one, rejected by the other.
Birdie travels with her mother, losing all contact with her sister and father and integrates into a new life and school as someone she is not, she accepts it, but the truth seethes beneath the surface of all her interactions, she becomes numb to the misconceptions about who she is, until she has had enough and decides to go looking for Cole and her father.
“Strange as it may sound, there was safety in this pantomime. The less I behaved like myself, the more I could believe that this was still a game. That my real self � Birdie Lee � was safely hidden my beige flesh, and that when the right moment came, I would reveal her, preserved, frozen solid in the moment in which I had left her.�
It is a gripping coming of age story of a girl who must deal with so much more than growing up, being forced to subsume another identity, neither one thing nor the other, without a role model to guide her.
A courageous effort to place the reader in the mind of a character who is like a changeling, crossing racial and geographic boundaries, making choices that will ensure not just her survival, but that she gets the answers she is looking for. A thought provoking debut, with a memorable narrator, in a situation that deserves to be experienced or at least imagined by everyone.
My complete review , including a discussion of Senna's New Yorker review of Fran Ross'es overlooked classic Oreo, republished in July 2015.
February 8, 2013
This is a perfect novel. It's not only a good story with great complicated compelling characters it really tells us a lot about the way race impacts our relationships with one another, and how that changes in time and place. I'm white and grew up in a small town in the South in the late 70s and 80s and the portrayal of small town white culture in that era is painfully accurate: the overt yet casual racism, the way we saw black people as so foreign and different, dangerous yet cool. We were desegregated but still worlds apart. It's changing but so slowly it's almost imperceptible.
Senna's characters are so well developed, multilayered and complicated but they're also universal. In my own life's journey I have met all these characters: white people doing anti-racism work, radical intellectuals who seem to forget about the humanity of their subjects, activists who get carried away by dogma and do the same and liberals who don't practice what they preach. The almost palpable way this impacts the lives of these two sisters is incredibly moving and unforgettable.
All the above are reasons why a book becomes a classic, it stands out as not just a good read but an important piece of art with something to say about the human experience. I hope it's on lots of high school reading lists. It's certainly going to be for me part of my personal cannon of great literature.
Senna's characters are so well developed, multilayered and complicated but they're also universal. In my own life's journey I have met all these characters: white people doing anti-racism work, radical intellectuals who seem to forget about the humanity of their subjects, activists who get carried away by dogma and do the same and liberals who don't practice what they preach. The almost palpable way this impacts the lives of these two sisters is incredibly moving and unforgettable.
All the above are reasons why a book becomes a classic, it stands out as not just a good read but an important piece of art with something to say about the human experience. I hope it's on lots of high school reading lists. It's certainly going to be for me part of my personal cannon of great literature.
February 7, 2023
I thought this was really great. A bit unexpected. Rtc
4.5 Stars
Listened to Audible. January LaVoy was excellent!
4.5 Stars
Listened to Audible. January LaVoy was excellent!
September 15, 2011
In a way, this book makes the reader understand why Mariah Carey said she felt confused as a child about who she was¹. The pain of being neither here nor there for the main character, Birdie, was well written and successfully gets the reader to empathize with her. Sadly, that’s about the only good thing in this book.
Caucasia is split into three sections. The first is about Birdie’s African-American roots and her relationship with her father. The second, about looking caucasian like her mother. And finally, about her finding her place in the world. The first section was more fulfilling because not only are we introduced to Birdie, but we also see how she’s treated by African-Americans, Caucasians and her own family. We see a little girl lost in a sea of racism, favoritism and childish adults.
It is while reading the second part of this novel that the story begins to fall apart. Birdie’s childish demeanor begins to get annoying and every situation she’s placed in is uneventful and even somewhat forgettable. In the last part, as Birdie begins to speak her thoughts out loud, she regains the respect of the reader and shows depth to her character, except the reactions and development of the environment to her newfound character is unsatisfying and lacks the drama. Instead, the novel comes to an unsatisfying conclusion, which leaves the reader hanging and NOT in a good way. Quite honestly, the second and third parts of the novel could be shortened from 230 or so odd pages to about 100 pages.
Surprisingly, as disappointing as this book was, it is still a recommended read. Although the characters were not fully developed, the author’s description of the racial tension in America during the late 60s, 70s and early 80s was perceptive, as she throws you into a world of oppression and ignorance. That, is the winning element in this novel.
Caucasia is split into three sections. The first is about Birdie’s African-American roots and her relationship with her father. The second, about looking caucasian like her mother. And finally, about her finding her place in the world. The first section was more fulfilling because not only are we introduced to Birdie, but we also see how she’s treated by African-Americans, Caucasians and her own family. We see a little girl lost in a sea of racism, favoritism and childish adults.
It is while reading the second part of this novel that the story begins to fall apart. Birdie’s childish demeanor begins to get annoying and every situation she’s placed in is uneventful and even somewhat forgettable. In the last part, as Birdie begins to speak her thoughts out loud, she regains the respect of the reader and shows depth to her character, except the reactions and development of the environment to her newfound character is unsatisfying and lacks the drama. Instead, the novel comes to an unsatisfying conclusion, which leaves the reader hanging and NOT in a good way. Quite honestly, the second and third parts of the novel could be shortened from 230 or so odd pages to about 100 pages.
Surprisingly, as disappointing as this book was, it is still a recommended read. Although the characters were not fully developed, the author’s description of the racial tension in America during the late 60s, 70s and early 80s was perceptive, as she throws you into a world of oppression and ignorance. That, is the winning element in this novel.
April 29, 2012
This is my favorite book I've read so far in my Introduction to College Literature class because it was the only one whose characters have really spoken to me in a way that wasn't preachy or highly metaphorical.
Birdie, the main character, is a young mixed race girl growing up in Boston in the late seventies with her white mother, black father, and sister Cole, who is darker than her. Birdie can pass as white, and she feels like she doesn't fit in anywhere or in any race. Her mother, a radical activist who is involved in some sort of dangerous activity we are never fully informed about, ends up having to leave, and she takes Birdie with her. Birdie's father, a Black Power activist and scholar, takes Cole and leaves to Brazil. The sisters are seperated, and Birdie is taken from her only friend and the only role model she has. She discovers the hard way that she does not look like Cole, and Cole is not a mirror for her like other sisters. Nobody looks like Birdie and she is very alone.
She goes through experiences with poverty, homelessness, her mother's deep paranoia, and her own sexuality as she tries to discover her place in the world. This book gets you really close to Birdie and her narration is so believable and at times really heartbreaking. I love the way she reacts to people, to their racism and ignorance and misguided kindness, and she is one of my favorite protagonists that I have read in awhile.
This is an important book. I've never read a fiction book on the topic of what it is like to be a mixed race child and not having a role model who looks like you, and I thought it was such a vast and interesting story. I definitely recommend it to everyone looking for a book on a topic they may not have read much about.
Birdie, the main character, is a young mixed race girl growing up in Boston in the late seventies with her white mother, black father, and sister Cole, who is darker than her. Birdie can pass as white, and she feels like she doesn't fit in anywhere or in any race. Her mother, a radical activist who is involved in some sort of dangerous activity we are never fully informed about, ends up having to leave, and she takes Birdie with her. Birdie's father, a Black Power activist and scholar, takes Cole and leaves to Brazil. The sisters are seperated, and Birdie is taken from her only friend and the only role model she has. She discovers the hard way that she does not look like Cole, and Cole is not a mirror for her like other sisters. Nobody looks like Birdie and she is very alone.
She goes through experiences with poverty, homelessness, her mother's deep paranoia, and her own sexuality as she tries to discover her place in the world. This book gets you really close to Birdie and her narration is so believable and at times really heartbreaking. I love the way she reacts to people, to their racism and ignorance and misguided kindness, and she is one of my favorite protagonists that I have read in awhile.
This is an important book. I've never read a fiction book on the topic of what it is like to be a mixed race child and not having a role model who looks like you, and I thought it was such a vast and interesting story. I definitely recommend it to everyone looking for a book on a topic they may not have read much about.
October 19, 2012
This is one of the best reads I have had in a while. Senna touches a number of controversial social constructions with delicacy. This is a must-read.
June 21, 2024
Finished a book today! This was definitely something 😩🚬🚬 Stressed out through 95 percent of the book in straight Melanatedreader fashion 🫠 I’m ready to tell my story 😵�
September 10, 2016
Caucasia by Danzy Senna asks the question on every mixed persons mind;caucasia-novel
"What color do you think I am?"
Birdie Lees mom is white. Her father is Black. Her sister Cole is a smooth coffee color. Birdie could be Sicilian. Or Jewish. Maybe Pakistani.
Its 1975 in Boston Massachusetts and a revolution is brewing. Deck Lee has discovered the Black Power movement and he wants his daughters to know that in racist America you are either black or you are white. No daughter of his is going to pass. Sandy Lee says he's an over intellectualized ass who needs to get his nose out of his books and get his hands dirty for the cause. Their arguing keeps Birdie awake at night.
During the day Birdie struggles with what it means to be Black; as her sister begins cornrowing her hair and receiving "Negritude for Beginners" lessons from their Papa, Birdie finds herself being picked on at their all black school "Black is beautiful" "Then you must be ugly". And while she absorbs her fathers lesson in Black Pride with interest he only seems to focus his attentions on Cole who couldn't care less.
When the political situation in Boston finally reaches its boiling point the Lees make a decision that will rock Birdies world. Cole leaves with her father to greener pastures and Birdie must pass as white while on the run with her mother.
This novel is a coming of age story like no other I've ever read. Birdie must deal with the struggles of friendships, boys, her relationship with her mother all while experiencing the existential identity crisis that goes along with being biracial in America. Not only biracial but biracial living as white. Something that to Birdie, and many mixed people, feels like a slap in the face to herself, her people, her father. She clings to her blackness even as she hides it. She rebels against white America even as she becomes a part of it.
This novel is extremely personal for me and its hard not to write this review as one sentence; PLEASE READ THIS BOOK I NEED YOU TO READ THIS BOOK! For me, the story of the American mulatto is, well its my story. From Queen, to Birdie, to me. Our story is integral to the story of race relations in the country.
". . .the mulatto in America functions as a canary in the coal mine. The canaries, he said, were used by coal miners to gauge how poisonous the air underground was. . . likewise, mulattos had historically been the gauge of how poisonous American race relations were. The fate of the mulatto in history and in literature, he said, will manifest the symptoms that will eventually infect the rest of the nation." wp_20160909_002
No one wants to tell our story though and we have been much to shy about telling it ourselves. Until I stumbled upon this beautiful novel I used to tell people "The only time you see a mixed person in literature we are not characters, we are the evidence" I still hold to that but as I discover more books like those by Danzy Senna I know that one day talking about the biracial experience will be second nature, just as talking about the Black experience is becoming more mainstream. What makes Caucasia so special is not that it is a book about race, because its not. Its is a book about self. About growth. Its about a young girl coming to grips with her reality, and for mixed people race is an everyday reality.
"He says there's no such thing as race."
"He's right you know. About it all being constructed. But"- she turned to me, looking at me intently- "that doesn't mean it doesn't exist."
"I know it does."
Caucasia has been translated into 10 languages and received a variety of literary awards. I can't say enough how well deserved this success is. Anthea Lawson of The Times in London said of it, “Senna hits no false notes in this engrossing and powerful tale of identity and misplaced idealism. The issue of race is constantly questioned, yet never overtakes the narrative itself: that of a strong-minded girl trying to find her way.� It is a beautiful work of art with heavy subject matter and a powerful message. I highly recommend Caucasia to anyone. Anyone at all.
"What color do you think I am?"
Birdie Lees mom is white. Her father is Black. Her sister Cole is a smooth coffee color. Birdie could be Sicilian. Or Jewish. Maybe Pakistani.
Its 1975 in Boston Massachusetts and a revolution is brewing. Deck Lee has discovered the Black Power movement and he wants his daughters to know that in racist America you are either black or you are white. No daughter of his is going to pass. Sandy Lee says he's an over intellectualized ass who needs to get his nose out of his books and get his hands dirty for the cause. Their arguing keeps Birdie awake at night.
During the day Birdie struggles with what it means to be Black; as her sister begins cornrowing her hair and receiving "Negritude for Beginners" lessons from their Papa, Birdie finds herself being picked on at their all black school "Black is beautiful" "Then you must be ugly". And while she absorbs her fathers lesson in Black Pride with interest he only seems to focus his attentions on Cole who couldn't care less.
When the political situation in Boston finally reaches its boiling point the Lees make a decision that will rock Birdies world. Cole leaves with her father to greener pastures and Birdie must pass as white while on the run with her mother.
This novel is a coming of age story like no other I've ever read. Birdie must deal with the struggles of friendships, boys, her relationship with her mother all while experiencing the existential identity crisis that goes along with being biracial in America. Not only biracial but biracial living as white. Something that to Birdie, and many mixed people, feels like a slap in the face to herself, her people, her father. She clings to her blackness even as she hides it. She rebels against white America even as she becomes a part of it.
This novel is extremely personal for me and its hard not to write this review as one sentence; PLEASE READ THIS BOOK I NEED YOU TO READ THIS BOOK! For me, the story of the American mulatto is, well its my story. From Queen, to Birdie, to me. Our story is integral to the story of race relations in the country.
". . .the mulatto in America functions as a canary in the coal mine. The canaries, he said, were used by coal miners to gauge how poisonous the air underground was. . . likewise, mulattos had historically been the gauge of how poisonous American race relations were. The fate of the mulatto in history and in literature, he said, will manifest the symptoms that will eventually infect the rest of the nation." wp_20160909_002
No one wants to tell our story though and we have been much to shy about telling it ourselves. Until I stumbled upon this beautiful novel I used to tell people "The only time you see a mixed person in literature we are not characters, we are the evidence" I still hold to that but as I discover more books like those by Danzy Senna I know that one day talking about the biracial experience will be second nature, just as talking about the Black experience is becoming more mainstream. What makes Caucasia so special is not that it is a book about race, because its not. Its is a book about self. About growth. Its about a young girl coming to grips with her reality, and for mixed people race is an everyday reality.
"He says there's no such thing as race."
"He's right you know. About it all being constructed. But"- she turned to me, looking at me intently- "that doesn't mean it doesn't exist."
"I know it does."
Caucasia has been translated into 10 languages and received a variety of literary awards. I can't say enough how well deserved this success is. Anthea Lawson of The Times in London said of it, “Senna hits no false notes in this engrossing and powerful tale of identity and misplaced idealism. The issue of race is constantly questioned, yet never overtakes the narrative itself: that of a strong-minded girl trying to find her way.� It is a beautiful work of art with heavy subject matter and a powerful message. I highly recommend Caucasia to anyone. Anyone at all.
December 4, 2017
Birdie and her older sister Cole are daughters of a white mother and a black father, living in Boston in the 1970s. Though the two girls share an impenetrable bond, they begin to realize as they get older that they are divided by how they look: Cole, with her dark skin, fits in with the other girls at their all-black school, while Birdie is light-skinned enough to "pass" as white.
When the girls' parents get into some trouble, the family splits apart. Their father and his new girlfriend take Cole with them to Brazil, and Birdie goes on the lam with their mother, living on the road for a few years before settling down in rural New Hampshire.
With her mother paranoid of the Feds, Birdie is forced to take on a new identity. From that point forward she is Jesse Goldman, and wears a Star of David around her neck to "pass" as Jewish instead of black. This allows her to fit in at her New Hampshire school, where the few black students are treated as pariahs.
But living this lie and denying her own identity take an inevitable toll on Birdie. Eventually, she runs away to find her father and sister.
Caucasia is a compelling and nuanced coming-of-age story about race, identity and family amid the backdrop of 1970s-1980s America. Birdie is a strong protagonist whose strength and vulnerability carry the narrative. It's always interesting to read stories like this one that help me see the world through an entirely different lens.
When the girls' parents get into some trouble, the family splits apart. Their father and his new girlfriend take Cole with them to Brazil, and Birdie goes on the lam with their mother, living on the road for a few years before settling down in rural New Hampshire.
With her mother paranoid of the Feds, Birdie is forced to take on a new identity. From that point forward she is Jesse Goldman, and wears a Star of David around her neck to "pass" as Jewish instead of black. This allows her to fit in at her New Hampshire school, where the few black students are treated as pariahs.
But living this lie and denying her own identity take an inevitable toll on Birdie. Eventually, she runs away to find her father and sister.
Caucasia is a compelling and nuanced coming-of-age story about race, identity and family amid the backdrop of 1970s-1980s America. Birdie is a strong protagonist whose strength and vulnerability carry the narrative. It's always interesting to read stories like this one that help me see the world through an entirely different lens.
December 11, 2015
I read this book many years ago and enjoyed it immensely. It maybe based on real events in the author's life. It's about two sisters, white mother, black father during the civil rights years. The father takes off with the daughter that is more black and the mother keeps the daughter that looks more white. it's an excellent story about identity and family. I enjoyed it and thought about it for a long time afterwards. It just felt honest.
September 18, 2007
Caucasia is the story of Birdie Lee, the daughter of a white mother and a black father. Birdie has an older sister, Cole, who looks like how you would expect a child of her racial mix to look - black. Birdie, on the other hand, looks white. The contrast between the two causes constant confusion, and the never-ending assumption that Birdie must be adopted. The story is told from Birdie's perspective. She is quite young when the book begins and while she seems to understand racial politics to some degree (her mother is in some sort of radical Black Panthers like group) she observes, but is unable to interpret so much of the prejudice and assumptions that go on around her. When her parents decide to split-up, Birdie leaves town with her paranoid mother who creates an entirely new (Jewish) identity for Birdie. As Birdie is forced to "pass" - she longs for her sister and the way she believes things used to be. Senna does a marvelous job capturing the mentality of a child who has been thwarted from formulating her own racial identity. Caucasia is one of the few fiction books I have read about race and passing that manages to do what all writers are taught they are supposed to do - show, not tell. Birdie's story is a painful one - and the ending of this book is a little too clean - but Senna's novel put words to a phenomenon I think is difficult to explain - the pain of looking like you belong, but knowing that you never actually will.
March 29, 2024
A fine debut novel by a promising young author. This country has a very complicated relationship with race and Caucasia is one of the more intriguing examinations of this relationship that I've read to date. Most novels about race showcase how blacks feel about whites and vice versa. But for a biracial person a whole new layer of complexity is added to the equation, especially when the decision is made to pass as exclusively white. Caucasia is a fantastic book, one that readers who love action-filled plots can appreciate as will those looking for quieter introspection on social issues that were prominent in the 1970's setting of this novel and continue without full resolution to this day. It isn't easy to understand who you are from a cultural viewpoint when you happen to belong to both sides. Do the two halves negate each other, leaving a blank to be filled by the choices you make? Do they add up for a richer, fuller comprehension of the world than that possessed by those who see themselves strictly as either one or the other? Or do the halves merge to create a unique, borderline walking perspective?
June 13, 2009
It turns out that I am a sucker for books about biracial girls working out their identities. I absolutely loved this book and couldn't shut up about it back when I read it. I haven't touched it since because I don't want to remember it as being anything other than perfect. It's the story of a biracial family in 1970s Boston: black father, white mother, and two daughters, Cole and Birdie. The parents split and the father takes the dark-skinned daughter, Cole, and the mother takes the light-skinned daughter, Birdie. The story is mostly Birdie's, and it is from her perspective that the book examines the struggle of being true to the heritage handed down from each parent and yet being your own person. It was something that was on my mind a lot at the time, and it was exactly the right book for me then.
October 10, 2018
this... is what great literature is all about. I would claim that every book should be like this book, but every book we read can't leave us feeling like this one left me - it would be too emotionally expensive. it would dilute the jewelry box that I recovered this gem from, it would make its luminosity less viciously vibrant, it would cheapen the absolutely gorgeous, tantalizing effect that its great narrative used to possess me. every book isn't like this book because then this book wouldn't stand out, and stand out it does. I fell in love with Birdie's innocence, her voice, her crest into becoming a young woman, her racial self-discovery, her astounding sensibility, her linguistic charms, her struggles in self-definition. I will be trying to find remnants of her soft voice echoed somewhere, anywhere, in every piece of literature I will read
April 16, 2013
I found it to be a little flat. Interesting idea to explore but the characters were just not that likable.
December 10, 2015
Wanted to give it 3.5 stars...It wasn't bad but I was expecting more.
June 30, 2017
I couldn't finish. Just too slow - not enough happening fast enough. A shame too because I was interested in the premise.
January 9, 2020
Amazing novel. Just perfect.
I have no words to begin describing the beauty of this piece of work. Senna is an extraordinary writer. I’m so happy this was my first read of 2020.
I have no words to begin describing the beauty of this piece of work. Senna is an extraordinary writer. I’m so happy this was my first read of 2020.
March 19, 2023
This is a tough story that challenges assertions about race and what it is like to come from a mixed race family. I am really tired as I am writing this, but the bottom line is that I am thankful that my student shared this book with me. After having read this book, I hope to be more mindful of the experiences of those around me.
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