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The Black Girl Next Door: A Memoir (2009)

by Jennifer Baszile(Favorite Author)

3.44 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1416543279 (ISBN13: 9781416543275)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Touchstone

review 1: My neighbor and mentor read this book. We had both committed on the book at one time and thought it might be an interesting read. She read it and then her husband so I read it next. It was pretty good. THe main character is taken out of a black school and put into a white one with her sister. She remembers have vandalism done to her home and her parents reactions. I did find similairites to my life which I found intersting. My father was very strict like hers and his way was the only way. My her also feared my father and at times made decisions that I thought were harfmful to look good to others. We had a fake outer life that was not the same as the inner life we led. It was all about image and perserving that image no matter what. Lessons learned in childhood stay with yo... moreu for your life and mold you into the person you are.
review 2: Baszile writes about growing up a member of one of two Black families in affluent White Palos Verde, California in the 1970s. They're greeted with racist graffiti on their sidewalk and she and her sister are one of the few Black kids in their school. She holds herself apart from intimate friendships and romance, having learned that they eventually butt up against race. While making her way in a White world, she and her sister also struggle with their parents, who fear that their girls are not Black enough. Integration was complicated for her.The first two-thirds of the book are riveting. The last third, as she enters adolescence and begins to see and rebel against the dysfunctional side of her high-achieving family, are full of less engaging long reflections and analysis about her family dynamics. Baszile was a history professor at Yale, and took on the book in order to tell her personal history. less

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