Title: CaucasiaAuthor(s): Danzy Senna
Editor(s):
Illustrator(s):
Publication Date: 1998
Two biracial sisters--one light-skinned, one dark--are separated as children. The younger, lighter girl grows into a troubled teenager, but she never forgets her beloved older sister. Can she find her sister again ... and with her sister, her self?
Plot Summary:
Seven-year-old Birdie Lee idolizes her big sister, Cole. Growing up biracial in 1970s Boston, she needs Cole's protection and support to cope with the racial tensions of the time (see "Boston busing desegregation").
The two girls are so close that they have developed a secret language, "Elemeno." Together, they dream of a fantasy world, also called "Elemeno," whose inhabitants can change appearance as needed to blend in and survive. As young children, the sisters retreat to this world to escape the things that threaten them, especially the slow crumbling of their parents' dysfunctional marriage.
Birdie's father, Deck Lee, is a black intellectual who spends his days thinking and writing about race. Her mother, Sandy, is a white community activist and special education teacher. Both have a history of radical race activism. After they divorce, Deck leaves the U.S., a new girlfriend in tow, while Sandy starts traveling New England as a fugitive from the FBI. They split custody of the girls according to skin color: Cole, visibly black, heads to Brazil with Deck, and Birdie begins passing as a half-Jewish white girl and goes on the run with Sandy.
For more than four years, the sisters have no contact with each other. Birdie's life with Sandy is defined by instability, her only solace dreaming of the day when she and Cole will reunite and she can acknowledge her black identity again. Then Sandy blows their cover, and Birdie realizes she can't wait any longer. She runs away, this time leaving Sandy to go in search of her sister and her self.
But is it too little, too late? Are Deck, Cole, and blackness lost to Birdie forever?
Review:
Caucasia conveys deep racial insight through a compelling child narrator (Birdie) and beautifully rich prose. This much-acclaimed debut novel won Danzy Senna the Book of the Month Club's Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction, finalist status in the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award competition, and a place on the Los Angeles Times's "Best Book of the Year" list.
Caucasia's chief contribution to mixed race literature lies in its measured, thoughtful untangling of "identity," particularly racial identity: what it is, how it develops, who decides it, and more.
The novel focuses on some of the most formative years of Birdie's life, ages 7-8 and 12-15. As a young child, Birdie understands vaguely that most people judge identity--particularly racial identity--by how one looks and how one behaves. She and Cole transfer to a Black Power school, where she is ostracized because of her light skin, but Cole achieves a tentative acceptance. Both girls work hard towards full acceptance by studying how to speak and act "black." Finally, after much practice, they reach their goal.
The Black Power school is a distant memory by the time Birdie reaches her preteen and early teen years, though. It's natural that she would experiment with adopting different identities at this stage, but her fugitive lifestyle with Sandy intensifies the process. Terrified that Sandy will be ripped away from her by the FBI, young Birdie had yielded to her mother's insistence that she pass. By the time she leaves to find Cole, she has spent nearly half her life as "Jesse Goldman," a white girl whose Jewish father died when she was young. Her identity is a cover story.
Because of this history, Birdie/Jesse is highly aware that identity is more of a dynamic narrative than a static, predetermined nature--after all, she still remembers watching and listening as Sandy first spoke Jesse into existence. The longer she lives as Jesse, the more she is Jesse. Similarly, the longer she lives as a non-mixed white girl, the whiter, and less black, she feels she becomes. She panics when she realizes that she is starting to lose her grip on her memories of "Birdie" and blackness. Is it possible for her to lose Birdie entirely? What about blackness?
To answer these questions, Birdie needs Cole. Cole is tangible evidence of Birdie's former existence. Since the girls are full biological sisters, Cole also proves Birdie's blackness, just as Birdie proves Cole's whiteness. More importantly, Cole can teach Birdie how to be black (again); better yet, they can help each other to discover how to be biracial and whole.
Senna knows what she's talking about: like Birdie, she was a mixed race girl living in Boston in the 1970s. Senna's father, Carl Senna, is black and Mexican, while her mother, Fanny Howe, is white. The two parents married in 1968, just one year after interracial marriage became fully legalized in the U.S. (see "Loving v. Virginia"). Like Deck and Sandy Lee, they divorced while their children were young. Also like Birdie before her separation from Cole, Senna was raised with a fully black identity, despite being light-skinned enough to pass.
Senna clearly draws on her childhood experiences to inform Birdie's perspective, but Caucasia is not an autobiography. Instead, Senna uses her fictional plot as a framework for her explorations of identity construction and development, particularly on the levels of race and sexuality. She also devotes a fair amount of attention to family relationships in a dysfunctional and interracial family. In fact, one of Caucasia's greatest strengths is Senna's portrayal of the close bond between sisters who are forced to rely on each other instead of their parents.
Caucasia's emphasis on coming-of-age makes the novel especially appropriate for high school and early adult/college-aged readers. Adolescents, many of whom are still determining the nuances of their own adult identities, are especially likely to find Birdie a sympathetic character. In recognition of this resonance, the American Library Association's Young Adult Library Association named Caucasia one of its ten 1999 Alex Award winners, adding it to an elite list of "books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults."
This demographic appeal does not mean that Caucasia is a light or easy read, however. The paperback edition is well over 400 pages long. Furthermore, the book deals with mature topics like parental abuse and Birdie's first sexual experiences and, in keeping with its gritty situations and characters, uses frequent obscenities to drive home its points. Still, for readers who can accept these things, Caucasia remains a graceful, thought-provoking narrative. Highly recommended.
More Resources:
- "Caucasia by Danzy Senna" (Goodreads)
- "Caucasia (novel)" (Wikipedia)
- "Penguin Reader's Guide for Caucasia" (book summary, discussion questions)
- "www.danzysenna.com" (author site)
Reviewer: Bethany Lam
Original post date: 26 July 2015