Plot Summary
Birdy Lee is born in the midst of the black power movement in the early 1970s to a white mother from an elite Cambridge family and a black father, a Harvard educated intellectual. She and her sister Cole share the same parents, but Birdie is fair-skinned while Cole is cinnamon-toned. At the height of radical political movements in Boston, their parents' marriage falls apart as fault lines around activism and racial identity emerge in the family. The two sisters, so close as young children that they created their own language, are separated when their parents go underground--Birdy flees with their mother, Cole with their father. To protect her fugitive mother's identity, Birdy passes for years as white, while Cole experiences life as a young black woman. This novel is a thought provoking exploration of identity and family love and a page-turner with a gripping portrayal of the racially polarized US in the 1970s and 1980s.
Critical Evaluation
What was most provocative about reading Caucasia for me was its in-depth exploration of a particular place and time, namely Boston on the heels of the civil rights movement. (Disclaimer: I grew up in Boston around this time.) I think she does a particularly stunning job of capturing the sometimes misguided idealism of this era by taking on the perspective of a child whose parents’ beliefs trumped all else. As Senna demonstrates so masterfully in the novel, this idealism, while thrilling and all-consuming for the parent, can lead to a certain blindness when it comes to raising children. Both of Birdy’s parents, in spite of their good intentions, cause considerable harm to their two children, but these emotional bumps and bruises would likely be chalked up to the revolution. With its many subplots and complex characters, this would be a great novel to discuss with others.
Reader’s Annotation
When their parents go underground, biracial sisters Birdy and Cole must part ways. Birdy leaves with their white mother and passes as white, while darker-skinned Cole goes with their father. How will these experiences of race have shaped them when they re-unite?
Information about the Author
According to the author’s website, “Danzy Senna is the author of the national bestselling novel Caucasia, winner of the Book of the Month Award for First Fiction and the American Library Association’s Alex Award. Caucasia was a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, was named a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year and has been translated into eight languages. A recipient of the Whiting Writers Award, Ms. Senna is also the author of the novel Symptomatic, and the memoir, Where Did You Sleep Last Night? A Personal History, which she researched and wrote as a fellow at the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. Her latest work, a story collection, You Are Free, was recently published by Riverhead Books. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, the novelist Percival Everett, and their sons, Henry and Miles.”
Genre
Realistic Fiction/ Cross-over
Curriculum Ties
If a Humanities class were looking at the legacy of the Civil Rights era in the US, this would be a great book to include as a literature circle choice, along with, say, Common Ground by J. Anthony Lukas.
Booktalking Ideas
Read aloud from the section in which Cole and Birdy attend the all-black school in Roxbury, and talk about the experience from the two different perspectives.
Reading Level/ Interest Age
16+
Challenge Issues
N/A
Why Included?
This novel is a favorite of mine that expertly addresses issues of race and class in the US. Students of mine have read it as a literature circle choice, and it has pretty consistently gotten favorable reviews. When I saw that it was an Alex Award winner, I knew that I had to include it.
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