There's her big sister, Cole, who takes after her father, a radical black intellectual. There's Birdie, who takes after her mother's white, New England side of the familylight skin, straight hair. "The visual conundrums woven through Danzy Senna’s remarkable first novel cling to your memory. "Lucid and magnificent."James McBride, author of The Color of Water The extraordinary national bestseller that launched Danzy Senna’s literary career, Caucasia is a modern classic, at once a powerful coming of age story and a groundbreaking work on identity and race in America. Haunted by the loss of her sister, she sets out a desperate search for the family that left her behind. But for Birdie, home will always be Cole. Soon Birdie and her mother are on the road as well, drifting across the country in search of a new home. One night Birdie watches her father and his new girlfriend drive away with Cole. Despite their differences, Cole is Birdie’s confidant, her protector, the mirror by which she understands herself. The sisters are so close that they speak their own language, yet Birdie, with her light skin and straight hair, is often mistaken for white, while Cole is dark enough to fit in with the other kids at school. (Feb.“Superbly illustrates the emotional toll that politics and race take … Haunting.” - The New York Times Book Reviewīirdie and Cole are the daughters of a black father and a white mother, intellectuals and activists in the Civil Rights Movement in 1970s Boston.
If the story has didactic overtones, Senna's shaping of '70s detail and convincing development of her appealing protagonists more than justify its message. Senna's observations about the racial divide in America are often fierce but always complex and humane. After her father and Cole move to Brazil and the feds start to investigate her mother's mysterious political activities, Birdie and her mother go underground, posing as the wife and daughter of sympathetic professor David Goldman. Birdie, pale enough to be mistaken for white, stays close to Mom, mourning her estrangement from Dad and especially Cole-her mirror, protector and secret sharer. Cole, whose complexion is darker than her sister's, gets caught up in her new, black nationalist Nkrumah School in Roxbury and in her father's new life with a black girlfriend. Finally, Mom and Dad split up one time too many, and no amount of Al Green records, Chinese noodles and slow dancing can bring them back together. As children, Birdie and her sister, Cole, create their own secret language-Elemeno-to ward off the growing tension between their black father and their white mother. Set in 1970s Boston, this impressively assured debut avoids the usual extremes in its depiction of racial tension.
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