I missed the boat on this one
Ventured beyond the realms of my usual "safe zone" of literature and picked up something a little bit different. And, I am left with the knowledge that it will be a great while before I venture beyond that safe zone again.
The Professor's Daughter by Emily Raboteau caught my attention because it was touted as the story of a biracial woman (her mother is white, her father black) trying to find her place and come to terms with not truly feeling a part of either world. I walked away feeling very disappointed and rather disturbed with the book and I was trying to figure out why.
Thinking that I may have missed something, I peeked at the reviews on the Amazon and discovered the reason. I agree with the reviewer who said that "But the messages, the themes, that I am left with are (1) that it is a harsh, cruel and almost unbearable burden to be black in America, and (2) the smart people who are black or mixed belong nowhere. On one hand, that isn't the message that I expected at all, so I was quite surprised. On the other, I actually find the message kind of offensive."
And that is what bothers me, too. Emma, the protagonist, does not find her place in America. Instead, she ends up running off to Brazil where she finds happiness with people who "share her coloring" and "look like me." So, if you don't look like everyone around you, there is no way to find happiness? You cannot be complete and whole without fitting into one racial category or another?
Emma's father, an esteemed Princeton Professor, marries a white woman so that his children do not end looking like him and therefore suffering the way he has. He holds himself distant from his family, his children, does not speak of his home and lives in constant fear that he will lose everything. When he looks at his children, he believes that they are more like their mother (in appearance) than him and that he does not belong in the family picture. When all is said and done, the esteemed Professor Bernard Bordeaux hates himself. And on some level, Emma has absorbed this self-loathing (she dates a man who dominates and controls her, then a verbal abuser). If anything, the biggest tragedy of this book is that it seems to blame the dysfunctional nature of Emma's family on the basis of having a black father and a white mother.
I'm not claiming that race is not a factor, but the lack of support and foundation she received from her parents must also be credited with playing a part in all of this. Emma's mother doted upon Bernie (which is a whole different psychological argument when you consider that Bernie looked far more black than Emma did), the older brother who dies after a coma as a result of a freak accident when Emma is a freshman in college, and paid little attention to Emma. Emma does not eat a lot, she runs away as a child frequently, she hides behind her hair, she writes disturbing haiku, she suffers from a stress related rash that she learns to manipulate and call out or make worse ... this says more to me of a child in need of attention and demonstrations of love and importance than a child looking for her place because of her mixed race.
I'm not sure what exactly Emily Raboteau was trying to confer in this book, but if the reviews are anything to go by, then I missed it.
Not meant to be a book review, just my disjointed ramblings.
Gonna stick with science fiction, fantasy and horror in the near future, thanks.
The Professor's Daughter by Emily Raboteau caught my attention because it was touted as the story of a biracial woman (her mother is white, her father black) trying to find her place and come to terms with not truly feeling a part of either world. I walked away feeling very disappointed and rather disturbed with the book and I was trying to figure out why.
Thinking that I may have missed something, I peeked at the reviews on the Amazon and discovered the reason. I agree with the reviewer who said that "But the messages, the themes, that I am left with are (1) that it is a harsh, cruel and almost unbearable burden to be black in America, and (2) the smart people who are black or mixed belong nowhere. On one hand, that isn't the message that I expected at all, so I was quite surprised. On the other, I actually find the message kind of offensive."
And that is what bothers me, too. Emma, the protagonist, does not find her place in America. Instead, she ends up running off to Brazil where she finds happiness with people who "share her coloring" and "look like me." So, if you don't look like everyone around you, there is no way to find happiness? You cannot be complete and whole without fitting into one racial category or another?
Emma's father, an esteemed Princeton Professor, marries a white woman so that his children do not end looking like him and therefore suffering the way he has. He holds himself distant from his family, his children, does not speak of his home and lives in constant fear that he will lose everything. When he looks at his children, he believes that they are more like their mother (in appearance) than him and that he does not belong in the family picture. When all is said and done, the esteemed Professor Bernard Bordeaux hates himself. And on some level, Emma has absorbed this self-loathing (she dates a man who dominates and controls her, then a verbal abuser). If anything, the biggest tragedy of this book is that it seems to blame the dysfunctional nature of Emma's family on the basis of having a black father and a white mother.
I'm not claiming that race is not a factor, but the lack of support and foundation she received from her parents must also be credited with playing a part in all of this. Emma's mother doted upon Bernie (which is a whole different psychological argument when you consider that Bernie looked far more black than Emma did), the older brother who dies after a coma as a result of a freak accident when Emma is a freshman in college, and paid little attention to Emma. Emma does not eat a lot, she runs away as a child frequently, she hides behind her hair, she writes disturbing haiku, she suffers from a stress related rash that she learns to manipulate and call out or make worse ... this says more to me of a child in need of attention and demonstrations of love and importance than a child looking for her place because of her mixed race.
I'm not sure what exactly Emily Raboteau was trying to confer in this book, but if the reviews are anything to go by, then I missed it.
Not meant to be a book review, just my disjointed ramblings.
Gonna stick with science fiction, fantasy and horror in the near future, thanks.