![]() ![]() Despite a derivative ending, this is a dense book that requires, and is worthy of, attentive reading. ![]() Juanita’s prose and style put the reader directly into the head of her protagonist the unique perspective she offers on a volatile period of American history gives the narrative immediacy and authenticity. Geniece progresses from middle-class “good girl” to member of the Black Panthers, witnessing and experiencing the poverty, violence, excesses, and rhetoric of the time, a transition handled by Juanita with assured matter-of-factness. Her new freedom and a love affair with a black intellectual further heightens her awareness of being black in white America at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Though accustomed to her aunt and uncle’s bourgeois lifestyle, she feels like an outsider with her dark skin, natural hair, and dubious background as a “broken-home baby.” Refusing to ask for help, she lives at the Y and works part-time at the local welfare office, having deferred entry into San Francisco State. Raised in Northern California by black middle-class relatives co-opted by white culture, Geniece, a self-described “dark skinned orphan-in-residence,” begins Oakland City College in 1964. ![]() In her semi-autobiographical debut novel, poet and playwright Juanita’s prose immediately immerses the reader in the time and place of its lead character. ![]()
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