The Civil Rights movement brought author Alice Walker and lawyer Mel Leventhal together, and in 1969 their daughter, Rebecca, was born. Some saw this unusual copper-colored girl as an outrage or an oddity; others viewed her as a symbol of harmony, a triumph of love over hate. But after her parents divorced, leaving her a lonely only child ferrying between two worlds that only seemed to grow further apart, Rebecca was no longer sure what she represented. In this book, Rebecca Leventhal Walker attempts to define herself as a soul instead of a symbol—and offers a new look at the challenge of personal identity, in a story at once strikingly unique and truly universal.
Rebecca Walker has received numerous awards and accolades for her writing and activism. Her work has appeared in many anthologies and publications; in addition to the international bestseller Black, White, and Jewish, her books include Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After a Lifetime of Ambivalence, and the anthologies To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism, which has become a standard text in gender studies courses around the world, and What Makes a Man: 22 Writers Imagine the Future. A popular speaker at universities and in business settings, Walker teaches the art of memoir at workshops and writing conferences internationally. She lives in Hawaii.
"Compelling."—
The Washington Post"Stunningly honest."—San Francisco Chronicle
"A complex, all-American story."—USA Today
"Walker masterfully illuminates differences between black and white America...A heartbreaking tale of self-creation."—People
"[Walker] offers painful childhood memories of straddling two vastly different cultures—black bohemia and Jewish suburbia—to fashion a cautionary tale about the power of race in shaping identity...[a] highly readable debut."—Entertainment Weekly
"Walker [writes with] elegant, discreet candor...will attract a wealth of well-deserved praise."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A beautifully written meditation on the creation of a woman’s sense of self."—Jane Lazarre, author of Beyond the Whiteness of Whiteness
"Powerful...deeply affecting."—Danzy Senna, author of Caucasia
