This debut novel tells the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I. who becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy.
With her strict African American grandmother as her new guardian, Rachel moves to a mostly black community, where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and beauty bring mixed attention her way. Growing up in the 1980s, she learns to swallow her overwhelming grief and confronts her identity as a biracial young woman in a world that wants to see her as either black or white.
In the tradition of Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, here is a portrait of a young girl— and society's ideas of race, class, and beauty. It is the winner of the Bellwether Prize for best fiction manuscript addressing issues of social justice.
My thoughts
Here is a biracial girl that survives a tremendous fall that kills her mother and two brothers. All her life she was taught to perceive herself as white, but after moving halfway across the country to live with her grandmother, she now is told to be black. As Rachel asks in the book and what I thought to myself; what does color have to do with it. Why can’t she be herself? Each chapter of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky is told by a different person’s point of view and at times had me confused. Although a tough subject, this was a light read, but I didn’t feel connected to the characters.
Note: I won this book from The Book Reporter.com
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