Rebecca Leventhal Walker
was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1969. Her mother, famed black
author Alice Walker and her father, Jewish lawyer Mel Leventhal, met at
the height of the Civil Rights movement. In her memoir Black, White and Jewish
Walker poignantly describes a childhood split between two worlds,
particularly after her parents’ divorce: between her mother’s home in San Francisco
where she feels never quite black enough and her father’s home in
Riverdale, New York where she feels never quite Jewish enough.
Walker’s
acclaimed 2002 memoir, which starts with an account of her first
birthday, presents flashes of memories that are alternately
elating and distressing, and which feel no less urgent one decade later.
Her hopes, anger, frustrations, and determination ring loudly from the
pages.
In fact, looking for the book
in the aisles of your local bookstore is itself an illustration of
Walker’s predicament: Can it be found in the "African-American" section,
the "Jewish" section, the "Women & Gender" section? Through Walker’s sensitive reflections and astute analysis, we see how
restrictive being forced into just one category can be.
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