Review: Half and half
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsA lively collection of essays on the theme of being biracial and bicultural in contemporary American society. Editor O'Hearn, herself born in Hong Kong and raised in Asia and Europe, has assembled a passionate medley of writings by 18 authors who share a bicultural or biracial identity. Despite vast differences in their social, economic, and racial backgrounds, a number of subtopics emerge. Among these is the sense of alienation experienced by them as children. The need to belong was in many cases intensified by prejudice as a pressure all too frequently encountered. Meri Nana-Ama Dunquah, a native of Ghana who grew up in Washington, D.C., faced her cruelest hostility from black American kids who taunted her with shouts of ""You-you-you African.! Go back to Africa!"" Journalist Danzy Senna, the daughter of a WASP mother and a black-Mexican father, identifies herself as black, but passes for white often enough to hear whites--including well-meaning white liberals--speak in ""smug disdain"" about blacks. And the prejudice, of course, is not exclusive to childhood or to America. Francisco Goldman, the brown-skinned son of a Jewish father and a Guatemalan mother, encountered the worst display of prejudice when visiting Madrid, where taxis wouldn't stop for him but police officers did. Still, it's also apparent that many biracial and bicultural people have enjoyed an enviable edge. Though not totally at home in any one world, they seem better able to adapt to many, as Meri Nana-Ama Dunquah observes: ""Like a chameleon I am ever-changing."" The essays make it plain, too, just how obsessed we Americans are with matters of race and identity. Replete with candid accounts and sensitive musings.
Review: Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural
User Review - Nikki - GoodreadsAs a biracial woman myself, I wholeheartedly related to these stories - the hilarious, the mundane, being not one or the other, etc. Read full review
Review: Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural
User Review - Meg - GoodreadsI wish I could give half stars, some of the essays were 4, some were 3. Overall an interesting mix of voices and views from different writers with different backgrounds, mostly informed by the ... Read full review
Review: Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural
User Review - Anittah - GoodreadsI couldn't read most of these essays, they were so bad, and clearly of the, "Hey, I'm putting together a bunch of essays about being mixed ... wanna write something?" As opposed to actually maybe say ... Read full review
Review: Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural
User Review - Kevin Ressler - GoodreadsIf you have ever had that feeling of "oh, here's where I belong" that is what reading this book is for the bi-cultural/bi-racial individual. Spending my life as a child of two nations, a child of two ... Read full review
Review: Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural
User Review - Christina - GoodreadsExcellent collection of essays from multi-cultural writers, which are entertaining and thought-provoking. Read full review
Review: Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural
User Review - Ashley - GoodreadsAs a white parent of bi-cultural children (my husband is Pakistani), I read this with much interest as I think through how my children will deal with these issues. Fortunately for them, I think we ... Read full review
Review: Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural
User Review - Lia Banks - GoodreadsAdmittedly, I mostly only read the essays written by Asian American writers (particularly the Chinese American writers). So that might be why I liked it so much. Read full review
Review: Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural
User Review - Kelly - GoodreadsI've been reading Half and Half on and off (mostly off) since January 2011. The collection is valuable in the ways it complicates social ideas of racial, ethnic, and cultural identity, intentionally ... Read full review
Review: Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural
User Review - Kung - GoodreadsExcellent read! Highly recommend! Read full review
