A Reflection of Race In Different Colored Mirrors
Born to a white mother and a Black father, both intellectuals and civil rights activists, Birdie Lee and her older sister Cole invent ways to survive the racist tangle of 1970's America. The sisters are so close they speak a secret language they call Elemeno, after their favorite letters in the alphabet. The survival of the imaginary Elemeno people, Cole explains, depends on their ability to move chameleon-like, through their surroundings. To survive they must blend in. Birdie asks, "What is the point of surviving if you have to disappear?"
Meanwhile, some "shady shit" is going on in the basement. People come and go secretly in the night and firearms are involved. Suddenly, the drama of a passionate marriage that had been held together always with the words "I miss you" comes to an end and each child is taken by a separate parent. Cole, the darker sister, reluctantly goes with her Black father to Brazil while Birdie, who passes for white, is paired with her impulsive white mother. For Birdie Lee, the innocence of childhood is left abruptly behind but never completely out of sight from the rearview mirror. Birdie's mother gets a notion that the Feds are after her. Whatever she has been doing in the basement will land her in jail unless they run. They leave Boston incognito for whatever unknown lies ahead taking on new names and a different story from town to town, "I disappeared into America the easiest place to get lost," says Birdie. Their lives are adventurous but always cut by an edge of fear. Everyone is suspect. Birdie becomes Jesse, a Jewish girl whose father has died. She is allowed to confide in no one for fear that if her mother's whereabouts were known, she would be sent to jail.
The book's honesty is surprising. In essence, it is the story of a mulatto girls' survival at the expense of her identity. Through Birdie's wise innocence we are invited to wander with her through a labyrinth of stereotypes where she must navigate a path of survival without losing who she is, simultaneously black and white.
Senna's story warms the reader to the overdone subject of race without being even the slightest bit preachy. Senna is able to stick a needle into the immovable issue of race and weave a beautiful tale of loss and reality. The answer to the Elemeno's paradox of surviving is answered smoothly and without romance.
Senna captures the flavor of time and place so vividly that the reader is left sitting at the table long after the feast with explicit reflection. The characters are funky, quirky and very human. Told in the first person, Birdie is a believably courageous and apt heroine. It is a privilege to visit the world through her eyes and impossible to take your own off the page.
Caucasia is Danzy Senna's first novel. It is available at bookstores and published by Riverhead Books in association with Penguin Putnam Inc., New York, 1998.