Caucasia examines biracial identity

"Caucasia" by Danzy Senna captures the life of two biracial children who must fit into alternative worlds after their parents separate their family because of escalating racial violence in the mid-1970s. The main character, Birdie, who can "pass" as white, goes into hiding with her white mother. Her older sister, Cole, remains with her black father because she cannot "pass."\nBirdie then goes on a tumultuous search to discover her real identity after being pulled in many directions by external forces and people in her life. \nSenna constructs this well-crafted story around a central argument, which she states toward the end of the book: Although race is culturally constructed, it still exists.\nSenna reportedly draws the book's events and characters from her own life and biracial identity. The book is set in Boston, where she grew up, about the time of her own childhood. "Caucasia" was her first book, originally written as her graduate thesis at the University of California, Irvine.\nSenna's writing style is highly readable but also descriptive and character driven. Her writing delves into the deep crevices of identity formation. She avoids extreme examples in the novel and the normalized "tragic mulatto" stereotype, thereby allowing herself to unearth more telling truths about humanity, as well as the effect of environment and socialization.\nOne problem with "Caucasia" is its generational perspective, which might be too subtle for anyone not immediately aware of the common culture that existed when the action of the book takes place. Therefore, many of the author's 1970s references, meant to give context to racism, racial identity and race relations, might be lost on a traditional, college-aged reader. But it does lend itself to page turning and is almost guaranteed to hold the attention of the reader and evoke thought on this complicated issue.