Wright, Bil - When the Black Girl Sings

[oyceter]

Lahni Schuler is adopted, and to make things more complicated, she's the black daughter of two white parents who are in a rocky marriage. She's also going to a school in which she's basically the only black girl. But soon, she's nominated to sing in a school competition, and her mother drags her to church in an attempt to comfort the both of them. At church, Lahni finds herself joining the choir, where she meets Actual Black People (tm) and learns to express herself through song.

I liked that Wright isn't covering "typical" black topics here—gangs, slavery, oppression, identity crises, etc. While Lahni definitely does have some identity crises, she's also busy being worried about her divorcing parents, her singing competition, and the weird guy who seems to be stalking her. Wright manages to make Lahni's race a part of the book without making it the entire book.

That said, the book didn't end up working for me, largely because of the ending. Singing for Lahni just feels too easy; she has to struggle for the emotion, yes, but never for the technique. And there's a dose of Christianity that comes in at the end that felt a bit forced; yes, she's going to church, but if the end is about religion, I want some religious struggle or at least a mention of religious beliefs before getting to that point.

Mostly, it's not a bad book, but it's also not a great one either.

Comments

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

Singing just comes naturally for Black folks, i mean, why would there be effort involved? [sarcasm]

having been expected to open my mouth and let out aretha franklin more than once since i started talking, the 'ooh singing' trope works my nerves to no end

[oyceter]

*snort* Definitely! At least Wright did it for the other characters as well (one white, one Asian), but it was still annoying.

[marfisa.livejournal.com]

There's actually a scene commenting on the phenomenon delux_vivens mentioned in the 1960's young adult novel "Mary Jane." The title character is one of the first African-American teenagers to attend a previously all-white high school, where the well-meaning music teacher invites her to join the glee club the instant she shows up, insisting that since the new student is black, she must have an angelic voice. Mary Jane politely demurs, surprised and somewhat distressed by being put on the spot because of such a baseless assumption when the truth is that neither she nor her father can so much as carry a tune.

[oyceter]

*nods* Siiiiigh. That makes me want to shake Wright more and be all, "You are black! Whyy?" although I am not sure if that's fair.

[cyphomandra.livejournal.com]

I liked quite a few things about this - I thought the creepy stalker/socially inept/racially confused guy was interesting, for example - but I agree with you on the singing, and on the Christianity. I also couldn't get an handle on Marcus as a character at all, and he felt like he'd wandered in from something else entirely.

(I cannot remember whether I've commented on your lj before, but I am slowly going through your very useful anime/manga memories (in, hopefully, a completely nonstalkery way) as I finish the relevant media. I am currently watching Gundam Wing very slowly and enjoying it a lot, although I am completely baffled by the politics. I just finished disc 8, wherein Trowa is still tragically amnesic, and, more disturbingly, Noin is wearing a fringed cowboy shirt.)

[oyceter]

Yeah, I did like the guy storyline, especially because it was a nice contrast to a lot of the "stalkers as romantic" stories I see.

And hi! Have fun trawling through, and I'm glad the memories are useful! (bwahaha, more people sucked in by GWing!)