Light skin gone to waste : stories /
In 1962, Philip Arrington, a psychologist with a PhD from Yeshiva, arrives in the small, mostly blue-collar town of Monroe, New York, to rent a house for himself and his new wife. They're Black, something the man about to show him the house doesn't know. With that, we're introduced to...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Athens :
University of Georgia Press,
[2022].
|
| Series: | Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction.
|
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | In 1962, Philip Arrington, a psychologist with a PhD from Yeshiva, arrives in the small, mostly blue-collar town of Monroe, New York, to rent a house for himself and his new wife. They're Black, something the man about to show him the house doesn't know. With that, we're introduced to the Arringtons, Phil, Velma, his daughter Livia (from a previous marriage) and his youngest, Madeline, soon to be born. They're cosmopolitan. Sophisticated. They're also troubled, arrogant and throughout the linked stories, falling apart. We follow the family as Phil begins his private practice, and as Velma opens her antiques shop, as they buy new homes, collect art, go skiing and have overseas adventures. It seems they've made it in the white world. However, young Maddie, one of the only Black children in town, bears the brunt of the racism and the invisible barriers her family's money, education and determination can't free her from. As she grows up, and realizes her father's sleeping with white women, her mother is violently mercurial and her half-sister resents her, Maddie must decide who she is despite, or perhaps precisely because of, her family. A dazzling collection, Light Skin Gone to Waste examines race, class, community, family and the meaning of home. |
|---|---|
| Physical Description: | 216 pages ; 22 cm. |
| ISBN: | 9780820363066 0820363065 |