The novel takes place mainly in 1974 and 1975, but moves seamlessly through time periods of Genna Hewett-Meade's life.
It is two stories in one:
- The relationship between Genna and her college roommate, Minette Swift, leading up to Minette's death.
- The relationship between Genna and her radical, liberal father and her "hippie-mom" who she is blatantly embarrassed of.
Genna is desperate for approval in both relationships. She wants her father to love her, "Don't answer, honey. The fucker will just break our hearts." She wants her college roommate to acknowledge that she is not like everyone else on campus: She is not a racist, she is not like all of those white people.
When Genna first sees Minette Swift at their freshman orientation, she is shocked by her black features, her facial expressions, her confidence. Minette's father, a prominent preacher from Washington, D.C., intimidates Genna as soon as she sees the family. When Genna discovers that Minette will be her roommate, she is desperate to befriend and be accepted by her - to be even noticed by Minette.
Coming from an affluent but radically liberal family, it i s Genna's belief that she is 1, not racist and 2, ashamed of her famous family name. Though, Genna inevitably questions whether she is racist throughout the story and inevitably wants recognition for her family name: Don't you know who I am?
Her father, Mad Max Meade, is a Civil Rights lawyer who "has never broken the law in his life." He is the grandson of the founder of Genna's college. He is hard to impress and even harder to get a hold of. He is seemingly absent throughout the story yet spoken about on every page.
Minette doesn't just ignore Genna, she ignores everyone on campus -- including the few other black girls. She is extremely religious, judgemental and anti-social.
I have to say that out of all the characters in the novel, I preferred Minette. She saw through Genna and never allowed Genna to "win her over." I don't think Genna genuinely wanted to be Minette's friend. I think she wanted to tell her father how she had befriended a black girl, stood up for her, and fought for civil rights. Even though, she never did any of these things. If anything, she played a significant role in the death of Minette.
The novels explores many ideas and questions: Racism, war, rich vs. poor, black vs. white, father and daughter relationships and ultimately, the power behind the truth. I believe, the ultimate message of this novel was the difference between lying and leaving out the truth. For both Genna and her father constantly "leave out the truth." Genna's upbringing is tainted with things she was not supposed to see or hear. Things she pretended were not real and images of her father that were blindly inaccurate.
I think the story was longer than it needed to be because you expect some dramatic climax but I was surprisingly emotionally detached from the story. I was not surprised by Minette's death because of course, you know she dies in the beginning. Though, you expect her to die in a different way. She did not die by racist attacks but by own fault of her own. And Oates leaves a lot of questions unanswered which I am realizing she does in her novels quite often. I feel like she builds up dramatic plots, exploring big ideas and themes, and then never seems to be able to pull it all together. While the story was good, I don't think I received closure from it and was disappointed when I put it down.
Though, Oates' writing style never ceases to amaze me. That, she pulls together but the plot lacks something.
