A review by zelbel2016
Black & White by Dani Shapiro
5.0
I found this book in a used book store. The Winter Park Used book store to be exact. First of all I would like to say that this book store is amazing. I got this book for a dollar and It was easily a fourteen dollar book. I loved this book. It had a a very "jodi Picoult" feel to it.
The story starts with Clara a women who has established herself within the routine of a normal life. She has a loving husband, and a beautiful nine year old daughter. She resides in a sleepy town, safe away from civilization. All of this bliss however is threatened by Clara's past which is brought up as her mother Ruth slowly detoriates from Lung Cancer.
All of Clara's childhood Ruth took pictures of her. Not cute little pictures of girls feeding ducks or dancing around in dresses. No, Ruth took images of Clara naked all the way up to her fourteenth birthday and then posted these pictures in her art galleries throughout New York. The pictures where called "evocative" and "raw" but by some they where refereed to as "porn" and "inappropriate" Clara grew up under the shadow of these pictures and was never able to live a normal life. She blames her mother for this and has kept her daughter and herself out of her mothers reach. Yet now she must face the decision of allowing her life to once again mix with her artists mother, or let her mother wither away alone.
This novel was very thought provoking. First of all it made me think about what "art" exactly is. Should art be pornographic, should nudes even be considered art? Is art still art when the subject is unwilling or unwanting of the attention that that art will bring? This book pulls to question the connection between mother and child and most importantly what exactly it means to be a good mother.
I devoured this book and thought it was an excellent addition to my continued summer reading. I hope that anyone else who reads it finds this just as enjoyable.
Many blessings and good readings!
The story starts with Clara a women who has established herself within the routine of a normal life. She has a loving husband, and a beautiful nine year old daughter. She resides in a sleepy town, safe away from civilization. All of this bliss however is threatened by Clara's past which is brought up as her mother Ruth slowly detoriates from Lung Cancer.
All of Clara's childhood Ruth took pictures of her. Not cute little pictures of girls feeding ducks or dancing around in dresses. No, Ruth took images of Clara naked all the way up to her fourteenth birthday and then posted these pictures in her art galleries throughout New York. The pictures where called "evocative" and "raw" but by some they where refereed to as "porn" and "inappropriate" Clara grew up under the shadow of these pictures and was never able to live a normal life. She blames her mother for this and has kept her daughter and herself out of her mothers reach. Yet now she must face the decision of allowing her life to once again mix with her artists mother, or let her mother wither away alone.
This novel was very thought provoking. First of all it made me think about what "art" exactly is. Should art be pornographic, should nudes even be considered art? Is art still art when the subject is unwilling or unwanting of the attention that that art will bring? This book pulls to question the connection between mother and child and most importantly what exactly it means to be a good mother.
I devoured this book and thought it was an excellent addition to my continued summer reading. I hope that anyone else who reads it finds this just as enjoyable.
Many blessings and good readings!