Review by Booklist Review
Chambers offers history, statistics, analyses, and interviews with successful black women in pondering the post^-civil rights inheritance of broadened opportunities and personal expectations. Despite the image of Clair Huxtable, the television wife and lawyer of The Cosby Show, and the real-life success of Oprah Winfrey, black women remain virtually invisible or are mistaken for the help in department stores and corporate offices. But the subjects whom Chambers has gathered for this fascinating book evoke drive and ambition as well as a level of comfort and acceptance that evaded or was denied to earlier generations. Chambers talked to a broad range of successful women--first-generation college graduates as well as those who come from longtime well-educated and wealthy families, ranging in age from 30 to 50, some childless, some professional--for a portrait of women with their own ideas of success. Chambers explores the reasons black women have had greater success than black men, the notion that affirmative action efforts benefit black women because they represent two minority groups, and other issues. An inspirational book. --Vanessa Bush
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In a series of interrelated essays, Chambers (Mama's Girl), explores the lives of middle- and upper-middle-class African-American women. Throughout, Chambers nicely weaves historical and literary anecdotes into her insightful narrative. While identifying this population as linchpins in the astronomical rise of a black middle class, she pursues such questions as how their "creative and indomitable spirit" translated into corporate reality while black men languish; why they no longer feel the need to choose allegiance between race and gender; what the image of Aunt Jemima declares about today's affluent African-American woman; and why they are more likely to be alone than any group of black women before them. Nonetheless, these women, Chambers says, have a strong sense of community and a renewed feeling of empowerment, which enables their transition into a predominantly white mainstream culture. Largely based on interviews of black women defying conventional perceptions, and written for those "who have crafted successful lives without role models or media coverage," the book lends a panoramic effect to such figures as former Whitney curator Thelma Golden, television host Star Jones, Barbara Bush's former press secretary Anna Perez, Anita Hill, and the growing population of African-American stay-at-home moms. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Chambers, formerly the cultural writer at Newsweek, wonderfully synthesizes the experiences of more than 50 contemporary, middle-class black women. Despite cultivating a high degree of self-awareness and spirituality, as well as attaining professional success, many of the interviewees come off as one-dimensional-none of them really has it all, and, of course, each defines all individually. While she acknowledges that some so-called high-class problems are comparatively insignificant ("try bemoaning the fact you were treated poorly by a snobby salesperson at [Bergdorf Goodman] to your grandmother, the daughter of a slave"), Chambers keenly characterizes these women as having "cultural schizophrenia," torn between contradictory roles. They are "a creation of dreams, ideology, and opportunities created by both the Civil Rights Movement and the modern women's rights movement," and their lives have "been a long series of negotiations between real and imagined obstacles, between low expectations, stereotypes and limited resources." Extremely well written and at times revelatory, this narrative isn't out to draw hard conclusions. Instead, it's a cogent, eyeopening exploration.-Douglas C. Lord, Connecticut State Lib., Hartford (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An absorbing look at the Clair Huxtables of the world. These African-American women have benefited from both the civil rights and feminist movements, going in one generation "from the kitchen to the boardroom." They summer on the Vineyard and in Sag Harbor, shop in Paris, frequent Broadway plays, and attend gallery openings. Among those profiled are Thelma Golden, deputy director of the Studio Museum in Harlem; Lynette Hall, director of on-air promotions for ABC turned stay-at-home-mom; and Crystal Ashby, antitrust lawyer for a major oil company. As journalist Chambers (Mama's Girl, 1996, etc.) ponders the extraordinary gains made by black women, she also underscores the issues unique to this group. While many of her subjects experience both gender and cultural isolation within the workplace, they are also isolated within their own families, often being the first to go to college, the first to attend graduate school, the first to own a second home. It may be difficult for them to find a partner equal in income and class, yet unlike their white counterparts, they are urged to look toward blue-collar men as potential mates. But as one woman put it, "How will we meet [the construction worker]? If we're in a certain demographic then shouldn't we be meeting men who are in that demographic?" All in all, though, these women aren't waiting for Prince Charming. If single, they are involved in their careers, volunteer work, and hobbies. In one section revealing the legacy of both political movements, the author interviews two women who came of age during the Black Power movement and their adult daughters, who were children during the feminist movement. The mothers identify themselves first as blacks and second as women; for their daughters, the reverse is true. A fine appraisal of the women in the growing African-American middle and upper classes.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
