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Loading... Black & White (edition 2007)by Dani Shapiro
Work detailsBlack & White by Dani Shapiro
None. Gorgeous storytelling! I couldn't pry myself from this sharp and painful novel. (  ) bookalover89 | Feb 12, 2011 |  Excellent book, very much in the style of Jodi Picoult. (  ) caroren | Feb 6, 2010 | Dani Shapiro is the queen of chronicling dysfunctional families. In Black & White she takes her struggles inwards with a book that focuses on a persons ability to reconcile who they were and who they are and how our familial relationships define us. Shapiro is an extremely talented writer and Black & White is a very well written book. ( ) gkleinman | Mar 2, 2009 | An interesting novel that asks the reader to define their idea of art. Ruth Dunne, photographer, begins shooting nude photographs of her youngest daughter, Clara, at the age of three. The work continues for eleven years. Is it art or is it child pornography? And where does Ruth's responsibility as a mother to two daughters come into play? Is she abusing Clara while neglecting the elder daughter, Robin? What of the father in this family? Clara breaks free at eighteen and starts her own life in which she marries, moves to an isolated area in Maine and has her own daughter. Fourteen years later, Clara is forced to revisit her childhood and forced to determine what to tell her daughter. A very well written study of this family, its intricate past and its precarious present. Bonus - a one line mention of Sting! ( ) aimless22 | Jun 22, 2008 | When Clara Dunne was a young child, she became the focus of her mother Ruth’s photography. From the age of three till the age of fourteen, Clara served as her mother’s unwilling muse, and Ruth Dunne quickly became famous for her controversial, provocative nude photographs of her daughter. Driven by her success and her artistic vision, Ruth ignored Clara’s increasing unhappiness and her own husband’s disgust at the images. Finally, when Clara was eighteen, she ran away from New York City and the constant recognition of being “the girl in those photographs” and started a new life in rural Vermont. At the story’s open, Clara has not seen her mother in fourteen years and is happily married with a young daughter of her own…a daughter who bears a striking resemblance to herself at the same age, and who knows nothing about Clara’s childhood or the photographs. Clara still fights with the demons of her past, however, and when her sister calls to tell her that their mother is dying, her initial reaction is to reject the idea of visiting the woman who tormented her childhood. And yet, she goes to New York anyway, a decision which instantly throws her life into turmoil. Her relationship with her sister is strained; her mother is every bit as overbearing as ever, despite her illness; and Clara’s daughter Samantha is hurt and confused that her mother has left her with no explanations offered; while Clara’s husband Jonathan resents bearing the weight of their daughter’s pain alone. Seeing her mother and sister again, Clara is forced to relive the life from which she’d fled, and when Jonathan and Samantha join her in New York, she is forced to grope towards healing and forgiveness. As the title suggests, this is not a novel with many shades of grey. (  ) kmaziarz | Jun 14, 2008 | no reviews | add a review
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Wikipedia in English
Q: What is your writing process like? Has it changed from book to book?
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