Black Ice: A Memoir

I wanted to like this book. I really did. I had heard Lorene Cary speak at a conference, and she was incredibly inspiring. The way she spoke, she sounded like an amazing writer, and so I was excited to pick up this book, the first work by Cary that I have had a chance to read. It simply did not live up to my expectations.Cary does do some great things with language in this memoir. Many descriptions are beautifully poetic, and the metaphor of black ice is one that will stick with me. But there were also many flaws in this book, the greatest being that I feel as though she did not do enough to let the reader in. Perhaps I expect more from memoirs, but one of the reasons I enjoy reading them so much is for the insights writers share when they look back on the experiences they choose to write about. Memoir can allow for great intimacy between writer and reader, and Cary just does not do that here. Perhaps distancing herself was intentional, but it was not a tactic that worked for me. She does a good job describing the black female experience in a world that was previously all-white, all-male, but I feel like she could have gone deeper, as far as how she personally felt about the particular aspects of her life that she chose to share. Coming-of-age stories are ones I naturally gravitate to, as there is so much emotion to explore in that adolescent experience, and in my opinion, Cary only skimmed the surface. She couldn't break through the black ice the book is named for, so the experiences she writes about seem a bit watered-down.I also had a hard time keeping track of some of the characters. Many of her schoolmates in particular appeared so fleetingly, and weren't developed enough, so that I found myself paging backwards to remind myself who some of them were. Her family members were a bit more memorable, and I thought the stories about her grandparents were particularly of interest, but I would have liked to have known even more about her relationships with them. There were just too many missed opportunities, and so while this book is a quick read, and is valuable for the perspective of a young black female that Cary shares with us, in the end I can only rate this book as average.

Sometimes too wordy, sometimes too esoteric, but most times evocative and thought-provoking.Ms. Cary managed to convey her inner turmoil as she finished her H.S. education in a formerly all white, all boys religious boarding school. I felt the heaviness of her conflicted emotions and oftentimes would have liked to have had a more in depth understanding as to the antecedents. I felt bereft of information that would have/could have helped me understand why she felt so compelled to carry so much on her shoulders.I'm glad I read this.

New read particularly for high school students. Gives perspective of a high achieving African American teenager in a New England prep school in the early 1970's

I read it years ago and bought it to give to someone else. It was particularly poignant to me since I also attended a boarding school.

I just reviewed this sellar and gave them a poor rating, myapologies. I was looking at the worng book (we had ordered 3 copies). This sellar sent a nice copy of the book. They were a little slower than the other three..

Needed for literature in highschool and it’s non fiction and close to our hometown

Insightful and well written

Lorene Cary's memories and observations of being a black woman at white, male St. Paul's School in the early 70's is evocative, insightful, passionate and eloquent.