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Black Ice: A Memoir
In 1972 Lorene Cary, a bright, ambitious black teenager from Philadelphia, was transplanted into the formerly all-white, all-male environs of the elite St. Paul's School in New Hampshire, where she became a scholarship student in a "boot camp" for future American leaders. Like any good student, she was determined to succeed. But Cary was also determined to succeed without selling out. This wonderfully frank and perceptive memoir describes the perils and ambiguities of that double role, in which failing calculus and winning a student election could both be interpreted as betrayals of one's skin. Black Ice is also a universally recognizable document of a woman's adolescence; it is, as Houston Baker says, "a journey into selfhood that resonates with sober reflection, intellignet passion, and joyous love."
237 pages, Paperback
First published March 6, 1991
About the author
Lorene Cary
7 books87 followersLorene Cary (born 1956, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American author, educator, and social activist.
Cary grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1972, she was invited to the elite St. Paul's boarding school in New Hampshire, on scholarship, entering in St. Paul's second year of co-education as one of the less than ten African-American female students. She spent two years at St. Paul's, graduating in 1974. She earned an undergraduate degree and her MA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978.
She was awarded a Thouron Fellowship, enabling her to study at the Sussex University in the United Kingdom, where she received an MA in Victorian literature.
After finishing college, Cary worked in publishing for several magazines, including Time, TV Guide, and Newsweek. She also worked as a freelance writer for Essence, American Visions, Mirabella, Obsidian, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 1982, Cary returned to St. Paul's as a teacher. She is currently a senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania.
After writing a 1988 article about her experience at St. Paul's, she published a longer memoir, Black Ice, which was published in 1991 by Alfred A. Knopf.
In 1995, Cary published her first novel, The Price of a Child. It is based on the escape of Jane Johnson, a slave from North Carolina who escaped to freedom with her two sons while briefly in Philadelphia with her master and his family.
In 1998, Cary published a second novel, Pride, which explores the experiences of four contemporary black middle-class women.
Cary’s first Young Adult book, FREE!, was a collection of non-fiction accounts related to the Underground Railroad, and published by Third World Press/New City Press in 2005.
Cary wrote the script for the videos of The President's House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation, a 2010 exhibition in The President's House in Philadelphia.
On April 19, Cary published her third novel If Sons, Then Heirs.
In 1998 Cary founded Art Sanctuary, an African-American arts and letters organization devoted to presenting regional and national talent in the literary, visual and performing arts. Art Sanctuary annually hosts an African American arts festival, during which writers discuss their work with up to 1,500–2,000 students, and another 2,000–3,000 people participate in panels, workshops, the basketball tournament, teachers' symposium, Family Pavilion, main stage, and other events.
(from Wikipedia)
Cary grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1972, she was invited to the elite St. Paul's boarding school in New Hampshire, on scholarship, entering in St. Paul's second year of co-education as one of the less than ten African-American female students. She spent two years at St. Paul's, graduating in 1974. She earned an undergraduate degree and her MA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978.
She was awarded a Thouron Fellowship, enabling her to study at the Sussex University in the United Kingdom, where she received an MA in Victorian literature.
After finishing college, Cary worked in publishing for several magazines, including Time, TV Guide, and Newsweek. She also worked as a freelance writer for Essence, American Visions, Mirabella, Obsidian, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 1982, Cary returned to St. Paul's as a teacher. She is currently a senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania.
After writing a 1988 article about her experience at St. Paul's, she published a longer memoir, Black Ice, which was published in 1991 by Alfred A. Knopf.
In 1995, Cary published her first novel, The Price of a Child. It is based on the escape of Jane Johnson, a slave from North Carolina who escaped to freedom with her two sons while briefly in Philadelphia with her master and his family.
In 1998, Cary published a second novel, Pride, which explores the experiences of four contemporary black middle-class women.
Cary’s first Young Adult book, FREE!, was a collection of non-fiction accounts related to the Underground Railroad, and published by Third World Press/New City Press in 2005.
Cary wrote the script for the videos of The President's House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation, a 2010 exhibition in The President's House in Philadelphia.
On April 19, Cary published her third novel If Sons, Then Heirs.
In 1998 Cary founded Art Sanctuary, an African-American arts and letters organization devoted to presenting regional and national talent in the literary, visual and performing arts. Art Sanctuary annually hosts an African American arts festival, during which writers discuss their work with up to 1,500–2,000 students, and another 2,000–3,000 people participate in panels, workshops, the basketball tournament, teachers' symposium, Family Pavilion, main stage, and other events.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
March 12, 2015
This is a memoir about an African-American teenage girl from Philadelphia who gets a chance to enroll in a fancy boarding school in New Hampshire. It's 1972 and the school, which has only recently started admitting girls, is now also trying to become a little less lily-white, making Lorene and a handful of other students trailblazers. Of course, not all of them set out to be trailblazers--some of them just wanted to get the best education they could--but all of them have to deal with the realities of the new environment they find themselves in.
This is certainly an interesting and worthy topic for a memoir; unfortunately, the execution was a bit lacking for me. We don't learn as much as we could about the school itself and, by extension, Lorene's experience in it. I guess I was expecting Dead Poets' Society-style classroom and dorm room scenes where teachers and students all learn from one another, but there's very little of that. The book is quite internal, all about what Lorene is thinking and feeling, and of course this is important, but without a strong sense of place it just doesn't feel very grounded, and few of the other characters really come alive.
I sometimes got an odd sense that Lorene, who wrote this memoir 15 years after graduating, was just kind of throwing in whatever she remembered from that time. As a result, most classroom discussions and activities, long forgotten, don't make it into the book, but a pages-long description of her date with a short-order cook who gets so drunk they have to stop their cab so he can vomit out the door makes the cut. Likewise, she must have found some old programs and/or videos from her commencement, because I got to learn in exactly what order everyone marched into the venue, and exactly what was said when awards were handed out. This veering between unfortunate vagueness and unnecessary detail made the book feel uneven, possibly not quite finished.
But I don't want to be too hard on it. The writing was mostly quite good, and while my interest tended to wax and wane while I was reading this, I definitely learned some things, and now that I'm done I'm glad I read it. If the subject matter sounds interesting to you, you'll probably be glad you read it too.
This is certainly an interesting and worthy topic for a memoir; unfortunately, the execution was a bit lacking for me. We don't learn as much as we could about the school itself and, by extension, Lorene's experience in it. I guess I was expecting Dead Poets' Society-style classroom and dorm room scenes where teachers and students all learn from one another, but there's very little of that. The book is quite internal, all about what Lorene is thinking and feeling, and of course this is important, but without a strong sense of place it just doesn't feel very grounded, and few of the other characters really come alive.
I sometimes got an odd sense that Lorene, who wrote this memoir 15 years after graduating, was just kind of throwing in whatever she remembered from that time. As a result, most classroom discussions and activities, long forgotten, don't make it into the book, but a pages-long description of her date with a short-order cook who gets so drunk they have to stop their cab so he can vomit out the door makes the cut. Likewise, she must have found some old programs and/or videos from her commencement, because I got to learn in exactly what order everyone marched into the venue, and exactly what was said when awards were handed out. This veering between unfortunate vagueness and unnecessary detail made the book feel uneven, possibly not quite finished.
But I don't want to be too hard on it. The writing was mostly quite good, and while my interest tended to wax and wane while I was reading this, I definitely learned some things, and now that I'm done I'm glad I read it. If the subject matter sounds interesting to you, you'll probably be glad you read it too.
July 29, 2020
Having been a Black kid at a boarding school in the late 1960s I can definitely relate to this story.
October 27, 2022
Sometimes I stopped running because I was tired, and because the woods were too animated to pound through as I was pounding through adolescence. Each day the snow retreated a little from the coldest, shadiest places. The mud softened, and the paths became more treacherous. I came to know the working chipmunk holes, sunny bird roosts, and squirrels' nests, bulky as winter hats in the high branches of the hardwood trees.
My guilty afternoon pleasure made me greedy for more that spring, and so I left off studying now and then to read a short story or a poem that was not assigned or to skip the first half of Seated Meal so that I could steal away to the Lower School docks to watch the sunset melt into the tops of the pines.
I did not know that I was supposed to find in such solitary diversions moments of joy in that I would cherish them into adulthood. I would have laughed just as my four year old daughter laughed when I told her that children grow while they sleep.
---
Beautifully written and as relevant today as it was when Cary was one of the first young Black women to integrate St Paul's in the early seventies. My daughter brought BLACK ICE home for class and I finally read this book that's been on my list for ages. Cary has tremendous powers of description, whether writing about place, emotion or character. Although this memoir delves into painful territory with directness, you get the sense that Cary is a deeply private person. Makes the book all the more remarkable. Also she isn't afraid to leave room for mystery and nuance. I feel like this book should be required reading in junior high/high school. It's discouraging to come across the same old excuses for white privilege that you still hear today, and the more people who read a book like this, the better. My daughter's copy is out of reach at the moment, but I will copy out one of the many beautiful passages here later.
My guilty afternoon pleasure made me greedy for more that spring, and so I left off studying now and then to read a short story or a poem that was not assigned or to skip the first half of Seated Meal so that I could steal away to the Lower School docks to watch the sunset melt into the tops of the pines.
I did not know that I was supposed to find in such solitary diversions moments of joy in that I would cherish them into adulthood. I would have laughed just as my four year old daughter laughed when I told her that children grow while they sleep.
---
Beautifully written and as relevant today as it was when Cary was one of the first young Black women to integrate St Paul's in the early seventies. My daughter brought BLACK ICE home for class and I finally read this book that's been on my list for ages. Cary has tremendous powers of description, whether writing about place, emotion or character. Although this memoir delves into painful territory with directness, you get the sense that Cary is a deeply private person. Makes the book all the more remarkable. Also she isn't afraid to leave room for mystery and nuance. I feel like this book should be required reading in junior high/high school. It's discouraging to come across the same old excuses for white privilege that you still hear today, and the more people who read a book like this, the better. My daughter's copy is out of reach at the moment, but I will copy out one of the many beautiful passages here later.
February 7, 2015
In 1972 Lorene Cary left her home in Philadelphia for boarding school in New Hampshire. The school, St. Paul's, had only recently begun to accept female students; more pressingly, for Cary, there were very few black students or faculty.
Cary's boarding school tale shares themes common to many: she made friends, broke rules, excelled in some classes and struggled in others. Over the course of her two years at St. Paul's, she established herself as a campus leader. Her experience is one of ambivalence, though, of never quite trusting St. Paul's—in particular, the white students and teachers—but also beginning to appreciate some of what it has to offer, beginning to see more nuance.
I had not expected the gentle, tentative surge of gratitude I began to feel...for St. Paul's School, the spring, and the early morning. I needed the morning light and the warbling birds. I needed to find a way to live in this place for a moment and get the good of it. I had tried to hold myself apart, and the aloneness proved more terrible than what I had tried to escape. (152)
I struggled with two things in reading Black Ice. The first was the sense that Cary never quite separates her adult understanding from her teenage experience; I valued the perspective but at the same time never felt quite there. (This has at least as much to do with me as it does with the book, though, and with what I'm currently looking for in boarding school stories.)
It didn't occur to me that I never named my own mystery illness the spring before (except to misdiagnose it to friends as mono), because I'd been afraid to admit, even to my mother, how much I'd wanted to lie down somewhere and hide. Black women, tall and strong as cypress trees, didn't pull that. Pain and shame and cowardice and fear had to be kept secret. (192)
The other thing is more complicated. It's a story about race, for sure, although it's also about class and gender and sexuality and who knows what else. Despite her gradual appreciation for and acceptance of St. Paul's, Cary never shakes the feeling of being an outsider, of...not measuring up, I suppose. Not in terms of what the school expects of her, nor in terms of what she wants to be able to give back to her family and community.
Not one thought entered my head that did not seem disloyal. I was ashamed, seeing their pride close up, as if for the first time, at how little I had accomplished, how much I had failed to do at St. Paul's. Somewhere in the last two years I had forgotten my mission. What had I done, I kept thinking, that was worthy of their faith? How had I helped my race? How had I prepared myself for a meaningful future? ... They were right: only a handful of us got this break. I wanted to shout at them that I had squandered it. Now that it's all over, hey, I'm not your girl! I couldn't do it. (212)
But I struggled to understand why. Here she is at the end of her two years, a leader, on her way to an Ivy League school. It is much easier to see her internal struggle throughout the book than it is to see her external struggle—which I suppose was part of the problem, but there's nuance here that I'm sure I'm missing. Less a question of St. Paul's being (especially) racist, I suppose, than of the entire country being racist and St. Paul's being...I'm not sure. A symbol of the problem. Cary is understandably reluctant to be on the outside, to have to push boundaries (her own and others').
Again...pretty sure I'm missing some pieces. But it's an interesting book, and a complex one. A last quotation, just because it reminds me of my own experience:
"How come you got to start making the bed the minute your feet hit the floor? You need to lighten up, girl. Live a little!" Then she'd laugh, delighted with herself and at my inability to be angry with her. (176-177)
Cary's boarding school tale shares themes common to many: she made friends, broke rules, excelled in some classes and struggled in others. Over the course of her two years at St. Paul's, she established herself as a campus leader. Her experience is one of ambivalence, though, of never quite trusting St. Paul's—in particular, the white students and teachers—but also beginning to appreciate some of what it has to offer, beginning to see more nuance.
I had not expected the gentle, tentative surge of gratitude I began to feel...for St. Paul's School, the spring, and the early morning. I needed the morning light and the warbling birds. I needed to find a way to live in this place for a moment and get the good of it. I had tried to hold myself apart, and the aloneness proved more terrible than what I had tried to escape. (152)
I struggled with two things in reading Black Ice. The first was the sense that Cary never quite separates her adult understanding from her teenage experience; I valued the perspective but at the same time never felt quite there. (This has at least as much to do with me as it does with the book, though, and with what I'm currently looking for in boarding school stories.)
It didn't occur to me that I never named my own mystery illness the spring before (except to misdiagnose it to friends as mono), because I'd been afraid to admit, even to my mother, how much I'd wanted to lie down somewhere and hide. Black women, tall and strong as cypress trees, didn't pull that. Pain and shame and cowardice and fear had to be kept secret. (192)
The other thing is more complicated. It's a story about race, for sure, although it's also about class and gender and sexuality and who knows what else. Despite her gradual appreciation for and acceptance of St. Paul's, Cary never shakes the feeling of being an outsider, of...not measuring up, I suppose. Not in terms of what the school expects of her, nor in terms of what she wants to be able to give back to her family and community.
Not one thought entered my head that did not seem disloyal. I was ashamed, seeing their pride close up, as if for the first time, at how little I had accomplished, how much I had failed to do at St. Paul's. Somewhere in the last two years I had forgotten my mission. What had I done, I kept thinking, that was worthy of their faith? How had I helped my race? How had I prepared myself for a meaningful future? ... They were right: only a handful of us got this break. I wanted to shout at them that I had squandered it. Now that it's all over, hey, I'm not your girl! I couldn't do it. (212)
But I struggled to understand why. Here she is at the end of her two years, a leader, on her way to an Ivy League school. It is much easier to see her internal struggle throughout the book than it is to see her external struggle—which I suppose was part of the problem, but there's nuance here that I'm sure I'm missing. Less a question of St. Paul's being (especially) racist, I suppose, than of the entire country being racist and St. Paul's being...I'm not sure. A symbol of the problem. Cary is understandably reluctant to be on the outside, to have to push boundaries (her own and others').
Again...pretty sure I'm missing some pieces. But it's an interesting book, and a complex one. A last quotation, just because it reminds me of my own experience:
"How come you got to start making the bed the minute your feet hit the floor? You need to lighten up, girl. Live a little!" Then she'd laugh, delighted with herself and at my inability to be angry with her. (176-177)
June 13, 2009
I actually meant to read this memoir for a class in college about 10 years ago!
I am ancient.
Anyway, back then I ended up choosing Mary Karr's "Liar's Club" instead, but now I've finally read "Black Ice" as well. It takes place in the early 1970s in a New Hampshire boarding school. The school's only recently decided to accept women and minorities, so the narrator, who lives near Philly, applies and gets in, only to find herself struggling to belong on two fronts as an African-American young woman.
Prose is beautiful and the story is compelling, especially because she has several perspectives to draw from, including as a teacher and board member at the very same school years later, and as an attendee of the 15-year reunion in 1989.
I am ancient.
Anyway, back then I ended up choosing Mary Karr's "Liar's Club" instead, but now I've finally read "Black Ice" as well. It takes place in the early 1970s in a New Hampshire boarding school. The school's only recently decided to accept women and minorities, so the narrator, who lives near Philly, applies and gets in, only to find herself struggling to belong on two fronts as an African-American young woman.
Prose is beautiful and the story is compelling, especially because she has several perspectives to draw from, including as a teacher and board member at the very same school years later, and as an attendee of the 15-year reunion in 1989.
February 9, 2021
This book was so beautiful—lucidly written and deeply evocative of the boarding school experience. The sense of feeling profoundly on the outside of this place, even while simultaneously grabbing onto it so tightly, was so clear and raw that it brought me straight back to 2007, sitting at my own graduation from boarding school, feeling hot with shame as I (like Cary) was awarded no honors and the school prize that I was sure was a pity gesture for try-hard underachievers who would never truly belong to this world. The sense, too, of ambivalent gratitude that drew Cary back both as a teacher and a trustee resonated with me, as I read this book between classes at the boarding school I too now teach at. I wish that every one of my students could read this book, and in doing so feel less alone.
June 8, 2021
This wonderfully frank and perceptive memoir describes the perils and ambiguities of that double role, in which failing calculus and winning a student election could be both interpreted as betrayals of one's skin.
October 24, 2009
I am always amazed at the personal style of African-Americans that attend elite, predominately white institutions. There are aspects how they view life (I am never really sure that they address the issues of color) and the words of their books sometimes seem disingenuous. This writer and Andrea Lee ("Sarah Phillips" and "Russian Journal") lived on the same street and less than a block from each other. Both writers wrote coming of age books.
Life at St. Paul's had to be really tough. Juggling racial and gender issues, while worrying about the disintegration of things at home had to be hard. I thought the author did a good job at articulating her attempts to "fit" into her new environment, get good grades and yet remain an African-American sister in thought.
I thought that she gave good understanding at why she felt compelled to go elite school. It's all about who you know and what they can do for you. It was understood that she was to attend an Ivy League School as there would be no point in attending if you could not push yourself to academically compete. Lorene's observation of teachers and the fact that many would not give you any credit (because you are black and/or female) is something that is confronted everyday.
Life at St. Paul's had to be really tough. Juggling racial and gender issues, while worrying about the disintegration of things at home had to be hard. I thought the author did a good job at articulating her attempts to "fit" into her new environment, get good grades and yet remain an African-American sister in thought.
I thought that she gave good understanding at why she felt compelled to go elite school. It's all about who you know and what they can do for you. It was understood that she was to attend an Ivy League School as there would be no point in attending if you could not push yourself to academically compete. Lorene's observation of teachers and the fact that many would not give you any credit (because you are black and/or female) is something that is confronted everyday.
February 12, 2013
Mr. Drake recommended this book to me as an example of a high school memoir written by a local. The author's experience with high school as a black female in a fancy boarding school in Massachusetts is gripping and so so so well written. She is so good at conveying growth and change over time, as well as the struggle of representing your people well, both racially and as a female. Some phrases I really liked: "veins raised themselves along the backs of my hands that summer. My handwriting changed several times. I began reading Time magazine." Carey's use of those little details to show her state of flux is so powerful. She also uses alliteration, which technically you're not supposed to because it makes you sound ridiculous, but her religious imagery throughout all of this is so powerful and I wish I had the skill to emulate it, from Jesus "blond and bland, wispy beard and wistful eyes" to "wind like the God of Israel." Overall, it was interesting and slightly jarring to see her casually refer to Chestnut Hill and West Philly, and it was especially amazing her use of personal detail to create a sense of intimacy. Would recommend, especially to Philly natives.
May 29, 2019
Very well done coming-of-age memoir, a modern classic of the genre. Adolescence is tough enough, and then also being a pioneer... Chock full of gorgeous writing and insight. Here's an example: "Like foam spread hastily over an offshore oil spill, my shame soaked up and protected me from the rage underneath. Only now and then did I see the results of that slick, silent anger: tiny moments of self-hatred like dead fish washed up on the beach." Talking about grace: "I like the simplicity of the word. Old ladies in church use it. Old drunks who don't drink anymore use it. Grace, Tillich says, is accepting that you are accepted." And many more instances...
January 8, 2016
This is the true story from a woman of color of her time as a teenage student on a boarding school campus in New England in the 1970's. It is fascinating and moving, and she is an introspective author (and teen, to an appropriately lesser extent). Ms. Cary gives a window into what it feels like to be displaced, to be on the margins, and what it takes to fit in and the cost of fitting in. She also talks about coming into her own as a person and as a scholar. It is extremely well written and an uplifting story.
July 16, 2011
This memoir, of a girl who gets a scholarship to an exclusive boarding school, was especially powerful to me because I could relate to so much of it, having been in a similar situation. Add to that the fact that she was among the first girls or African-Americans to be admitted to the school, her feelings of alienation and yet determination to achieve were very stronger, and she describes them in their adolescent intensity. Beautiful.
May 20, 2012
This memoir is a well written account of learning what it means to stay true to yourself. Lorene changes schools, moving from her home in a black section of Philadelphia, to an elite almost all-white school. The changes make her think about the adjustments she makes to fit in. How much is too much and when do you lose yourself? What she figures out helped her graduate and move on in life, eventually returning to St. Paul's to teach. This book is definitely worth reading.
August 26, 2012
Yep, this book was a little tough to read, not because of the language or the deep ruminations of the author, but because watching a preteen make bad decisions is like looking back on the stuff you did when you were younger and too arrogant to know better. But you know what, this is the type of book some teens could learn from; basic lessons about growing up, dealing with the race card in America, and how to look towards the future. The fact that it's nonfiction only makes it better.
Want to read
August 11, 2015I feel this one is likely to zoom toward the top of the to-read list.
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Still combing through the 500 Great Books By Women book list, which got set up as a Goodreads group, and tracking the demographics via spreadsheet (and so can yoouuu).
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Still combing through the 500 Great Books By Women book list, which got set up as a Goodreads group, and tracking the demographics via spreadsheet (and so can yoouuu).
April 11, 2007
One of the best books that captures the life of what most of my classmates in college (I went to an Historically Black Women's College) went through in high school and why we choose to go to a school where we could see more people who looked like us.
My school has been BLASTING Imus this past week. Go, Spelmanites!
My school has been BLASTING Imus this past week. Go, Spelmanites!
March 30, 2016
This coming-of-age story was a terrific book club read--an engaging insider's view of an elite boarding school complicated by race issues and life challenges. My favorite parts were Cary's family stories "She left her skin draped over a chair by the window, as easily as others leave their lingerie."
April 22, 2007
Otherwise known as Izetta's time in high school. Good for parents of color to read before sending their children to prep schools. Be prepared to support your child. This is a good read and strong memoir.
August 19, 2007
I was recently flabbergasted by a group of young, private school trained, women of color that exclaimed when this book was briefly mentioned. I read it as a young, public school trained, woman of color and also enjoyed.
June 20, 2020
I wish I had read this book before high school to gain some perspective on the Black experience. The vocabulary in this book is stellar. I love a book that introduces me to new words. Beautifully written.
July 28, 2008
I'm re-reading this in hopes it will work for my 8th grade class. . . I remember loving it when I read it in 8th grade.
With hindsight, this book is even more compelling.
With hindsight, this book is even more compelling.
April 10, 2016
An interesting memoir on one young woman's experience being Black at a privileged, white, northeast private high school. Thought provoking.
December 1, 2013
I loved the book as a parent of an African-American boarding school girl, it gave me valuable insight into what my daughter is facing .
December 6, 2014
Candid on color. Why oh why doesn't the world recognize this coming off age story as infinitely more insightful and engaging than Elizabeth Gilberts Writing?
September 26, 2021
Cary recounts her time at a predominantly white boarding school in Massachusetts--her last two years of high school in the 1970s. Cary is self-aware, self-critical, and in her words indulges in
"recreational fault-finding."
My interpretation of the title is that it's about the unattainable nature of Black excellence being achieved or seen. (But what do I know? I'm a cranky, hormonal, angry, grieving mess right now). The idea of ice also conveys vulnerability, as does this passage from early-ish in the book
Cary, despite her fault-finding, has the capacity to experience "love and gratitude, hate, resentments, shame, admiration, loss" all at once, as she expresses her graduation feelings. Black Ice is a solid but restrained read. Despite it being relatively short, at 237 pages, it took me what felt like a long five days to finish it.
"recreational fault-finding."
My interpretation of the title is that it's about the unattainable nature of Black excellence being achieved or seen. (But what do I know? I'm a cranky, hormonal, angry, grieving mess right now). The idea of ice also conveys vulnerability, as does this passage from early-ish in the book
Ed Shockley, who graduated in my class, can still remember standing outside the Rectory looking at the grounds and wondering whether his white classmates would jump him in the woods.It's wild how Black men are so feared when they're in danger from white people all the time
Cary, despite her fault-finding, has the capacity to experience "love and gratitude, hate, resentments, shame, admiration, loss" all at once, as she expresses her graduation feelings. Black Ice is a solid but restrained read. Despite it being relatively short, at 237 pages, it took me what felt like a long five days to finish it.
May 16, 2017
This was an excellent story of her life. It made me think as I always have how different African Americans are. We grow up differently; our experiences are so different. I realized that I did not struggle with going to school with white kids. I knew some where financially better off than me, but I also went to school with poor whites. I thought about this because the author was in high school while I was in fourth-grade in West Burlington, Iowa. My family was the only black family in this school system as far as I know at this time. There may have been one in high school which would make a total of 7 blacks from elementary through high school. I never thought of my skin color; however, that year their was a boy named Doug Smith who would come in my face and call me a nigger. I kicked his butt and went on about my business. I had always gone to school in an environment where I was more than likely the only one or two chocolate dots in class. I was elated when I went into the army and landed in a company that was majority black! I couldn't believe it.
November 19, 2020
4 stars. A bold and bracing memoir about a black teenager’s experience at a white, elite boarding school in New Hampshire. As a teenager, Lorene Cary was invited to apply to St. Paul’s, a former all-boys boarding school that had recently accepted female students. Cary is excellent at capturing her teenage self who, at that age, was a bundle of contradictions. The teenage Cary is smug yet insecure, cocky yet terrified, determined to succeed, yet daunted by the unspoken expectations placed on her by her family and community. Over two years, she grapples with her desire to succeed at St. Paul's and her reluctance to succumb entirely to the community. The writing, too, is beautiful. Cary writes in a restrained, measured tone as she recounts her time at St. Paul’s. This means, though, that the more violent, shocking memories she relays—a contentious meeting with a teacher, a date rape, a dispute with a classmate—are all the more shocking.
September 2, 2022
I am currently reading memoir, and I found this story of the author's experience going to a mostly white/mostly rich private school in Connecticut similar to my own when I traveled across country with my family from my home in Arizona to our new home in Mississippi. Though I am white, I experienced a huge culture shock. The contrast between my former life in the West to my life in the South was so extreme, that I, too, felt compelled to write my memoir.
Cary writes almost exclusively of her experience at school, though the inevitable personal experiences that make us who we are today are examined and noted. She returns to her school as a professor and the reader gets a sense of her completed journey. It's nicely done, where the reader gets a view into a life that is rich with experience both like and unlike her own.
Cary writes almost exclusively of her experience at school, though the inevitable personal experiences that make us who we are today are examined and noted. She returns to her school as a professor and the reader gets a sense of her completed journey. It's nicely done, where the reader gets a view into a life that is rich with experience both like and unlike her own.
July 8, 2019
As someone who loves a good prep school story I'm surprised that I"d never heard about this book. I thought Cary's voice was very powerful and enjoyed hearing her perspective as a black girl (and then woman) at a predominately white (and male) boarding school in New Hampshire. I read this shortly after So You Want to Talk About Race , which was written much more recently--Black Ice has many of the same ideas, but you get the sense that she was writing about them (and experiencing them) before there was the nascent national conversation that there is today. She was an amazing advocate for herself at a young age.
September 5, 2018
Believe me, this is a book I really wanted to like, but fell short on what it's reviews promised. It's not anything out of Angelou's or Cleaver's hands; the writing style is fine in itself, though the novel is linking together fragments and still manages to be called a memoir. It's redeemable in some aspects, as it's easy to connect with whether or not the reader goes to a boarding school of any kind... A new environment has its fair share of ups and downs. The book is mediocre, almost better, but it seems solely about the author and reads vague and at times confusing overall.
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