Among Others — Lois Griffith

Ever since she can remember, Della has felt as if she's stood on the outside, watching her own life unfold. Della's first memories are of the West Indian island where she was born--its coconut palms, a yard with chickens and a goat. Most particularly, she remembers the image of her parents' light-cinnamon hands against her own small black ones, and later, when her parents moved to Brooklyn, New York, the way the men of the neighborhood tried to make her feel bad about her "dark self." Theses memories, mingled with the anger and confusion they stir up in her, form indelible strands running through her evolving sense of self. But when her father is killed by two white policemen, Della begins to see how her own alienation is a mirror of a larger social rift. Watching as her Brooklyn neighborhood erupts in riots, she finds solace in Gregory, the sweet, smart, and light-skinned boy who lives in her apartment building. Together they discover the joys of sex, love, and music and dream of a day when Gregory will be a professional musician, with Della at his side.
        
When Gregory leaves Brooklyn to go to college at Columbia University, Della follows and is unwittingly pulled into the confusing world of radical black student activism at the end of the 1960s. There she finds herself drawn to the charming, charismatic student leader Sam. As she struggles to make sense of the difficult and confusing times, she delicately traces the fault lines running through America's conception of race as well as her own image of herself. Writing with a unique beauty and subtlety, Lois Griffith has created a profoundly compelling story of race, love, and protest. And in Della she presents a character of undeniable appeal, both tough and vulnerable, whose search for identity--while rich in detail--is also universal in scope.