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I'm Down: A Memoir, by Mishna Wolff
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Mishna Wolff grew up in a poor black neighborhood with her single father, a white man who truly believed he was black. "He strutted around with a short perm, a Cosby-esqe sweater, gold chains and a Kangol―telling jokes like Redd Fox, and giving advice like Jesse Jackson. You couldn't tell my father he was white. Believe me, I tried," writes Wolff. And so from early childhood on, her father began his crusade to make his white daughter down.
Unfortunately, Mishna didn't quite fit in with the neighborhood kids: she couldn't dance, she couldn't sing, she couldn't double Dutch and she was the worst player on her all-black basketball team. She was shy, uncool, and painfully white. And yet when she was suddenly sent to a rich white school, she found she was too "black" to fit in with her white classmates.
I'm Down is a hip, hysterical and at the same time beautiful memoir that will have you howling with laughter, recommending it to friends and questioning what it means to be black and white in America.
- Sales Rank: #85299 in Books
- Published on: 2010-06-08
- Released on: 2010-06-08
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.20" h x .75" w x 5.46" l, .61 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 288 pages
About the Author
Mishna Wolff was one of the 2009 Sundance Screenwriting Lab fellows. She is a humorist and former model, who grew up in Seattle. She lives and writes in New York City.
From Publishers Weekly
Humorist and former model Wolff details her childhood growing up in an all-black Seattle neighborhood with a white father who wanted to be black in this amusing memoir. Wolff never quite fit in with the neighborhood kids, despite her father's urgings that she make friends with the sisters on the block. Her father was raised in a similar neighborhood and—after a brief stint as a hippie in Vermont—returned to Seattle and settled into life as a self-proclaimed black man. Wolff and her younger, more outgoing sister, Anora, are taught to embrace all things black, just like their father and his string of black girlfriends. Just as Wolff finds her footing in the local elementary school (after having mastered the art of capping: think yo mama jokes), her mother, recently divorced from her father and living as a Buddhist, decides to enroll Wolff in the Individual Progress Program, a school for gifted children. Once again, Wolff finds herself the outcast among the wealthy white kids who own horses and take lavish vacations. While Wolff is adept at balancing humorous memories with more poignant moments of a daughter trying to earn her father's admiration, the result is more a series of vignettes than a cohesive memoir. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“This buoyant memoir is rich in detail but never feels over embellished…I'm Down certainly has serious thoughts on its mind (Wolff actually grew up quite poor and hungry), but the tone manages to be light and triumphant because of the hilarious child-goggles Wolff wears while spinning her tales. Rating: A” ―Entertainment Weekly
“An authentically funny, truly transcendent work that makes other, sorry-voiced memoirs by a certain more privileged class of writer pale--pun intended--by comparison…Wolff's focus, and the sweet soul of this terrific book, was on being accepted by her streetwise, wiseass dad, whom she knew loved her--and whom she loved--unequivocally.” ―Elle Magazine
“As she tells you at the outset of I’m Down, Mishna Wolff is all white―nothing remarkable, except that her way cool father, “Wolfy,” thinks he’s black (he’s not). What follows is a funny-melancholy coming of age memoir [in which] Mishna searches for identity in her broken home, her snobby, mostly white prep school, and―most restrictive of all―her longing heart.” ―O Magazine
“Deftly and hilariously delineates the American drama of race and class for one little girl.” ―Kirkus Reviews
“Mishna Wolff was a white girl who grew up in a poor black neighborhood. This funny, engaging, and perceptive memoir tells the story of how she managed to negotiate these two very different worlds, and emerge with her sanity--and identity--intact.” ―Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher
“And you thought you had a hard time fitting in when you were growing up? Try on Mishna Wolff's bizarre childhood for size…I'm Down explodes racial and cultural stereotypes with self-deprecating wit, wry humor and keen observation.” ―Janelle Brown, author of All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
“In a parallel universe - one, say, where Richard Pryor could be merged with Mark Twain and re- born with two x-chromosomes - the result would probably be Mishna Wolff. And her memoir, I have no doubt, would be as beautiful, funny, touching and irresistible as I'm Down. ” ―Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight and Pain Killers.
“Hilarious and sometimes tragic, Mishna Wolff's book is the expertly woven tale of a girl caught between two lives, two races, and two classes.” ―Christian Lander, author of Stuff White People Like
“A really, really funny book about the slings and arrows of growing up, of being a kid, of figuring out where you belong, of figuring IT out. The royal IT. Mishna's writing is fast, hip, edgy and so funny.” ―Michael Showalter, comedian and actor (The State and Wet Hot American Summer)
“Hilarious, bittersweet, and full of soul (in every sense of the word).” ―Wendy McClure, author of I'm Not The New Me
Most helpful customer reviews
44 of 47 people found the following review helpful.
Best Memoir I've Read Since "Liar's Club"
By Beldini
What a great book! Fun, moving, and with a really unexpected ending. Though the promo material highlights her childhood as a white girl in a black neighborhood, this memoir is a more sophisticated story--and more universal story -- of a child who can't find her place in her family. And the most moving aspect of this book is her success in finding a place in the world, and what it ultimately costs her. Yes, it's heartbreaking in places, but it's hysterical in others and most importantly -- the story is compelling. I literally couldn't put this book down and I have the circles under my eyes to prove it.
27 of 32 people found the following review helpful.
This semi-autobiograpical memoir is really great airplane food!
By Zendicant Pangolin
Wow, apart from a bird identification book, this is the very first amazon vine product that I might have purchased in 'real life' and I'm happy to say that this is definitely a worthwhile acquisition.
Before we begin let's establish what this book is not: It is not hilarious or tragic as a cover blurb indicates. It is also not, strictly speaking, truly autobiographical as the author declaims up front something to the effect that many of the things in the book might never have happened and that she uses composites of characters to represent distinct personalities in her story.
What this book is is a very charming, often poignant, quite incisive, well-told story based on the remembrances of a caucasian woman whose childhood was spent living in a deteriorating Seattle neighborhood with a father who chose to 'go black.'
Interestingly, it is also a real testimonial to the quality and effectiveness of the the Seattle public school system and civic organizations in their efforts to provide opportunities to its most promising albeit less privileged (read wealthy) chidren.
The story revolves around a white girl who, along with her younger sister remain in the custody of her ne'er do well father who has fashioned himself a black man in a white man's body. They live in an urban Seattle neighborhood which has become predominantly black; a change that the girls' father revels in.
The author does a wonderful job of describing the struggles and triumphs she experiences as she struggles with the multiple challenges of adolescence; parental divorce; racial comity, difference and divide; and familial and peer group strife.
A really great thing about the book is that the author is able to give insightful analysis of the dynamics of the unfolding tale as if she was fully cognizant of them as a little girl. Of course the picture only became clear to her later, in adulthood, which is undoubtedly why she makes her disclaimer about the events depicted in the book.
Ms. Wolff knows how to spin a story and once you begin this book I doubt that you will want to put it down until you have finished it.
I began reading it on a flight from the West Coast to the East coast and found the book to be the perfect length for this journey as I got through the first third on the first leg and finished up the rest just as we were making the approach to land on the second leg: Brilliant!
You will definitely become emotionally invested in this book and I recommend it as a very satisfying entertainment that is better than mere candy or a popcorn movie.
17 of 22 people found the following review helpful.
A Hard Book to Rate
By Legend of a Cowgirl
This book is hard to rate because although I am African-American I had similar experiences as Mishna Wolff. The insult some of the reviewers feel is that the author is a white woman who experienced what many of us wish were "stereotypes"; however, in reality they do exist in the African-American community. I guess I can relate to the author's experiences because I was a child who not only had no athletic ability, liked to read encyclopedias, had no rhythm (a no-no), couldn't jump rope (that no rhythm curse) and hated fighting. I spent many days wanting to play with children my own age, but didn't want to be drawn into a fight or insulted. As a child, I did begin to befriend white children who did not like to fight and insult, but I received much flack about their friendships from my family. They actually preferred me to have friends who were black, even if they were mean.
I believe the author tried to soften the story with the impression that her experiences had more to do with economics. She wrote about her father's girlfriend, who was a nurse, who the author seems to feel was the most positive role model. She was much different than the other girlfriends and even the author's mother. She also tried to soften her impressions of African-Americans by giving examples of her white classmates who had very dysfunctional lives despite their luxurious lives.
The problems with the book are the following:
a. The author doesn't have any experiences (which she cared to divulge) with poor white people. Actually she doesn't have experiences with any white people besides her class and sports team mates, teachers, coaches, her parents and a brief mention of her uncle during a wedding. White people are mysteriously absent during her life,
b. The author ends the book abruptly during her junior high school years. We have no idea what her high school experience was and what happened during her hormone-induced teenage years,
c. We don't know how her sister faired. Her sister was comfortable with the neighborhood children and went to school within the community.
The oddest part of the book was not the community where she was raised but her parents. I don't care what a person's socio-economic status happens to be, parents still want the best for their children. Her father seemed intent on interfering with any attempt the author made to better her life. I also believe there was more to the dissolution of her parent's marriage since her father, who was obviously neglectful, to receive custody. There are some skeletons in the closet that the author doesn't seem to want to divulge or doesn't know.
Overall, I guess the author exposes the angst of being helpless in a dysfunctional family and not fitting, which is not that uncommon with children. Her excuse for her oddness was that she just was in the wrong neighborhood. It was hard to accept that a white woman was exposing a few of the bad aspects of growing up in the African-American community. However, I had to put my ego aside and be non-judgmental because she was only writing about her experiences and perceptions. I guess the objection to this book is that many blacks don't fit the stereotypes. Rather than be upset, we should be happy that we have transcended those behaviors and teach the positive behaviors to our children.
I can only give it three stars because the ending was abrupt and didn't describe her high school and college years.
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