Download Now The Golden Road: Notes On My Gentrification Designed By Caille Millner Published As Publication

first, I couldn't place the slight feeling of repulsion I felt when beginning this book, Around theth page I realized that the sort of mental cringing I was experiencing was most similar to the unpleasant start I always have when I put headphones on during my radio show and hear how my voice sounds to other people.


This book is about having black parents who came to California and educated themselves, and thus placed you in a yucky suburban landscape you hate more than is necessary, mostly because you have no idea what you're missing that's worse, and because you've read a lot of books that are about people and places that seem to be better.


If you turn to the back of the book jacket, you'll see a picture of Caillie Millner: hair in a bun, demure blouse and one of those smiles that probably doesn't like to get captured on film much, at least not by strangers.
Ack! Basically, she's me. But pale black instead of pale brown,

Obviously there are differences between the author and I her travels, her Harvard degree, her experience with drugs I think if you mush my adolescence together with my oldest brother's, you'll come even closer to the narrative trace of this book.


Nevertheless I've never read a story about passing that I identified so much with, Or had the feeling of blushing at the precociousness of someone else's writing as if it were my own slightly undercooked outrage, or my reflectionsonmyyouthwhilestillbasicallyyoungandthereforestillnottemperedwithanygreatdealofwisdom,

That doesn't make this a great book worthy of five maybe, but I don't care because there are things about being a nerdy almostwhite girl in America that I've never read anyone else write so well, and I can't do any better, so there you go.
I frequently enjoy Caille Millner's oped pieces in the SF Chronicle, so I bought this on a lark, I found it disappointing. There was a certain grandiosity about it, together with a disjointedness and an awkward writing style, particularly when she is putting speeches in others' mouths and she likes to put long speeches in others' mouths.
I wouldn't bother if I were you, started off well, but halfway through i got stalled out Started strong, but fell flat towards the end, I was interested to read this book since I grew up in San Jose, knew her father, etc, The book was a disappointment, While she does acknowledge her own advantage in life, growing up in Almaden Valley, going to Harvard, she appears to like the sound of her own voice, The fact that she has an aversion to quotation marks made it difficult for me to follow the voice, The book moved around too much and didn't explore fully any aspect of her life, I really enjoyed the family aspect amp wish the book would have explored that more, I could have done without the strange friends, drugs, etc, I learned that she amp I went to the same high schoolyears apart, We did not have the same experience amp she claimed racism at the school which wouldn't surprise me amp the administration shut her down, I wish she would have discussed more of her eating disorder and her personal relationships including her family, The section on her time in South Africa went no wherethat is basically where the book ended, Kinda boring. Meandered. I haven't said that about a book in a long time, It gets the extra star because the takeaway was identity narratives, Something I will probably carry with me and my ideas of writing and self for the rest of my life, I stopped halfway through though because I couldn't take the dipping in and out of time frames with seemingly little relation to the original paragraph or even premise of the book.


But identity narratives, Killer concept. A memoir of a young African American woman growing up in a predominantly Latino San Jose, California neighborhood, I just finished this book and found the last/to be bizarre, It wandered and jumped around to the point that I wanted to stop reading it, but the first/were full of interesting observations, she's a bit longwinded and it's pretty easy to lose interest in what she has to say, gentrification is interesting enough but this doesn't feel like a very fresh take on a subject that is already becoming stale, An extremely curious book. Started off as I expected and then completely changed course, I'd be curious to read other things by her, She does have an unusual, striking style, This book lives up to the thoughtprovoking and searing honesty of its title, Welldone.

I appreciated the content of this, if not always the execution, Multipage monologues by folks other than the author resulted in everything being written/phrased in the author's own voice, As such, these portions, of which there were many, felt very stripped of the individual speakers' personality, which distracted me, This was really interested, I recommend it! An interesting read on the concept of middle class/crossing class lines, etc,
My review is probably more helpful than the star rating,

I immediately wanted to read The Golden Road, sensing it would bare similarities to my experiences as a person of color in predominantly white schools, I am slightly disappointed by the memoir, Having lived a similar experience, I felt certain aspects of the narrative were not fully examined, We learn most of the "truths" in the memoir because Millner tells them to us, not because we're shown, And because most of the reviews seem to be wriiten by people of color who didn't attend independent schools in the 's or are white, they don't understand the nuances in the same way.
One reviewer described Millner as a "participant observer," but that's also a way to suggest Millner hasn't been an active heroine in her own life,

Millner's story is a bildungsroman that is what makes it interesting, What Millner captures, most realistically is the social isolation, confusion, neuroticism, and inauthenticity of middleclass life in the 's,

Millner does position herself as the participant observer, as opposed to the full center of a selfcreated universe, Her own story of confusion is more interesting to me than her trying to understand the struggle of others, or even the larger dialogue about race in the U.
S.

Millner repeatedly refers to an eating disorder, but seems reluctant to fully deconstruct her own illness and the commentary it makes on control and alienation, Millner misses her opportunity to talk about an experience solidly her own that speaks to her isolation, the middleclass values she interrogates, and race and gender, Likewise, Millner dances around the role of depression in her teenage years, We as readers miss out on a great deal with these omissions, It's hard to write a memoir when there are still things one does not wish to lay bare,

I found her discussion of growing up in a Latino neighborhood, highly engaging, as was her honest admission that she still harbors anger toward Latinos,

Here's what I was expecting from the memoir:
, A deeper discussion of body politics,

. Millner understands her privilege in relation to others deprivation, That's not the same as selfreflection,

. I don't know how she made it through high school or college without some comment about her hair, That is a rite of passage for girls of color in private school,

. A fuller discussion of sexual politics, Millner speaks about how she has fallen in love yet again, but never establishes why she has the pattern of falling in love so easily, This could have been a great place to talk about seeking belonging through men and what it means when it's men you need to feel claimed,

Millner mentions that she is irritated by the Black community at Harvard's exclusion of Black gay men but doesn't talk about what she did to engage those who are exlcuded.
Millner also talks about a former friend Hans, who sexually assaults her friend, Millner's reaction is oddly distant,

.

There are a couple of histrionic moments at the end of the novel which seem out of place,

. She doesn't use " ," she paraphrases what is said, and because she uses her own language, everyone sounds like her,

Maybe this is the problem: I'm trying to put Millner in a box, have her speak directly to me, My defense My own experience calls back to me, alerting me to somewhat hollow notes, I applaud Millner for telling her own unique story it is a story tied to time and place, Sometimes that produces a universal narrative, I'm not sure that happened here,

In the end, I'm glad I read it, I'm going to recommend it to friends and then I am going to consider writing my own memoir, 'cause I have had a lot of crazy ish go down, and if Millner can write a memoir, then I damn sure can too.

I hate giving one star ratings, Writing is a lot of work and leaves the author very vulnerableespecially a memoir like this, However, I just couldn't handle this book, It started off really well but the time jumps weren't coherent and it took all I had to get through the Hans section which didn't really seem to have a point other than shock factor.
I had to give up at Lyn thoughcured of homosexuality! That is so damaging and irresponsible to put into print,

DNF A bit too selfabsorbed and quite pompous in her style of writing, . . the word "insufferable" kept coming to mind as I read this book, I was hoping to gain some insight into what it's like to grow up in a world in which you feel unmoored from a particular racial identity/background/tribe, but instead of getting that, I got a rambling diatribe from someone who seemed to be looking to pick a fight with everyone over almost everything.


There were some gems in this book, such as her observation of how difficult it is to rally a neighborhood around issues they feel defeated by at the outset, or the awkwardness of teenage friendships which cross a significant income divide, or the excruciating painful visit with the family of your significant other when the relationship is already crumbling, or how the kids in her school felt that she unfairly exploited them in her highschoolpublished article to land herself a ticket into Harvard.


Issues of identity and race are quite complex and there were moments in which Millner could have dived into unexplored territory, but every time she started to do so, she seemed to get sidetracked and would meander off into a tale about some guy or another.
Whatever does HE have to do with this story, I'd wonder And did this woman never meet any women in her life, outside of her family I never have heard of a heterosexual woman who can have so many intense almost compulsive relationships with single men who seem to not notice that she is a very attractive female.
Men I know don't work like that! A comingofage memoir of a gifted young writer struggling with issues of cultural identity and social perception, with a theme of the impact of gentrification running through a series of life experiencess in San Jose, San Francisco, London, New York, and South Africa, and at places as diverse as Harvard, a Muslim neighborhood, a Catholic girls school, and a lowriders cruising night.


One of the strengths of the work, beyond the forementioned eloquence, is the author's ability to realistically present what she was truly feeling and believing in the past, and draw us in to identify with her perspective, and then later in the work to step back and have us reassess the same situation again, with the new insights and deeper understanding for the complex motiviations of others that devloping maturity and reflection can sometimes bring.
It is, at core, a reminder of how hard it is to grow up, and the value of always being prepared for the possibility that empathy something that takes work to get rightcan lead to acknowledgement of even greater suffering and pain for others in the world, yet can at the same time help the lone individual make truly meaningful and positive connections.


This is an interesting book to read in conjunction with What We Are, by Peter Nathaniel Malae, The latter is a novel, and set a bit later in time although there is some overlap, Both, however, speak to growing up in the multicultural diversity of the Silicon Valley in the last quarter of theth century, As this is my home, I know many of the places well that Millner describes in the book, and though my race, gender, and age make me very different from her, I can nevertheless appreciate the power she has to describe people, places, and behaviors I recognize and know.
A little too selfabsorbed for my liking, . . Milner's "privilege guilt" about wore me out, Quit trying to be something you're not, quit whining about the problems others are facing that you're not, and get active to help people fix these problems! Enough already.
insightful observations and interesting coming of age story This book was written by someone only two years older than me who also grew up in the Bay Area specifically San Jose and was one of a handful of Black students at an allgirls' high school.
The similarities betwwen myself and the author end there, I could not relate AT ALL to the author's bitter, often ranting diatribe against people, I had to return this book to the library before I could reach the 'bitter' end and doubt that I will borrow it again to finish, I find Sylvia Plath more uplifting and refreshing to read!,