SOURCE: "Writing About More Than Listless Youth," in Los Angeles Times, March 25, 1998, p. E3.

[In the following review, Linfield lauds Senna's Caucasia for its realistic and complex portrayal of racial identity in America.]

A novelist I know asked what I'd been reading lately. Caucasia, I answered. He looked displeased, as if he'd suddenly eaten something sour. "It's OK—but I like perfectly crafted sentences," he said. "Well," said I, "those are nice. But I like novels that are about something."

Danzy Senna, the 28-year-old author of Caucasia, has written a book that is not always perfectly crafted, but it is about many things, and important ones too. If you have tired of first novels in which the listless youth of America have listless sex, listen to listless music and listlessly consume junk food, Caucasia should interest you.

"Before I ever saw myself, I saw my sister," the novel...