Black Ice by Lorene Cary
Vintage Books 1991
LJ’s Rating *** Beyond Good
Stretching beyond the horizon…
Black Ice is an autobiographical coming-of-age story. It concerns a young African-American girl (Lorene) who stumbles upon the chance to attend a historically all-white, all-male boarding school on a two-year academic scholarship. At the tender age of 14, Lorene instinctively realizes that opportunities such as this rarely happen so she is bound and determined to not just succeed, but meritoriously succeed all without losing her identity.
The year is 1972 in the initial setting of West Philadelphia’s black suburb of Yeadon. Lorene’s parents had sacrificed plenty so the Cary’s could live in such a neighborhood and they fought hard to ensure that Lorene received the proper education at whatever cost.
Just as the future students of St. Paul’s were groomed for such a place, so too was Lorene. Her parents made sure that she maintained academic excellence, high standards and lofty ambitions.
The story opens on Lorene’s 15th year reunion at St. Paul’s in New Hampshire. Now she is speaking from a different perspective: that of a former graduate, teacher and trustee of the school. As she watches the faces of the eager young African-American graduates, she thinks to herself: ‘I wondered if they knew or if they would learn, that just as St. Paul’s was theirs, because they had attended the school and contributed to it, so too was American life and culture theirs because they were black people in America.’
For a long time (while in attendance at the school and many years after), Lorene had thoughts of her prep school experience as an aberration from ‘normal’ black life. Although there were other minority scholarship students like herself, Lorene still felt that she alone was fighting a battle of justice and that if she failed to graduate, she would be not only failing herself, but her parents, grandparents and family. Once Lorene got beyond these feelings of isolation, she found her “voice” and was able to write about the process at St. Paul’s school and how she fit in.
Her many accomplishments: member of the Astronomy Club, writer for the school newspaper, class vice-president, and recipient of the Rector’s Award: an honor bestowed to graduates whose selfless devotion to school activities improved everyone’s lives. She also wrote of some major disappointments, like the time when, despite every attempt, she failed calculus.
At the end of the novel, Lorene finally accepts the fact that she’ll probably never find that elusive ‘black ice’ but at least her children may be given the opportunity. She writes, ‘I have never skated on black ice, perhaps my children will. They’ll know it, at least, when it appears: that the earth can stretch smooth and unbroken like grace and they’ll know as they know my voice, they were meant to have their share.’
Black Ice earns *** stars from me, LJ, for Beyond Good. The author presents an honest portrayal of her life and her dreams, ambitious and frustrations in an easy-to-read manner that could serve as a testament of hope to minority students who find themselves in similar situations.