From: Faith <fbrautig>
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 15:58:26 -0500

I'll jump in (where angels fear to tread?) on ethnicity. I read Make Lemonade when it was new, and never questioned my assumption that the characters were African American. I, of course, never thought about it when reading the sequel either, but then saw the interview with the author. Years have passed since I read the first book, but I think the basis for my assumption was simply the name. In my experience, La followed by an uppercase letter, when used as a female name, has virtually always belonged to an African American. The same is true, in my experience, for De and males. I've lived in four states, and have never noticed any significant number of exceptions to that, so it's just my experience.

I'm not at all saying that my response was "correct", nor am I at all displeased that kids of different races have adopted the characters as their own. I am just explaining that the characters, to me, did have a race and it was not my own.

Faith Brautigam Gail Borden Public Library, Elgin, Illinois
Received on Tue 10 Jul 2001 03:58:26 PM CDT