Caucasia notes essay

Caucasia won numerous awards, including the Stephen Crane Award for Best New Fiction, the American Library Association’s Alex Award, a Whiting Writer’s Award, and The Los Angeles Times named it one of the Best Books of the Year. Danzy Senna is the author of three novels, a memoir, and a collection of short stories.

In Part 2, “from caucasia, with love,” Birdie spends six years on the run with her mother, who grows increasingly paranoid and unstable. They have adopted the identities of Sheila and Jesse Goldman. Sheila is a young widow whose husband, David Goldman, was Jewish.

The first major plot point occurs near the end of Part 1, when Birdie’s parents decide that Sandy’s activity in the Black Power Movement has put them at risk for arrest by the FBI. The FBI arrests many of their friends, and the parents want to avoid the same fate.