Colored Television by Danzy Senna: book review
Overview: Jane hasn't published a book in ten years. It's holding her back from tenure at her job teaching writing at an LA liberal arts college, and her career has stalled while her peers have charged ahead through publishing, branching into television, or finding new creative. Her husband isn't excelling either, though, in Jane's mind, this is because of his own choices in his abstract art. Having a family to support in LA, Jane feels the pressure to figure out this novel, or else figure out a new way to support her family. Overall: 4
Characters: 4 Jane is a great character, especially for a story like this. She comes across as almost placid— calm, collected, and internal on the outside, but internally, she's packed with contradictions. She struggles to hold herself as a mom and a writer at the same time. She's in a marriage that is both the great love of her life and something she loathes. Jane so obviously yearns for things she can't financially have—whether it's living in a certain LA neighborhood or trying to impress her daughter's preschool classmates moms by throwing an elaborate birthday party they can't afford—that she's willing to damage her personal relationships to get closer to the facade she wants. She effortlessly justifies taking advantage of others for her own gain, but the guilt does eventually eat at her. All of this bubbles through the novel, threatening to destroy the scaffolding of the life Jane has established.
Lenny, Jane's husband, poses interesting contradictions of his own. On the surface, he could be a dream husband. He cares about Jane's career and success as much as his own. He cares for the kids when she goes to chase a work lead—though he'll also drop them on her just as fast. And as time goes on, it becomes more clear that Lenny's investment in her work is more financially motivated than out of deep care for her art. The kids hum in the background as well. Ruby and her quest with American Girl dolls pulls out interesting threads about race and class that run throughout the novel and puts them in a new light. Her son is facing some kind of developmental challenge, but it's never explicitly described beyond the fact that he never wants to stop swinging at the park. I have an idea of what the author intended this to be at this point, but the extreme vagueness had me wondering if the book had a sci-fi twist at the beginning, given how it was described. It really could have been more straightforward and been more effective because of it.
Plot: 4 This is a slow burn book mainly held together by Jane's steps forward with her career. The first hurdle is finishing the novel she's been working on for a decade. After publishing her first book, she jumped into writing her magnum opus that has as many characters and interweaving plots as a Richard Powers novel that she describes as a "mulatto War and Peace." Getting to the end of the novel is its own journey, but once she sends it to her agent, her life isn't saved. She needs this book to sell to get tenure. When things don't go to play, she goes to Hollywood, and the rest of the book shows the harsh realities she navigates as she gets into the world of TV writing. There are big stakes when it comes to career and financial stability, but otherwise, it's a very character-driven, quieter story in the way it's presented. The internal drama really unfolds inch by inch. This book takes a really honest look at being a writer, Los Angeles, and creative careers.
Writing: 4 The writing in this novel is really good but in that way that's hard to describe. It's simple in the best way, cleanly presenting the story that effortlessly comes to life in your brain. There's enough movement in the writing to match the lower hurdles of the stakes and keep the reader progressing forward. And Senna does a great job building in a sense of urgency in the world of publishing where things are often infamously slow.
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