Black Ice by Lorene Cary

First published: 1991

The Work

Black Ice, Lorene Cary’s autobiographical novel, chronicles her teen years during the 1970’s. At the age of fourteen, she was transplanted from her home in West Philadelphia into the white, male terrain of St. Paul’s, an exclusive boarding school in Concord, New Hampshire. Cary recalls her struggle and determination to succeed as an ambitious scholarship student under disquieting circumstances. The book records her efforts to secure and define her identity as a young black woman.

Cary’s resolve is born from a sense of duty to her family, ancestors, and community. She carries her mother’s proud defiance and her father’s fortitude with her as she encounters pain and triumph at St. Paul’s. She meets and befriends students and adults from many diverse backgrounds and learns that alienation, ignorance, love, and devotion are not bound by racial or cultural boundaries.

Cary discloses a realm of cathartic and celebratory firsts with poignant sensibility and perception. A seemingly innocent rendezvous results in her first sexual encounter. It is, technically, date rape. A tacit, selfish betrayal turns affection and trust into bitterness and loathing. Cary has her first experiences with the dark, manic behaviors surrounding finals: cramming, sleeplessness, agitation, and neglect. She encounters the specters of drugs and alcohol and wrestles the psychological demons that threaten to compromise her mentally and physically. She faces her first academic failure, with calculus, in spite of her best efforts and the support of others. Cary learns tenacity and forgiveness for herself and others. She receives her first honors and is elected vice president of her class. She later sits on the Disciplinary Committee. She is also the first black graduate to receive the coveted Rector’s award. Cary understands that she will be irrevocably changed as she emerges from her experiences, but what she does not know is who or what she will be as a consequence. Ultimately, Cary is able to free herself of many delusions and fears by coming to terms with her cultural identity and its imperatives. She is able to look honestly at herself and her life in America not as an aberration or flaw in the social fabric but as an integral and pertinent thread.

Cary returns to the school fifteen years later for a reunion. A wife and mother, she is also a St. Paul’s trustee and member of the Board of Directors. She searches the faces of incoming black and Latino students and understands as she welcomes them that she is standing on the shoulders of those who ushered in and welcomed her. For Cary their faces recall the same hunger and fears that were transformed into a purposeful identity.

Bibliography

Alabi, Adetayo. Telling Our Stories: Continuities and Divergences in Black Autobiographies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Important overview of the African American autobiography as a genre. Discusses both the features held in common and the significant diversity among black autobiographical writings.

Braxton, Joanne M. Black Women Writing Autobiography. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989. Provides a sense of the tradition to which Black Ice contributes and of that tradition’s cultural and literary importance.

Cary, Lorene. “As Plain as Black and White.” Newsweek 119 (June 29, 1992): 53. Essay on different verbal and tonal emphases in white and African American speech. Provides additional perspective on the linguistic subtext of Black Ice.

Cary, Lorene. “Why It’s Not Just Paranoia: An American History of ’Plans’ for Blacks.” Newsweek 119 (April 6, 1992): 23. Essay on the historical roots of contemporary attitudes toward African Americans, with particular emphasis on the group’s mortality rates and similar areas of neglect. Supplements the conscience-forming experiences detailed in Black Ice.

Golden, Marita, and E. Lynn Harris, eds. Gumbo: A Celebration of African American Writing. New York: Harlem Moon, 2002. Introductory notes from the editors comment upon the work compiled in this anthology, which includes an excerpt from Cary’s Pride (1998).

Lopate, Philip. “An Epistle from St. Paul’s.” The New York Times Book Review, March 31, 1991, 7. Lengthy review of Black Ice, outlining its sociological interest, the quality of its writing, and its moral integrity.

Trescott, Jacqueline. “To Be Young, Gifted, Black . . . and Preppie: Author Lorene Cary’s Recollections of Life at a Posh Boarding School.” The Washington Post, April 25, 1991, p. Cl. Extended profile of Cary. Contains some relevant statements regarding her own view of the achievement of Black Ice.

Yardley, Jonathan. “Old School Ties and Knots.” The Washington Post Book World, March 31, 1992, 3. Review stressing the complexity of the feelings that permeate and authenticate Black Ice.