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Rating: 
Summary: The truth
Review: For those of us who "came of age" during the time Kitty Oliver remembers so poignantly, her story is a great affirmation of our hopes and fears. In both Race and Change in Hollywood, and Multicolored Memories, Kitty writes down what some people knew and no one else cared about. The reviewer for Publisher's Weekly may dismiss the feelings of black reader's who grew up in the 60's, but Kitty Oliver doesn't.
Rating:
Summary: The truth
Review: I hoped MULTICOLORED MEMORIES OF A BLACK SOUTHERN GIRL would continue past its 173 pages. I just finished the book, and I want more. Kitty Oliver's journey from a small Florida town to her travels around the world feel very real. "When a trip is over for me, however, I enjoy observing the way life falls back into place. The toothbrush slides into the cup waiting empty on the sink."
Kitty's honest account of her childhood, her family, her personal encounters with integration and her journey to find "home" resonate with each description and heartfelt memory. I'm a fan of her writing and look forward to more, soon!
Rating:
Summary: A Big Wow For This Heartfelt Journey To Find Home
Review: I hoped MULTICOLORED MEMORIES OF A BLACK SOUTHERN GIRL would continue past its 173 pages. I just finished the book, and I want more. Kitty Oliver's journey from a small Florida town to her travels around the world feel very real. "When a trip is over for me, however, I enjoy observing the way life falls back into place. The toothbrush slides into the cup waiting empty on the sink."
Kitty's honest account of her childhood, her family, her personal encounters with integration and her journey to find "home" resonate with each description and heartfelt memory. I'm a fan of her writing and look forward to more, soon!
Rating:
Summary: Review of Kitty Oliver's Book
Review: Kitty Oliver has taken a changing time in our country's history and shaped it into a time of growth, understanding and exploration of herself and the multifaceted world around her. Her writing makes you sigh out loud as she takes you with her through colorful, sometimes sad, sometimes funny memories of her life. A compilation of essays, this wonderful book easily moves from one tale to the next as Ms. Oliver admirably exposes her pain and joy for the world to see. Ms. Oliver's skill as a writer is, without question, astounding. With such a poetic style to her writing, this book will bring one last sigh to your lips as you close the book at its end, only wishing for more.
Rating:
Summary: Review of Kitty Oliver's Book
Review: Kitty Oliver has taken a changing time in our country's history and shaped it into a time of growth, understanding and exploration of herself and the multifaceted world around her. Her writing makes you sigh out loud as she takes you with her through colorful, sometimes sad, sometimes funny memories of her life. A compilation of essays, this wonderful book easily moves from one tale to the next as Ms. Oliver admirably exposes her pain and joy for the world to see. Ms. Oliver's skill as a writer is, without question, astounding. With such a poetic style to her writing, this book will bring one last sigh to your lips as you close the book at its end, only wishing for more.
Rating: 
Summary: THE FIRST
Review: Picture yourself in a SUV roving through out the countryside. You take in the view of the countryside but are in such a hurry to reach your destination to the point of not appreciating what you've seen. Kitty Oliver's autobiography is very similar to the above experience. She takes you through the roads, streets, detours and valleys of her life never stopping to give you a full appreciation of this native Floridian. As the first generation of Black students to integrate the University of Florida in Gainesville (1965)Oliver certainly has a story to tell. It is one of turbulent times and great transitions as she leaves the segregated community of her youth and enters into a whole new chapter in her life. Oliver shows us her fears, drive and hope that she has for the future that was denied her elders. Now it is up to her to make a difference. Kitty tells of her quest in finding her roots from the exploration of her Geechee background to her attempts to become a bridge to her estranged father's family. You meet up with a varied mix of people in her community (train workers, cooks, teachers,etc) who held things together even in their limited world. She also dispels the myth of the united Black community during segregation. You meet with Black people who are class conscious, want to keep the status quo and are insanely concerned about skin color. Her Jacksonville home reveals a diversity of Blacks who have their own opinions and mores that are not necessarily what one would want them to have. Such a coming of age story has great potential but Oliver lets us down. She takes us on an excursion of her stream of consciousness as we roam from one subject to another. Her thoughts appear disconnected and you do get confused as to how she gets into school in one moment and then is married in the next without anything in between. She rarely talks about her own family except to mention her biracial adopted daughter and son. What about her husband and the lives they shared together? Was it unable to survive in an integrated world? Oliver goes on and on about multi-culturalism as if she just discovered it. You get a sense that she doesn't fully appreciate who she is and at times you wonder how much she has assimilated (her word) in the white culture. Despite those flaws her work is an enjoyable read of one reminiscing about those FIRSTS who broke the racial barriers and ushered in a new era. Her story is one that should be read, reflected upon and appreciated for its one particular viewpoint of a time gone bye.
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