Trixie

by Wallace Graves

Trixie is fifteen, a near-white waif from Watts, lured onto the campus with promises of a college education. Hidden in the music practice room by her sex-hungry Larry the neo-fascist and Professor Boileau, who also uses her as a living project in pre-literacy.

At first, they award her A grades automatically. But soon Trixie truly earns them; growing up - and out of her mentors, her Black Power boyfriend and her millionaire patroness. But even Trixie can't resolve the conflicts they create...

Genres: Fiction, African American

266 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

Reviews

[Aiesha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book belonged to my mom and I discovered it on the bookshelf when I was 11. I became so enraptures by this book, that I took it everywhere. This is no small feat, as it's a pretty hefty book. I would read it on the school bus, in school during homeroom, lunch, and even during some of my classes. I loved that it was written as diary entries and that you could see her progression from barely literate to a newer, complex understanding of herself and the world. There's also some sex, which had my pubescent-self giggling. This is a book that I will never forget.

[Louise Culmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trixie is a fifteen year old barely literate mixed race girl from Watts, a very poor area of Los Angeles. She has been smuggled into college by two professors whose interest in her is not entirely altruistic, and when her story begins is living secretly in the music practice room. Trixie tells her story through her diary, which begins on November 22nd 1963, when she is overwhelmed by shock and grief at the Murder of President Kennedy. Through her diary we learn about her secret life at college, the classes she attends, and the people who are important in her life, like Mama Pope, the elderly clairvoyant woman who raised her after her parents died, and Woody,her black power boyfriend. We see the turbulent times of the Civil Rights movement through her eyes. Then she gets to know Sharon Atwater, a girl from a fabulously wealthy family who have a significant impact on her life. I found the earlier part of her story, where she is hiding out in college, and visiting Mama Pope etc, more engrossing than the later part, which is too much about the wealthy Atwaters for my taste. There are some brilliant, passages, my favourite is where she gets to see the ocean for the first time:
“The Osean is something else! Diry, it is perfectly flat & where it ends you can’t see the difrence between water & sky. If you want to go to heaven like Jack is, now I know how. You jest start off walking from Santa Monika & if you keep walking, you’ll walk right up in the sky.”
Trixie is a very believable character, and I was sorry when the diary ended in April 1968, I would have liked to know more about her life. I have often wondered what she did next. Sure to be something interesting.

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so happy I found this book here!! I found a copy of it in a thrift store when I was a teenager and got rid of it as I'm not a big collector of books, I always figure I can buy another copy or procure it from the library. Big mistake. I've been looking for this one for a re-read for about 20 years!
The narrator is unforgettable(obviously) and it just totally gave me a window into another world and another when I read it the first time. I want to feel how it affects me all these years later. now I just need to get my hands on another copy...

[Kyle]

Unusual novel written in the form of a diary kept by a semi literate black girl from the Watts district of Los Angeles. Commences with the assasination of John F Kennedy and concludes with the assasination of Martin Luther King. (22 Nov 1963 to 4 June 1968.)

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as a teenager in the 1970s and adored it. I guess it is a little dated now but I think it still makes a good gritty picture of a girl's struggle for a different kind of life in the 1960s, and what she had to do to get out of the ghetto.

[Angelina Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book in a box of books from the used book store. It turned out to be the crown jewel of the box. This was so well written from a girl's POV even though a man wrote it. The story is moving and sad.

[Tara-lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this book when I was a teenager and loving it.