Open House: Of Family, Friends, Food, Piano Lessons, and the Search for a Room of My Own

by Patricia J. Williams

Open House strings together a delightful array of observations, reminiscences, anecdotes and commentaries by renowned columnist Patricia Williams. Written with her trademark wit and insight, she relates stories about the many facets of her life - as a lawyer, scholar, writer, African-American, descendant of slaves, mother, and single, fifty-something woman - always aware of the ironies inherent in situations when her many identities don't conform to societal expectations. She tells us of her Great Aunt Mary, who crossed the color line one day, while boarding a train; about her Best White Friend, who believes that the only thing standing between the author and an eligible husband is a make-over; about the day she and her family learned how to eat watermelon without fear of racial judgment; and about why she worships Oprah. She also tackles serious subjects, such as cloning and the legacy of slavery and privacy issues in the cyberage, all with her characteristic sparkling humor and originality. Always provocative, never didactic, Open House is an entertaining journey through the rooms of Pat Williams' imagination.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

272 pages, Hardcover

First published November 8, 2004

About the author

Patricia J. Williams is an American legal scholar and a proponent of critical race theory.

Reviews

[Phobean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has really opened my eyes to my own life as an independent, 'progressive' (really, in my case, radical), black American woman. It's like reading about my life before I lived it.

[Harriett Milnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 2004, it is a collection of thoughts on modern life in 2004. My favorite parts were her memories of her relatives.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am truly torn about this book. I simultaneously loved and hated it. The title itself is a little misleading in that what I expected was a comfy memoir..an easy beach read. What I got was in some parts that but also an analytical critique, didactic polemic, and aggressivly intellectual treatise from a Black feminist author. This is a voice not heard often enough in todays mainstream lit. I confess I had not until reading this book heard of the author, a recipient of the Macarther "genius" grant and a columnist for the Nation and Rolling Stone. I applaud her vision, voice, ideas, and critiques of current society, race, and stereotypes from a Black womans perspective...but because she tends to start off every critique with a story from her childhood or of her precious son or her middle/upper class high acheiveing family I started by the end of the book to cringe at all the navel gazing and seeming self-centeredness..it became a rather clumsy combination of two books which would have stood very well apart and on their own. One a story of her and her families struggles from slavery till present and the other focusing her rapier wit and intellect on the problems and foibles of todays society.
It really is a good but seemingly miscast book .

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

eh...Actually it was interesting to read about some of the author's experiences as a black woman in academia. Just when you think people aren't really that racist anymore: she has some kind if shocking, sobering stories. Oh yeah, the more I'm remembering as I write this, the more I remember liking it. I really like the stories about her family's history-like her great aunt who married several white, wealthy men (at different times), "passing" as a white woman, and living in high society. It's more of a read it for book club and have good discussions book, than a read it for lots of independent reading fun kind of book.

[Dede]

Insights into "being black"

[Eudora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unfailingly sharp witted and generous, Williams combines her close observations of life, injustice, joy, and expensive take-out with her ability to pull back to the big picture and to ways of making meaning that we can move forward with. Her storytelling carries, for me, faint undertones of the potential for a lecture, but the best kind of lecture – one in which you are given new information by being given new ways to think about things, with never once being crowded into a box of the author’s own making. Never preachy, always on point, this slim volume is a treat. Highly recommended.

[Renita Weems · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recently re-purchased this book because I remember appreciating Williams' cultural essays back in the late 90s and early 2000s before this younger generation of cultural essayists (e.g., Tressie McMillan Cottom, Roxanne Gay, Brittney Cooper). Williams gnarly, probing writing about her subject comes to mind when I read Cottom's pieces.

[Gretchen Rubin]

A fascinating memoir that covers many memories, people, and subjects.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting essays with the home as a theme for wide-ranging topics.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quotable:
The taxi deposited me at my destination. There were twelve of us gathered. We, as a group, had lost a lot of friends in the last several years – premature deaths, all people in their forties and fifties… As my grandmother used to say, people were dying who had never died before.

For months, it is true, I had been running away from life in New York City. But in the process I had learned small things, like the fact that spiders can’t crawl out of porcelain bathtubs by themselves, because the sides are too slippery. I learned that in some parts of the world people would hang “spider ladders” over the sides of their tubs so as to help the little creatures make their escape. This is unimaginable alien to me, yet such a gentle gesture that it gives me hope for… well, for… “Think carefully – for whom, exactly?” snapped my colleague.

[Robyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

i got this at a conference a few years ago. apparently i started reading it then because i found a bookmark in it about halfway through and some parts sounded vaguely familiar.

i feel like this is one of those books that is partially a fun book and partially a work book.

i also find it kind of sad right now. was reading the chapter "Crystal Stair" where she talks about how you have to sign up your kid for preschool way in advance and how her friend encouraged her to get her kid a recommendation from Toni Morrison because the star factor would help her kid get in. That kind of depressing.

[Régine Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love William's writing style, this book is Op-Ed like reflections on everything from race and child rearing to human cloning and dating. The liveliness of her mind is captivating...

[Tatiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has more reflection on her own life than her other books, and i think it's that quality which makes this my favorite of her books.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book by a fascinating author.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into it. It had potential, but didn't hold my interest. I moved on.