Book Review: Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul

Book: Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?

Author: Crystal Smith Paul 

Pages: 416 

Read on: Kindle 

Read in: ~4.5 hours 

Plot Summary: When Kitty Karr Tate, a White icon of the silver screen, dies and bequeaths her multimillion-dollar estate to the St. John sisters, three young, wealthy Black women, it prompts questions. Lots of questions.

A celebrity in her own right, Elise St. John would rather focus on sorting out Kitty’s affairs than deal with the press. But what she discovers in one of Kitty’s journals rocks her world harder than any other brewing scandal could—and between a cheating fiancé and the fallout from a controversial social media post, there are plenty.

The truth behind Kitty's ascent to stardom from her beginnings in the segregated South threatens to expose a web of unexpected family ties, debts owed, and debatable crimes that could, with one pull, unravel the all-American fabric of the St. John sisters and those closest to them.

As Elise digs deeper into Kitty's past, she must also turn the lens upon herself, confronting the gifts and burdens of her own choices and the power that the secrets of the dead hold over the living. Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? is a sprawling page-turner set against the backdrop of the Hollywood machine, an insightful and nuanced look at the inheritances of family, race, and gender—and the choices some women make to break free of them. 

Things I Liked:

1. A story that starts in the deep South (of America) in the mid-1930s, moves to Hollywood in the mid-1950s and then in 2017, the wide canvas of the narrative and the focus on an actress with a mysterious past were the key hooks that got me interested in this book. I expected to read about race-related events in the 19th century that shaped the America of today via the lens of the film industry and to learn more about the life of Kitty Karr- our mysterious leading lady. 

SPOILERS AHEAD -- PLEASE STOP HERE IF YOU PLAN ON READING THIS BOOK--

2. The book centres around the concept of passing, which is the term used by Black people to describe the lighter-skinned Blacks, who can "pass as White", thereby facing none of the discrimination, cruelty and reaping all of the benefits that come from having lesser melanin. So, it is not even really a spoiler and it is pretty easy to guess that the young, biracial girl called Mary, whose story we see in the first ~20% of the book, is the one, who goes on to become Kitty Karr- the White actress. 

So, this book talks about the guilt that comes with passing, the shame felt by the women, who passed and the very obvious benefits of passing. All of this is done really well and we get to see some of these women, Kitty included, feel all of these emotions once they decide to pass and the price they pay for pretending to be white. 

3. In the 2017 timeline, we get to see how Elise, a successful actress, is in trouble with her studio due to her Instagram post supporting the NFL players, who took a knee to protest the treatment of Black people and to support the Black Lives Matter movement. We get to see how the business puts pressure on these actors and actresses to toe the line, not comment on anything remotely political and to stay away from any controversies- a line that Elise finds difficult to toe because as a Black woman she can't look away from what is happening around her. 

4. Kitty's life and her journey from a small town in North Carolina to Hollywood is interesting and not a stereotypical one. You'd expect that Kitty went around auditioning for roles but that is not how she became an actress- she became a writer first. So, that was also another interesting aspect of the book. 

Things I Didn't Like: 

1. The book is, primarily, about passing- Black women, who are light-skinned due to White ancestry passing off for White. So, there is a group of such women in Hollywood across all kinds of professions, who are white passing and they have a secret society-type of an organisation, where they make plans for each of the White passing girls, so that they end up marrying influential White men and then influence them to make pro-Black decisions/ policies/ choices. 

Look, I have nothing against this kind of speculative fiction. I am sure, perhaps, that there were White passing women, who have done their bit to further the Civil Rights Movement but what I take some kind of umbrage to is one of the White passing women telling Kitty that all major policy changes favouring Black people were possible due to a White passing Black woman, who influenced the right White man. 

Now that can not possibly be true! And it just takes away from the sacrifices and struggles of darker-skinned Black people, who have played the most significant role in shaping the Civil Rights Movement in America (e.g. Rosa Parks, Dr. King, Harriet Tubman, Malcom X etc.) . I mean, making blanket statements like that can be so reductive and insensitive! I have not yet seen a single review that talks about this aspect of the book because White reviewers in America are so careful to criticise anything written by a Black author about Black people. However, since I am a Brown Indian woman, I have no such fears and I am calling it like I see it! :) 

The author wanted to create a lot of sympathy for White passing women, given that these women were (and continue to be) vilified by most of the Black community (which I fully understand because who wouldn't judge anyone that denies their race and pretends to be the enemy). So, in order to create  sympathy and garner some kind of acceptance for them and show that they did contribute to the Civil Rights Movement, the author has invented this whole 'behind every positive change for the Black people is a White passing Black woman' fantasy, which, honestly, is quite racist and offensive! 

Also, the author should have done some basic research to understand that in the 1950s-60s, men did not listen to or were influenced by women! Not even in America! 

A much better book on the issue of passing is Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half. 

Rating: 3/5