The Golden Road: Notes on My Gentrification

by Caille Millner

Book Overview

The true story of a remarkable young woman's struggle to find a home in the world Caille Millner is a rising star on the literary scene. A graduate of Harvard University, she was first published at age sixteen and was recently named one of Columbia Journalism Review' s Ten Young Writers on the Rise. The Golden Road is Millner's clear-eyed and transfixing memoir. From her childhood in a Latino neighborhood in San Jose, California, and coming of age...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 014311297X
• ISBN13: 9780143112976
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.7" x 7.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Well Written Notes

I am currently reading Notes on My Gentrification and I am impressed with the writer's style.I am most intriqued with the manner in which she weaves her thoughts.Thank you Ms. Millner for sharing your thoughts with me.

gorgeous, deeply reflective . . .

Caille Millner's memoir, The Golden Road; Notes on My Gentrification is the sort of book you sit down with, read a few paragraphs, and then decide you need to hole up without interruption until you have devoured every page. It hooked me on several levels. The first element that drew me in was her writing -- it is just plain gorgeous. Many times I sat with the book in my lap after reading a passage, recalling the sheer beauty of her words. The next thing that drew me in was the story itself. She tells of her experiences growing up in suburban California as a black child in first a working class Latino neighborhood and then an upper class primarily white neighborhood. The reader follows her through childhood into adolescence and on to her college years at Harvard and then, as a young woman, out in the world. So, the writing and the story itself were both engaging. But thing that I find most striking about this book is Ms. Millner's deeply observant and reflective nature. She seems to go through life in a heightened state of awareness which allows her to illuminate her experiences and by extension, the reader's experiences. One cannot read this book without better understanding oneself and our modern world. Perhaps this is the true measure of her genius, that she can take us along with her and we see all she sees and feels and understands as she does through her exceptional ability to reveal the inner workings of race and class and self. This book is sometimes painful to read, but always, always a thing of beauty. What a gift Ms. Millner is to the world.

A new Joan Didion in the making?

Much like Joan Didion did before her, Caille Millner uses autobiography to explore larger social issues with keen insight and startling accessibility. This is a moving and beautifully written book. A must-read from a great new writer.

The Golden Road:Notes on My Gentrification

Golden Road by Caille Millner an exceptionally crafted piece of literature that informed me of the trails and tribulations of our youth-especially those of color. I was enthralled and moved by the events in her life. There were places in the book, I wanted to cry and others where I sadly chuckled. Her writing does more than paint a picture of the times; her vivid descriptions jump out at me and remain with me while I reflect and connect with her words. My connections are not only with my own life or lives of friends, but with other great literary works. When she described the scene where Santiago made his speech at a Harvard rally it touched me in the same way as similar scenes in The invisible Man. I couldn't help but think of Azar Nafisi and her work Reading Lolita in Tehran. Both are accounts of coming of age with the authors feeling like outsiders. I recommend this book especially to book clubs. It will lend itself to deep discussions and new enlightenment. My only regret is that after I read this book, I had no one to discuss it with.

an amazingly honest and impressive work

I haven't read a book this fast in a long time. It took me two days to knock this out, and it's still got me thinking. This memoir is more than I expected. It's a thoughtful, engaging, hilarious and beautifully worded mixture of self-reflection, character portraits and global observations on race, plus a few more things. The words "voice of a new generation" are often prematurely used, but in this case, they perfectly describe Caille's life and storytelling. You won't believe it's all non-fiction.