“I hope you’re hungry…. For nothing”

I have very very mixed feelings about Colored Television. CT is my second book by Senna, I've read her debut Caucasia prior to this. It seems race and dealing with mixed race (Black and White) identity is her niche and she sticking with it! It's almost a weird hyper fascination. I didn't realize that Senna herself was mixed race, so I can only assume she's pulling from her own experiences (wouldn't have guessed she was Black at all). I didn't like the "woes me" attitude that drew itself throughout the book regarding being mixed. Jane's eureka discovery that mixed people have always existed seem quite conspicuous to me.

In Colored Television I hate the way race is explored. Jane is hyper fixed on race, and proving that she is Black. That she's Black enough for her husband, Lenny, and that she's Black enough for the world. This hyper-fixation lends itself to some weird conversations between characters. For example, the conversation between Jane and a light-skinned Black man whom she barely knows would not have happened in real life. People do not walk around talking about serious racial issues to randos in real life.

Jane herself is a conundrum, sneering hard at the life she truly desires. Jane and Lenny both want to be famous creatives but don't want to do the actual work to be those creatives. I get the feeling of "almost there" but there was nothing likeable about Jane, Lenny, their kids or even the secondary characters. CT is labled as "humor." CHALL ain't nothing funny in this book, not in dark humor way or satire way.

I did love the writing. Senna keeps you reading. At about 35 pages in, I thought I would DNF but Senna 's writing style keeps you turning the corner hoping to get more. The tension end up being nothing. The ending was atrocious and horrifying frustrating. I hated it.