Zakiya Dalila Harris’s The Other Black Girl kept me off-balance as a reader. Harris interweaves a compelling story about a young African-American woman trying to make her place as an editor at an elite publishing house with a subplot about African-American elder writers who are trying to upend the white-dominated industry from the outside. The story flips back and forth between these two stories, intersecting at interesting places, as the elders try to help the young woman while simultaneously alerting her to the corporate subtleties she’s working against.
The tension in the novel is fascinating – Nella, the protagonist, constantly argues with herself about what she’s doing – is she selling out? Is she fighting the power from within? Is selling out even possible? Is the power so amorphous and baked into the corporate structure that it’s not possible to resist?
Most satisfactorily, the novel does not resolve these tensions. Nella is never sure of where she’s at or what the correct action is, and the complications of having a white boyfriend and of supporting black authors do not offer her any possible easy paths.
Harris’s novel kept me engaged, and I look forward to reading more of her work.