As one who does genealogy research, I happen to believe, as most genealogists do, that family history is a vital part of one’s life. Knowing where you come from and the journey of one’s ancestors can be self-affirming. But what if your history is convoluted, filled with pain, distortions, lies and gaping holes? Author Danzy Senna finds out that family memories can open a Pandora’s box of angst that can pose even more questions in her memoir/ family history, Where Did You Sleep Last Night?: A Personal History.

Senna, author of the novels, Caucasia and Symptomatic, is the product of a biracial marriage between a white woman and black man, a marriage that went bad and resulted in bitterness for all parties involved. As Senna was about to give birth to her son, she reflected on the journey she took to solve the mysteries her family history held. Her mother’s family history is straightforward. Fanny Howe, a writer and poet, came from a Brahmin Boston family with roots back to the country’s forefathers. Her ancestors included the slave traffickers De Wolf family, literary giants, and Irish aristocracy. The libraries are full of books on her family’s illustrious past.

And then there was Senna’s father. What she and her siblings had been told about Carl Senna was that he was born in the segregated southern state of Louisiana to Anna, his black mother. On the other hand, his paternity was questionable. He had been told he was the son of Francisco Senna, a boxer from Mexico, who abandoned the family when Carl was very young. His childhood was disrupted by his mother’s repeatedly leaving her three children with various “relatives” and at one point an orphanage in Alabama for three years while she either pursued an education, or played piano in nightclubs during the 1940s and 50s. At least that was the story told. With meticulous research, Danzy was able to reveal her father’s story but for every answer there was another question. Just who were her father’s people and what was the real truth? Who and what was she to believe?

Senna had a tenuous relationship with her father. Between her brother and sister, she was the one who carried the bitterest feelings of their parents’ divorce. She describes her siblings and her as a product of a mistake of idealistic parents of the rebellious 60s. Her mother felt that mixed marriages could not work in the U.S. but it would seem that her father’s alcoholism and abusive behavior was the main cause for the failed marriage. However, it was not as simple as black and white–no pun intended. Carl Senna was a brilliant writer, editor, and professor of English and African-American literature. He was able to escape the poverty of his southern past, becoming highly educated and marrying up. His descent from a respectable husband and father to a drunk who could not hold a job and uphold his responsibility to pay child support is a tragedy; he would say an American tragedy caused by the social aspects of racism and poverty in America. He was a race man and his views did not escape his daughter, as Danzy adopted much of his attitude in regards to race; ever mindful she was a white- looking girl who identified as black. Instead of writing off her father, she was compelled to find out the whys as she traveled to parts of Louisiana, Alabama, and New York seeking truth. It read almost like a detective story and had me turning the pages for the end result.

I have read some amazing family histories in the last few years of mixed-race children dealing with identity and finding one’s place in the world. I am reminded of Bliss Broyard’s One Drop, John Martin’s When Black is White, and Pig Candy by Lise Funderburg. This well- written memoir is one to be added to the tomes of racial and self-identity and is a must read for those who examine such topics. This book is also a blueprint for knocking down the brick walls in family research.

Dera R. Williams
APOOO BookClub

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