Clara Brodeur left behind her old life with her famous
photographer mother in New York City years ago. Ruth Dunne had used
her young daughter in a series of photographs from the time the
little girl was three until she was 14. The Clara Series,
as it would become known later, stirred up great controversy
because Clara was nude in most of the photos (and sometimes
provocatively posed). It's hard enough for a young girl to separate
herself from a strong-willed, creative mother, but it's more
difficult still when that mother is famous and the daughter is the
subject of her greatest artistic success.

Apart from the accolades Ruth received in the art world, her most
famed collection is tearing her family apart. Ruth's husband
appreciates his wife's artistic abilities but feels that Clara is
being exploited and thus forbids Ruth from using Clara in that
manner --- an admonishment ignored by Ruth. Older daughter Robin is
jealous of her mother's preoccupation with Clara, who quickly
realizes that Ruth's attention is clearly hinged on whether or not
she is in the latest photo.

After a fellow student brings in a recent newspaper that cites the
flap over Ruth's work, a teenaged Clara refuses to appear in any
more of her mother's pictures. Clara leaves town as soon as she
can, out of the shadow of the imposing Ruth Dunne.

She flees New York City and camps out in a friend's dorm room at
Yale. While there, she meets a young student named Jonathan, with
whom she quickly falls in love, and they begin a new life in Maine.
Clara confides precious little information about her family to her
husband and even less to her young daughter, Samantha. With her
tortured past safely behind her, Clara's life goes along smoothly.
Until she gets a phone call one day from Robin.

The two sisters haven't spoken in years, and their husbands and
children have never met. Sad though that is, for Clara it has to be
this way. But now Robin is calling with bad news. Their mother has
cancer and is dying. Despite their past, Robin needs her sister's
help. With her busy life as an attorney, an active family and their
difficult mother berating and firing every health care worker she
hires, Robin decides it's time for Clara to know ---- and to come
home.

Convinced she won't stay for more than a day, Clara leaves for New
York without so much as a suitcase and doesn't tell Sammy the truth
about where she's going. She still hasn't forgiven Ruth but
realizes she must face up to responsibility. After all, what
happened in her childhood was not Robin's fault, and Robin
shouldn't be forced to carry all the burden. But once there, Clara
is overcome with the sights and smells of her old life. She sees
her mother, once proud and strong, now humbled and having to rely
on assistance to go to the bathroom. She soon feels her rock-hard
resistance begin to soften as she helps care for this aged
woman.

But when Ruth's agent, the flamboyant Kubovy, brings news of a
retrospective book of The Clara Series that will be
published soon, Clara feels betrayed and wonders if she will ever
be able to repair the twisted relationship with her mother before
she dies.

Dani Shapiro's BLACK & WHITE shines a light on the thorny
terrain of mother/daughter relationships but adds a layer of
difficulty by making the mother a famous Sally Mann-type
photographer with questionable motives when using her daughter as
her subject. Although at points one might wish Shapiro had delved a
little deeper into Ruth's background, this novel will be a natural
for book clubs to dissect and discuss the different aspects of this
dysfunctional family. Why did Ruth ignore her husband's request and
continue to use Clara? Should Clara forgive her dying mother? What
about the poor, neglected sister in all of this? Reading groups
will go into overtime debating about each character's motives and
motivations, which I'm sure was at least partially the author's
intent.