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black and (A)broad: traveling beyond the limitations of identity
After accepting her Dutch boyfriend's invitation to move from sultry New Orleans, Carolyn finds herself in the land of windmills, wooden shoes and endless gray skies. As she moves away from the remnants of her tragic childhood and America's obsession with race, she is plunged into the depths of homesickness, depression and a declaration of war on her own hair. She travels through motherhood and a career change, and her determination is put to the test. On the way to self-discovery, she ends up finding love, soul sisters and the secret to avoiding bad hair days. In this mid-life memoir, Carolyn writes candidly about how getting engaged in Paris, losing her passport in Cuba and dealing with Dutch people on their bikes (among other quirky adventures) have changed her ideas about being a black woman in the world.
316 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2010
6 people are currently reading
114 people want to read
About the author
Carolyn Vines
1Ìýbook3Ìýfollowersblack and (A)broad: traveling beyond the limitations of identity author Carolyn Vines is an American expatriate living in the Netherlands. Her inspiration is her multicultural family. Her passion is language, and she speaks Spanish and Dutch fluently.
Carolyn is an author, editor and award-winning blogger. Her work has been published in local Dutch newspapers and in The Telegraph. She recently translated a novel by a critically-acclaimed Curaçaoan author that delves into the question of post-colonial identity.
Carolyn earned an MA in Latin American literature from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she was later admitted into doctoral candidacy. She has taught Spanish, English and literature in universities in the US and in the Netherlands.
black and (A)broad: traveling beyond the limitations of identity, Carolyn’s memoir, spans her twenty years� living and traveling abroad and shares how she found the inspiration to transcend the limitations of her identity as a black woman.
Carolyn is an author, editor and award-winning blogger. Her work has been published in local Dutch newspapers and in The Telegraph. She recently translated a novel by a critically-acclaimed Curaçaoan author that delves into the question of post-colonial identity.
Carolyn earned an MA in Latin American literature from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she was later admitted into doctoral candidacy. She has taught Spanish, English and literature in universities in the US and in the Netherlands.
black and (A)broad: traveling beyond the limitations of identity, Carolyn’s memoir, spans her twenty years� living and traveling abroad and shares how she found the inspiration to transcend the limitations of her identity as a black woman.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 18, 2011
Note: I know Carolyn Vines personally
Carolyn's voice is one that is missing from much of the travel literature that I love to read. She's African-American, came out of a challenging childhood from a racially tense country, and is well-educated, funny, and fearless. Carolyn chronicles the story of her fascinating life from Indiana in the American midwest to Voorschotten, Netherlands. You'll learn alot about how black women think and what struggles they must overcome as Carolyn evolves from the "good daughter" or "sell-out" black woman (depending on who you talk to) who makes good grades, loves her Spanish classes, and grows up in the 70s and the 80s in the United States. As Carolyn tries to find her own path through racial and gender stereotypes, expectations of the family, community and her own fears, and survives heart-breaking personal tragedies, she evolves personally into her own woman who defines herself as a writer, a loving wife, and happy mother of two beautiful biracial girls living in a bizarre little white country in Northern Europe. Her take on everything from cycling through the rain while trying to keep up standards of having "good black hair" to the intricacies of dealing with Crohn's disease in Dutch toilets will make you laugh, make you sigh, and keep you wondering what is next for her. Personally, I hope she has a second book in her - I'd like to read more about how her academic research about the role of African women in the Caribbean has shaped her own thoughts on racial identity as an African-American woman living outside of the US. This book touches on that topic many times but I kept wanting more.
Carolyn's voice is one that is missing from much of the travel literature that I love to read. She's African-American, came out of a challenging childhood from a racially tense country, and is well-educated, funny, and fearless. Carolyn chronicles the story of her fascinating life from Indiana in the American midwest to Voorschotten, Netherlands. You'll learn alot about how black women think and what struggles they must overcome as Carolyn evolves from the "good daughter" or "sell-out" black woman (depending on who you talk to) who makes good grades, loves her Spanish classes, and grows up in the 70s and the 80s in the United States. As Carolyn tries to find her own path through racial and gender stereotypes, expectations of the family, community and her own fears, and survives heart-breaking personal tragedies, she evolves personally into her own woman who defines herself as a writer, a loving wife, and happy mother of two beautiful biracial girls living in a bizarre little white country in Northern Europe. Her take on everything from cycling through the rain while trying to keep up standards of having "good black hair" to the intricacies of dealing with Crohn's disease in Dutch toilets will make you laugh, make you sigh, and keep you wondering what is next for her. Personally, I hope she has a second book in her - I'd like to read more about how her academic research about the role of African women in the Caribbean has shaped her own thoughts on racial identity as an African-American woman living outside of the US. This book touches on that topic many times but I kept wanting more.
January 17, 2012
This book made me fall in love with Holland. When you have a baby there, not only do you get a three-month maternity leave, but you also get a free nanny who does light housekeeping, cooks you lunch and dinner, and teaches you how to take care of your child. Wow. Just wow. I want to have my future baby in Holland.
Anyway, this memoir is about a lot of things: race, academia, marriage, motherhood, and being an expat.
The writing is extremely honest, but it's also a lil bit sloppy. The kindle edition, for example, has ample typos, and the entire book is in need of a good editor or even a mediocre one - any editor really. It basically reads like a long, mostly entertaining but also annoyingly repetitive email sent from her iPhone.
Anyway, this memoir is about a lot of things: race, academia, marriage, motherhood, and being an expat.
The writing is extremely honest, but it's also a lil bit sloppy. The kindle edition, for example, has ample typos, and the entire book is in need of a good editor or even a mediocre one - any editor really. It basically reads like a long, mostly entertaining but also annoyingly repetitive email sent from her iPhone.
August 27, 2014
“Black and Abroad: traveling beyond the limitations of identity,� is a candid, engrossing memoir by Carolyn Vines. According to statistics, she should not have been an achiever. Factors in her family background such as low economic status, single parent family, and tragedies dictated she should fail. She was told she had three strikes against her: Being black, female, and poor. But let’s face it, we can’t believe in statistics when we have a “Yes, I can,� attitude. She had all the attributes of success, but didn’t believe in herself.
As a school girl, she was not alone suffering from low self-esteem. Achievers sometimes don’t fit in and are labeled as ‘sell outs.� But although wanting to fit in, she didn’t give way to negative peer pressure to blend in. She loved school and foreign languages and excelled.
At home, she received mixed messages from family authority figures, which did not give her a strong, positive racial/heritage identity.
Successful in college, she graduated with an MA in Latin American literature, and has taught in universities in the U. S. and in the Netherlands. Still, she held on to many issues that plagued her throughout her childhood and young adult life.
Sometimes we overlook that self-love and self-respect are foremost. Sometimes we fail to recognize our underlying strengths. Sometimes when we find love, we are afraid to take a chance.
While attending grad school, by chance, on a night out with friends, she met the man that would become her life partner. He was from Holland, and a graduate of a hotel school in The Hague, doing an internship in the States. Shortly afterwards, she left to study in Madrid, Spain. When she returned to the States they united and within two and a half years, he asked her to return to Holland with him.
He believed in their love. So much so, that he wanted her to live with him in Holland, and agreed to pay her credit card debt and college bills.
She did travel abroad with him, but because of issues that still besets interracial couples in the
U. S. A., she believed their relationship overseas would cause friction. Not so in Holland, where she eventually discovered an open, friendly society. Dutch people were not interested in her race, but her nationality. I agree with her statement, “…she gave herself permission to stop seeing the events of life exclusively through the lens of race…�
An overachiever, within three years, she had married, had a baby, received a post at a university, and worked on her dissertation for her Ph.D., and lost her second child.
Concealed was her depression, her burdened with her loss, with caring for her mentally ill mother in the States, and the frustration caused by her mother saddled with her sister’s verbal abuse and alcoholism.
I believe that work had become the key element of her identity. And although self-assured and heavily invested in her work, she was overburdened in a country where the Dutch believe family comes first.
She and her husband did successfully have a third child. Carolyn Vines� saving grace is her husband’s love and understanding.
It’s an epiphany when we realize how self-defeating it is to hold onto what we hadn’t received from our parents in our early years. Childhood counseling should have been initiated for the tragedies and unhappiness she experienced.
She no longer entertains negative thoughts about herself and her worth, and is now at peace with herself, and has forgiven those that caused her unhappiness in the past. I agree with her statement we can’t control what has happened in our past, or how people feel about us. But we can control our destiny. I think that Carolyn Vines has done just that.
What I didn’t like about this book was the negativity she received as a child and young woman, and her father not participating in her upbringing. I didn’t like that her parents and friends weren’t supportive and in attendance at her wedding in Holland. I think her father should have been available to give her away.
This book transcends race. I have skimmed the surface of this honest, emotional, heart-wrenching memoir. It’s a great gift for you, your daughters, nieces, and friends. From this book, we can see that love, encouragement, and pride in our heritage can impact our children’s upbringing in a positive way.
As a school girl, she was not alone suffering from low self-esteem. Achievers sometimes don’t fit in and are labeled as ‘sell outs.� But although wanting to fit in, she didn’t give way to negative peer pressure to blend in. She loved school and foreign languages and excelled.
At home, she received mixed messages from family authority figures, which did not give her a strong, positive racial/heritage identity.
Successful in college, she graduated with an MA in Latin American literature, and has taught in universities in the U. S. and in the Netherlands. Still, she held on to many issues that plagued her throughout her childhood and young adult life.
Sometimes we overlook that self-love and self-respect are foremost. Sometimes we fail to recognize our underlying strengths. Sometimes when we find love, we are afraid to take a chance.
While attending grad school, by chance, on a night out with friends, she met the man that would become her life partner. He was from Holland, and a graduate of a hotel school in The Hague, doing an internship in the States. Shortly afterwards, she left to study in Madrid, Spain. When she returned to the States they united and within two and a half years, he asked her to return to Holland with him.
He believed in their love. So much so, that he wanted her to live with him in Holland, and agreed to pay her credit card debt and college bills.
She did travel abroad with him, but because of issues that still besets interracial couples in the
U. S. A., she believed their relationship overseas would cause friction. Not so in Holland, where she eventually discovered an open, friendly society. Dutch people were not interested in her race, but her nationality. I agree with her statement, “…she gave herself permission to stop seeing the events of life exclusively through the lens of race…�
An overachiever, within three years, she had married, had a baby, received a post at a university, and worked on her dissertation for her Ph.D., and lost her second child.
Concealed was her depression, her burdened with her loss, with caring for her mentally ill mother in the States, and the frustration caused by her mother saddled with her sister’s verbal abuse and alcoholism.
I believe that work had become the key element of her identity. And although self-assured and heavily invested in her work, she was overburdened in a country where the Dutch believe family comes first.
She and her husband did successfully have a third child. Carolyn Vines� saving grace is her husband’s love and understanding.
It’s an epiphany when we realize how self-defeating it is to hold onto what we hadn’t received from our parents in our early years. Childhood counseling should have been initiated for the tragedies and unhappiness she experienced.
She no longer entertains negative thoughts about herself and her worth, and is now at peace with herself, and has forgiven those that caused her unhappiness in the past. I agree with her statement we can’t control what has happened in our past, or how people feel about us. But we can control our destiny. I think that Carolyn Vines has done just that.
What I didn’t like about this book was the negativity she received as a child and young woman, and her father not participating in her upbringing. I didn’t like that her parents and friends weren’t supportive and in attendance at her wedding in Holland. I think her father should have been available to give her away.
This book transcends race. I have skimmed the surface of this honest, emotional, heart-wrenching memoir. It’s a great gift for you, your daughters, nieces, and friends. From this book, we can see that love, encouragement, and pride in our heritage can impact our children’s upbringing in a positive way.
January 12, 2013
I think I went through quite a few emotions when I read this book. At first, I was excited. I am currently discovering my traveling gene, and I was interested in Black women who have traveled abroad. The beginning of the book, I understood her frustrations and limitations to adapting to a new culture. However, as the book went on, I felt exhausted with her lack of self motivation and survival skills. No one said life would be easy... Life deals you lemons and you have to make lemonade... Life sucks and most of the time you have to suck it up and deal with it... I felt all of these phrases were things that she needed to remember. Maybe I am insensitive because I was not raised the same as she was. However, I would think she would be stronger, not as a black woman, but as a person who has experienced life. Once I reached the end of the book, I was enjoying the book again. I would recommend the book to others because of her traveling experiences that most Americans would never have the opportunity to experience, or to inspire others to travel more.
November 5, 2023
A memoir with doses of travel throughout, but more a retelling of the authors life as a black woman in an interracial relationship, moving to a foreign country - reflections on the dilemmas and choices she made, racial influences, balancing motherhood with a career, and interesting all rounder. Plus a quick read as the print is quite large font.
February 4, 2012
I have been wanting to read this book for about a year now after first hearing about it through another black female travel memoir. I also have been reading her blog posts for the past year too. I love memoirs and travel/expat ones are among my favorites so this book was a go when I read the summary. As a young black women myself, I found inspiration from Carolyn and her experiences with life and her transitions. Her wit and personality gave this book charm and character and her memories of previous traumas made my eyes well up with tears.
As a young women who has never travelled outside of the US before, I always wanted to see the world and get outside my comfort zone and be apart of other peoples cultures. This book has brought be more inspiration and admiration for women like Carolyn to pursue higher education, international travel and to find happiness, peace and solitude within myself. I have to admit, I was sad when I finished the book and started tearing up (happy tears)at the last page when I read her final sentences and saw the picture. Overall, it was a good and longly waited purchase that I was happy to read.
As a young women who has never travelled outside of the US before, I always wanted to see the world and get outside my comfort zone and be apart of other peoples cultures. This book has brought be more inspiration and admiration for women like Carolyn to pursue higher education, international travel and to find happiness, peace and solitude within myself. I have to admit, I was sad when I finished the book and started tearing up (happy tears)at the last page when I read her final sentences and saw the picture. Overall, it was a good and longly waited purchase that I was happy to read.
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April 14, 20163 Stars
This memoir receives 3 and not 4 stars because of lack of events, and instead having more event expounding and basic racial venting. It was quite inspirational; however, and I was deeply moved by her openness concerning her family. It was what you expect in a memoir about a young black woman abroad, and her racial and emotional perspective. It is not what you expect in that everyone's dealing with family and emotional baggage is different. This book is not laden with Holland information, nor is it a deep sociological work on race in Holland. It is instead, one slightly broken, yet very strong black woman's experience and emotional journey. Nothing earth quaking was really expressed. It was more simple. But all our perspectives are valid. In general, memoirs are priceless.
This memoir receives 3 and not 4 stars because of lack of events, and instead having more event expounding and basic racial venting. It was quite inspirational; however, and I was deeply moved by her openness concerning her family. It was what you expect in a memoir about a young black woman abroad, and her racial and emotional perspective. It is not what you expect in that everyone's dealing with family and emotional baggage is different. This book is not laden with Holland information, nor is it a deep sociological work on race in Holland. It is instead, one slightly broken, yet very strong black woman's experience and emotional journey. Nothing earth quaking was really expressed. It was more simple. But all our perspectives are valid. In general, memoirs are priceless.
May 6, 2016
This memoir receives 3 and not 4 stars because of lack of events, and instead having more event expounding and basic racial venting. It was quite inspirational; however, and I was deeply moved by her openness concerning her family. It was what you expect in a memoir about a young black woman abroad, and her racial and emotional perspective. It is not what you expect in that everyone's dealing with family and emotional baggage is different. This book is not laden with Holland information, nor is it a deep sociological work on race in Holland. It is instead, one slightly broken, yet very strong black woman's experience and emotional journey. Nothing earth quaking was really expressed. It was more simple. But all our perspectives are valid. In general, memoirs are priceless.
January 8, 2011
I won this in a giveaway and I'm really pleased that I did. It is a memoir about a woman who moves from America to Holland with her Dutch boyfriend and the problems she faces being a black woman in a racist world. I really felt like I got to know Carolyn in this book, she is quite frank and personal and that really helped me want to finish this book. It is uplifting and also sad at times but the overall feeling of this book is one of achievement. A woman who felt defeated a lot of the time came out on top and I really admire that. The book leaves you feeling like you can achieve what you want in life.
February 7, 2011
A powerful message of bravery, courage and determination. "Black And Abroad" teaches all of us to stand strong and proud, no matter of color or speech. We are all human and only limited by our own minds. I really enjoyed reading Carolyn's memoir and truly admire her courage for sharing her life experiences with us.
June 24, 2015
It was nice to read about Carolyn's experiences as a black woman in a European space. I definitely had relatable moments to her in regards of family and wanting to branch out. I have new eyes in regards to Holland. The only reason why I did not give this book a 5 star rating, was because I did not get a serious case of wanderlust.
January 1, 2012
A review coming later, but wow that was a painful read.
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