This is a curious biography of Sandra Laing. Sandra's parents were white, so obviously when she was born, in apartheid South Africa, she was classified as white. However, her dark skin and frizzy hair resulted in "scandal-tongues" gossipping about her mother, and made her life very difficult. She was expelled from her whites-only school, was reclassified as coloured, eventually reclassified again as white after a long and bitter campaign waged by her father, then ran away from home to live with her black boyfriend in Swaziland.
The story seems to come out in fits and starts as Stone tries to piece together what happened to Sandra, as Sandra herself seems to have blanked many of the events of her childhood and struggles to understand the things that happened to her as she was growing up.
Stone peppers the narration with psychological sidenotes relating to the effects of living in apartheid South Africa, identity confusion and family breakdown. She also picks up the story from a variety of friends and from documents in Sandra's government file. It makes for a slightly awkward read at times, but is very interesting and informative.
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