New People

Senna (Caucasia), the child of a Caucasian poet mother and an African American scholar father, bestows her own middle name, Maria, to her newest mixed-race protagonist, one half of an engaged couple who share the same favorite song, films, novel, even "skin…the same shade of beige." Having met at Stanford, Khalil and Maria now live in Brooklyn, he creating a start-up, she finishing her dissertation. Their imagined future includes "a tribe of children…and a big hairy dog named Thurgood." Despite the outward perfection, Maria's commitment is wavering as her obsession for a nameless "poet" manifests into stalking, stealing, breaking and entering—even baby-sitting. Kristen Ariza narrates Senna's complex, brilliant, post-racial takedown with fluid ease, convincingly even-keeled despite Maria's antics—from the insidious (a prank call threatening lynching) to the pitiful.