If I had to describe Project Girl by Janet McDonald (2000, 231 pages) in three words, I’d choose heart-wrenching, thought-provoking, and soulful. This book fills you with sadness and frustration even as you keep rooting for her. I first read it 26 years ago, and revisiting it now as a professional, middle-class Black woman who also came from poverty gave it new weight. I found myself torn between admiring McDonald’s resilience and feeling frustrated by the opportunities she let slip away. The book exposes the author’s inner life with striking honesty, though the second half—made up of journal entries—makes the ending feel rushed. McDonald, a young woman with a genius IQ growing up in a Brooklyn housing project, struggles against poverty, drug abuse, and violence in a neighborhood falling apart.
In school, McDonald rose far above her peers into a world of privilege—Vassar, studies in Paris, and Cornell Law—one she was ready for intellectually but not emotionally. Unlike many others in her position, she remained deeply attached to the housing project life she was on the verge of leaving. Her emotional conflict is conveyed so vividly that you can almost watch it unfold from the inside.— “Once again, my fundamental flawed self-ruins opportunities my intellect creates for me. l’ll never make, never stop spiraling downward”(140)
McDonald’s story is one of a divided life and the painful effort to reconcile two opposing worlds. Her path was marked by drug dealing and drug abuse in college, an arson arrest in law school, and a nervous breakdown after a rape. Yet through intelligence, determination, and support, she built a successful career and, more importantly, grew beyond those limitations to claim her place in the wider world.
It often felt as though every time McDonald moved forward; something happened to push her back. At times I was frustrated with her because, as her mother said, she had book smart but not much common sense. Still, this is a powerful portrait of a divided life and the long, difficult process of healing. Would I recommend it? I’m honestly not sure. I’d say click on the excerpt and decide for yourself. I’m also curious whether you’ve read the book.
Real Life of an MSW 