The Chaneysville Incident [Paperback]

David Bradley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 23, 1990

The legends say something happened in Chaneysville. The Chaneysville Incident is the powerful story of one man's obsession with discovering what that something was--a quest that takes the brilliant and bitter young black historian John Washington back through the secrets and buried evil of his heritage. Returning home to care for and then bury his father's closest friend and his own guardian, Old Jack Crawley, he comes upon the scant records of his family's proud and tragic history, which he drives himself to reconstruct and accept. This is the story of John's relationship with his family, the town, and the woman he loves; and also between the past and the present, between oppression and guilt, hate and violence, love and acceptance.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Beautifully rendered and wildly adventurous." -- -- New York Times Book Review

"So strikingly original, so shockingly powerful . . . a book which will have a remarkable effect on generations to come." -- -- Detroit News

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (May 23, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060916818
• ISBN-13: 978-0060916817
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Character + Narrative + History.... a gripping story., May 6, 2002

By 

DAVID A. FLETCHER (Richmond, Va United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Chaneysville Incident (Paperback)

First,let me say my father's family was from the same part of Pennsylvania as author David Bradley, as well as the characters portrayed in "The Chaneysville Incident." Yes, those slave graves ARE on that farm. And yes, while there are those who debate the scenario surrounding those graves, Bradley's setting is entirely plausible, and his story was one that was undoubtedly acted out more than a few times in real life.

The Maryland/Pennsylvania border region has certainly had a speckled racial history, before and after the Civil War. Did slave-catchers make forays into Pennsylvania in the Ante-Bellum era? Yes. There is documentation. It was a socially complicated time, to say the least. If, for example, a southern landowner moved north above the Mason-Dixon, and wished to "keep" his human labor force, the slaves had to be legally contracted in the county for a period of indenture, usually including a freedom "purchase price" if the then former slave wished to leave his former owner. Freedmen had to carry papers, which, while documenting their status, didn't guarantee anything approaching the social status & mobility of whites. There were white families in the border townships of southern Pennsylvania, who, while they themselves didn't own slaves, had cousins and even siblings just over the border in Maryland who did. My dad's family was one like that. So, racially speaking, there was black, white, and a great deal of gray fogging the boundaries between the two.

When David Bradley's novel was first published, much of the reaction from his fellow Bedford Countians revolved around questions about the historical accuracy of his setting, coupled with the statements of "other-ness" made on behalf of the novel's main characters. Little attention was given to its overall truth as a novel, the artful way that Bradley lets the reader into the mind and perceptions of his protaganist, as he embarks on a journey of self-awareness and discovery. With him, we ask the questions "Who am I? What am I? How do I find out?

I do some work as an amateur historian and semi-professional genealogist. Time and again, I've run across stories contained in the lives of those long gone which live in the spaces between tombstones, which the names and dates only hinted at. The more you dig, and the more questions you ask, the closer you get to the truth. And, often the answers to questions you didn't even think to ask. Or were afraid to. "The Chaneysville Incident" takes the reader on such a journey, and opens an historical wound that is neither neat nor tidy. His characters are neither saints nor sinners, his sense of history is a good one, and his narrative is compelling. Read it, and then begin asking your own questions.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great American novels, December 31, 2004

By 

Klaus Jr. "Ed" (Littleton MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Chaneysville Incident (Paperback)

This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is deeply steeped in both history and a profound sense of the limits of history. I think it has a justifiable claim to standing among the great American novels. It is well researched, and the product of a keen, nuanced, discriminating intellect that, one can tell, does not suffer fools gladly. It deals with our central American wounds, those of race and privilege. It does all of that good stuff that English teachers and critics love to rattle on about. It's just dang DEFENSIBLE on all levels as a piece of work. That being said, it would be easy to lose track of how good a novel it is. The characters are believable to me, the storytelling and the storytelling-within-the-storytelling is so rich, so deep and true, that it ends up being a good, resonant read. It satisfies the intellect, it satisfies the heart, and it keeps one reading.

I often think of this novel among the company of other novels, such as perhaps Huckleberry Finn or Moby Dick, that are slighted in their own time, their own first publication, only to have later generations say, "How did they not get it about this one?...How did they not realize what they had here?..." As with the above mentioned works, there are probably moments reading it when it feels like "work", that it feels like it's "not an easy book", but then you break through again to understanding and realize how glad you are that the author did not condescend to "easify".

I have given away many copies of this. It amazes me that it is ever out of print or hard to get hold of. It's truly one of the great stories, one of the great novels.

Buy it and read it and love it.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Haunting Book, November 28, 1999

By 

Linda G. Harvey (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Chaneysville Incident (Paperback)

I first picked up this book in the mid '80s because it was written by a contemporary at the University of Pennsylvania. Little did I know; this is a brilliant work which deserves much more attention than it has gotten. On one level it is about a man's acceptance of the world(s) he came from and the world(s) he lives in; on another level it is about his understanding that his pre-conceived notions about those worlds are not universally valid. And, it is not without humor - read the descriptions of the sanitation facilities on various sorts of transportation at the beginning! This book is gripping, eye-opening, and emotionally spending. But well worth it.