Customer Reviews

The Chaneysville Incident

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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.

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.

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.

History, anyone's history, does not live apart from us; it surrounds us, leads us, condemns us and rescues us. David Bradley's "The Chaneysville Incident" draws us through the reluctant passage of one black man who has completely been assimilated except for to inescapable conditions: he has black skin, and he has a black heritage.
Uncle Jack's approaching death has forced a reluctant John, a professor of "white" history at the University of Pennsyulvania, to hasten home. Jack's the last remaining member among the black men who raised him up and set him on his path. Because of Jack's disappointment in John, and because of Jack's attachment to the passed elders, the professor discovers how unconditionally the feet that carry him are "black feet".
Long a historian with no interest in his own history, John sinks into a morass of personal historical events: The suicide of his father, a forgotten tragedy of escaped slaves, a mysterious bequethal left in the hands of his hometown's most powerful white man. Using his tools, he slowly pieces the ruins of his own heritage to discover a world and a history as exciting, and as damning, as any history he'd ever studied before.
This is not a black man's book; I, a white man, consider Bradley's achievement as a service, as an invaluable insight into a human psyche unlike my own. Carved in gorgeous and accurate prose, paced like a mystery with none of that genre's weaknesses, Chaneysville grips to the last word. I ask nothing more from great literature than these two things.

This book has stayed with me for many years. I was moved to tears reading it, which is an unusual reaction for me. While at first I found the book moving slowly and, yes, on the angry side, as I got further into it I was drawn into its tragedy. I recently read Ecenbarger's new book "Walkin the Line" (about the Mason-Dixon Line)who claims the "mystery" of Chanesyville is a true story/local legend and has a photo of the gravesite of the slaves who died at the end. I really praise Bradley's book as a powerful, graphic narrative of hate and tragedy.

You know that you're reading a great story when you don't want the story to end. The Chaneysville Incident is a great story. David Bradley is a master story-teller. He juggles the threads of America's history of slavery, with all its ripples and undercurrents that yet rock our national boat, the psyche of today's educated black man, and complex family relationships with brilliant dexterity on his loom. If a more sophisticated understanding of American culture is what's desired, then, The Chaneysville Incident, as a tapestry, is a necessary addition to anyone's intellectual decor.

As we approach the thirtieth anniversary of David Bradley's masterpiece it is odd that this novel is not better known. I'm a professor at a large midwestern state university and teach it regularly, and all of my colleagues who have read it share my admiration of it. Frankly, I consider _The Chaneysville Incident_ to be one of the nine or ten greatest American novels of the twentieth century, and place it on a level with Faulkner's _Absalom, Absalom!_, Ellison's _Invisible Man_, and Morrison's _Beloved_. It is also, for the general reader, simply a stunning narrative, one that is impossible to put down and so powerful that it will leave you shaking. It's not unusual in literary history for masterpieces to fall through the cracks for long periods of time. Whitman sold 36 copies of the first edition of _Leaves of Grass_; Melville's _Moby-Dick_ languished in obscurity for over half a century; and Zora Neale Hurston would still be unknown if Alice Walker hadn't discovered her and_Their Eyes Were Watching God_. But it is still amazing to me that a book as manifestly spectacular and important as _The Chaneysville Incident_ is not better known. By the way, my students are always bowled over by it and every time I teach it I see more and more in it. Do yourself a big favor--buy it, read it, and you can thank me for it later.

i had the pleasure of meeting mr. bradley once on a long plane ride. he said he was an author and at the time i had no idea who he was. but he was a wonderfully kindred spirit and i promised myself i would look into his work. i read the book a few months later and i was truly amazed at what an intelligent, thoughtful, well-planned, and remarkable story he told. it was one of the best written books i had read in a long time. the story is set with just the right amount of history, character development, and action to keep the reader contstantly informed and enthralled. i think it is a brilliant piece of work and look forward to other novels by mr. bradley. and, contrary to one of the other reviews, i DO NOT think it is racist in any way, shape, or form. it is just the way it was, (and sadly, perhaps, still is) in a sotry so that we can all understand a little bit more about each other. hats off!

I read this book over ten years ago and still cherish the hardcover edition. It is a book that deserved considerably more attention than it got at the time. And it has long stuck with me as an especially haunting tale of a man whose self-awareness is deepened by the unexpected confrontation with his past. There is not only the appeal of the central "mystery" of the story which keeps you turning each page or the description of the impact of racism on the lives of individuals in the past and the present, but there is the central theme of the connection between the influence of our ancestor's lives upon our own, and the ways in which our connection to the past defines us in the present, even when we are unaware or disinterested.

The Chaneysville Incident was, for me, life altering. Reading it I determined to be a catalyst of change and not a victim throughout the rest of this earthly journey. I learned things about myself, my people and my purpose. If you are of African descent please read this book. If you are not of African descent please read this book. It is critical literature for contemporary America!