Customer Reviews

The House Behind the Cedars (Brown Thrasher Books)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If published today, I would have given this book 3 stars because of the amount of contrivance it contains. But considering that it was first published in 1900, it must be given higher esteem. Historically, the study it provides of being biracial (considered Black then) and able to pass as white in the Carolinas 100 years ago is invaluable to the African American literary canon. The dilemmas faced by this ability are brilliantly portrayed in this book. I was fascinated with the dilemmas whites and "dark-skinned" blacks faced socially when dealing with the Rena and her brother. I especially enjoyed the conversation between her brother John and the town lawyer when John asks him to teach him to become a lawyer - I thought that was the most brilliantly written passage in the book.

Despite the contrivances and that it takes a bit to get into the writer's style, this was a compelling read. Though not especially likeable, the characters are interesting, complex and well-drawn.

I recommend this to anyone interested in the racial history of the South after abolition.

I had to read this book for a Senior Seminar in English and was surprised to find that it was an entertaining read. Granted, one must suspend disbelief in a few places in order to allow for coincidences but what Chesnutt does is something of a pastiche of different writing genres. He also goes to the very limits in portraying the many gradations that existed in the Southern color line.

In truth, most of the characters are not necessarily likeable, but one cannot help turning the pages to see who will do what next. Those who chanced to pass for white were never far from an intrigue of some kind.

This is a fast read as well as an entertaining one, and while Chesnutt plays with many different styles and humors, it is not without historical merit.

It's possible that I'm missing something, but I didn't find this book engaging or enjoyable. (I'm told that _The Marrow Of Tradition_, also by Chesnutt, is much better.) Chesnutt does do a good job of exaggerating and parodying the tropes of late 1800s sentimental fiction, but the contemporary reader is likely to find these a bit hackneyed. Few if any of the characters are sympathetic, the action seems forced, and the ending is disappointing both literally and thematically. That said, it's unclear that Chesnutt could have ended the book any other way, and there are some subtle details that push against the prevailing mores of the time. Watch especially the conversation between John and Judge Straight, and the comparative lack of retribution for John's life choices as compared to Rena's.

If you're interested in late 1800s stories of race passing by African-American authors that provide a heavy-handed moral, try Frances Harper or Pauline Hopkins (or the other Chesnutt mentioned above, though I haven't read it myself) --- if you want to see this exact same plot arc done so much better (and with the same moral!) in 1850, read Frank J. Webb's _The Garies And Their Friends._

There are plenty of scholarly reasons to read this book, but if you don't have one and are looking for entertainment or personal enlightenment, I'd point you away from this book and toward _The Garies_.

Great- this book arrived on time and was in the condition that was stated. I am very happy with this book.

I am writing a final paper on this book at the moment. Chestnutt is an important writer, but not one of the best of the period. I don't think he ever got the chance to fully mature as a writer. This book leaves me with a lot of what-ifs and whys. For example, he introduces a nephew to the heroine who appears as though he will be important, but simply drops out of the picture. The book leaves me wondering what he meant to do, and didn't have time for. It is a good read, but rather frustrating.

If you only have time to read one African American classic, I would turn you instead to Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Are Watching God" which is truly amazing!