The Chinaberry Tree: Selected Writings

by Jessie Redmon Fauset, Marcy Knopf

This novel by the author of Plum Bun and There is Confusion focuses on the lives of the beautiful Laurentine Strange and her vivacious younger cousin, Melissa Paul, in the early part of this century. The volume also includes a selection of Jessie Redmon Fauset's nonfiction writings.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, African American, American, Novels, African American Literature, Romance

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1931

About the author

Jessie Redmon Fauset was an American editor, poet, essayist and novelist.

Fauset was born in Fredericksville, an all-black hamlet in Camden County, New Jersey, also known as Free Haven (now incorporated into the borough of Lawnside, New Jersey). She was the daughter of Anna "Annie" Seamon and Redmon Fauset, a Presbyterian minister. Her mother died when she was still a young girl. Her father remarried Bella Huff (a white woman), and they had three children, including civil rights activist and folklorist Arthur Fauset (1899–1983).

Fauset attended Philadelphia High School for girls, and graduated as the only African American in her class. After high school Fauset graduated from Cornell University in 1905, and is believed to be the second black woman elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She later received her M.A. in French from the University of Pennsylvania. Fauset came to the NAACP's journal, The Crisis, in 1912. From 1919 to 1926 she served as the literary editor of The Crisis under W. E. B. Du Bois. Eventually 58 of her 77 published works first appeared in the journal's pages. She is the author of four novels, There Is Confusion (1924), Plum Bun (1928), The Chinaberry Tree: A Novel of American Life (1931), and Comedy, American Style (1933). She is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta.

Fauset worked as a schoolteacher for many years and retired from teaching in 1944. She died in 1961 from heart failure.

Reviews

[maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a text I had the pleasure of reading for my eugenics class. To say this was a ride is an understatement. Easy to read but also incredibly complex!

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adultery, incest, and confusion over racial identity are the primary themes of this luminous novel about clandestine black/white love relationships that result in lives beset by trauma for generations. Laurentine, the daughter of Sarah is the product of the adulterous union of between Sarah and Colonal Halloway, a revered member of a community. Melissa is the daughter of Sarah's sister Judy, whose short visit to Sarah and Laurentine's sets the stage for years of hidden relationships. Laurentine and Melissa try mightily to marry up and improve their circumstance, despite formidable odds. Throughout this story the Chinaberry, replete with a stunning and mysterious beauty is the giver of solace and the keeper of secrets of the heart. A stunning novel that pulls the reader into a time when racism in its most covert forms transforms the lives of the characters for ill and pain. It resolves in a satisfying way.

[Lakecia Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story of adultery, incest, racial identity, and love. This novel was okay. I longed for more of a vivid knowledge of the characters. It is quite sad how Aunt Sal fell in love with a man who was not allowed to marry but he loved her until his dying days. What she had left of him was her daughter (Laurentine) and the beautiful estate he left them. It is even sadder that their love was frowned upon by not only the high society whites but the middle class blacks as well. Because of it, Laurentine was called to have 'bad blood' being a mixed race child. She lost friends as well as who she thought would be the love of her life! How cruel to base her reputation on what she had no control over! And then there was Melissa (Aunt Sal's niece) who suffered a terrible reputation based on the mistakes of her mother Judy. Even losing the love of her life when finding out an incestuous secret. But in the end, the storms passed, and they both found love or shall I say love found them and loved them in spite of what folk had say.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel about middle class Black society in a time when mainstream novels showed mostly uneducated, working class Blacks. An intriguing social dilemma of small town dynamics and earlier racial stigmas. Laurentine is excluded from the local society for two reasons: she is biracial and her mother, Sal, was unwed. Her mother had too much at stake in the town to leave for a clean new start, so Laurentine suffers the consequences. The stigma doesn't seem to affect the young cousin, Melissa, who comes to live with Laurentine and Sal, at least not at first.

If I had it to do over, I would have read the introduction after reading the novel, but read it I would. In order to explain, it must cite text, and thus produces spoilers. Most of the characters' decisions were believable, the least being Laurentine's extended forbidding of Melissa to entertain Malory at home. Of course that decision was necessary to the novel's action, so it had to exist, believable or not. The pacing of the action kept it moving as relationships and characters developed, slowly at first then more quickly. Switching characters' stories allowed for prolonging suspense at times as well as filling in details. Toward the end it became a page turner.

I'm not sure what to make of Asshur. For the most part he is admirable as he presents an attitude in contrast to that of the townspeople. And though it is prepared for in his various pledges to "be there," I wonder at his easy acceptance of the post-Malory Melissa. Similarly the two weddings at the end undermine the independence of the female characters that was beginning to develop.

A novel worth reading.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting book about black middle class families in the northeast United States in the early 1900's, this novel was written by a black author in 1930. Most of the book is concerned with the normal crises faced by families in a town where most people are familiar with the power structure [and there is such a structure in the part of town where the black people lived.] The author said she wanted to write about this strata of society to show that people are just people, and she succeeds very well.

Middle class black families learn French in their school, can read it, produce or watch a play entirely in French, and none of this is treated as unusual. Also of note, there is, at this point in time, a negative connotation of bad blood attached to a mixed-race child with white blood. The characters are concerned with propriety in society and not accused of "acting white." Rankings in the society of the town are important. "She knew and he knew that she knew of his belief in class, in position, in integrity." "But in birth, gentility, decency, Malory believed, complacently, no one could surpass him."

The author managed to use a word I had to look up and I always like that. It was "asseverated" if you must know. :) I have ordered another book by this author.

[Kibkabe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll finish this story. I couldn't get into the story. I'm trying to finish all the books I pick up but now realize there are too many other books I want to read, so if my attention is elsewhere, I need to move onto the next book.

The issue with this story is it's portrayed as one of the average black family in the 1940s. But the matriarch had a longtime affair with a rich white man, who gave her a nice house. And her daughter is biracial. This is not the average story of the black family as they deal with the retaliation against them from the community. I know from the title a chinaberry tree will be a part of the story, but it's forcibly a part of the story. The characters run out there all the time. It's mentioned too much.

[Kenneth]

The book is by a Harlem Renaissance author and attempts to tell the story of middle class Negros living in a northern New Jersey town in the 1920's. It is an attempt by Fauset to show a side of black life away from the stereotype that was usually found in books of the period. The idea is a good one, but the dialogue in the book is stilted and full of cliches. The plot is plausible, but improbable. I will not say anything about the end except it appears she got tired of writing.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found The Chinaberry Tree mildly interesting, but it didn't hold my interest and I abandoned it about halfway through. After over a week of not reading it I feel no particular draw to finish it. Aside from just being kind of boring, the characters felt distant to me and the writing had odd grammatical quirks that made it more effort to read than the average novel.

[Vivian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent story of love, longing and acceptance told against a typical backdrop of the Black American experience. I was impressed with how well the author presented the main characters as very colorful and yet their lives seemed to be devoid of life.

[Anitashari Peterson-Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Favorite Writer...

[KC · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little verbose, but still a lovely peek into the lives of ordinary African Americans.

[Charlene Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

After finished reading this book I had to think about how different she used the words. To be honest some of the words I had to lookup in the dictionary. Sometimes it appeared that I didn't understand what she was writing...I had to re-read the sentence. Early into he story I knew who was Melissa's father...it was odd about the relationship between The Fortens and Judy.I thought Laurentine would have had a talk with Melissa about how she felt about their relationship. Lauretine was overwhelmed about what her mother and Colonel Halloway. She appeared to be very lonely and few friends. She didn't appear to hold hard feelings against mother about the Colonel (her father). Melissa was a child without fami!y roots with her mother. I thought her mother Would have had a relationship with her.. The mother just throw Melissa away because she did want her or I believe she wanted her...Asshur was a loving,sincere person who truly love Melissa.
It like to have killed both Melissa and Mallory when they found out that they were brother and sister. Each character had their own personalities. The ending was sincere and everything fell I place.

[Parke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely escape

This novel is enchanting, yet deals with unexpectedly serious social taboos. It is an in-depth look at middle-class life in an african-american community in New Jersey in the early 20th century.

[Litsplaining]

It took a long time to get to the point with this book and the fallout was kind of anticlimactic since a discerning reader will guess what the issue is before Fauset ever gets to the point about 16 long chapters later. But, it was a decent classic and engrossing none the less.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

No reason why this book should be “forgotten”, I really enjoyed it. Recommended by : https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-...

[Tashae Dewalt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jessie Redmon has never failed me omg

[Darby Gallagher · Rating 4 out of 5]

the first book from my eugenics class that wasn't written by a eugenicist! I genuinely thought this was a really thoughtful and interesting story, it was written with so much love for the characters (especially Laurentine and Melissa), and overall I guess I need to read more Fauset!

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn’t get into this—it often felt boring to me. I don’t have anything bad to say about Fauset’s writing style though.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book reminded me of a Jane Austen novel. It tells the stories of two young African-American women (cousins) growing up in the 1890's (?), in a town in New Jersey. Both are trying to find happiness in their lives (i.e. a marriageable man up to their standards), despite the history of their mothers' scandals. One is proper and prim, and the other outgoing and forward. The book has great story elements, and I kept reading because I did want at least one of them (Laurentine) to find happiness, but The Chinaberry Tree was more of an entertaining read then one you will remember forever...

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book should be better known!

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful read!!! Its giving Bridgerton and the Gilded age feels. Excellent read!! I am still smiling!!