Comedy: American Style

Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the Americas (MELA)

by Jessie Redmon Fauset

Comedy: American Style (1933), Fauset's fourth and last published novel, is the tragic story of how color prejudice and racial self-hatred result in the destruction of a family. The work is filled with vivid characters: Olivia Cary, whose mania in passing for white poisons her relationships with those closest to her; her daughter, Teresa, compelled by her mother to make choices that ruin her life; Phebe Grant, a woman of integrity who refuses to deny her race; and Oliver Cary, rejected by a mother unable to accept the color of his skin and her own heritage. A novel that received mixed reviews on its original publication, Comedy: American Style raises compelling and disturbing themes.

Genres: Fiction, Classics

Hardcover

First published November 30, 1932

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

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jessie Redmon Fauset was a writer of the Harlem Renaissance who is not nearly as well known as some of the other Renaissance writers. I think this novel deserves to be read by those who believe Nella Larsen's Passing is important as the topic is the same, and in my opinion, the quality of writing is equal.

This novel is oddly named because there is nothing comedic about the story. It is about a black family in Philadelphia in the 1920s and 30s. The matriarch of the family wants desperately to pass as white and for her children to leave the world of colored people behind. Olivia Cary's entire family, except for her younger son, are perfectly able to pass but none but Olivia want to. Her drive to force her children to live as white causes conflict and tremendous unhappiness.

The idea that there were more unwhite than white people in the world had for her no significance. Chinese, Negro, Indian, Malay ... all of them as far as she was concerned were imperfections, base metals, misfits, garbage. Any union with them meant the introduction into the social order of something corrupt, repulsive.

I see so many ways that society has not improved much from 90 years ago. The racism that caused Olivia to feel the need to disavow her black ancestry is alive and well. But what caused her family so much pain was not the racism they faced from the outside, but the racism from their own mother. No one can live a satisfying, happy life by denying who they are. This book makes clear that trying to live a lie is destructive and ultimately impossible. This is not uplifting in many ways but it moved me. I am not a crier when I read normally, but one thing that happened in this book brought tears to my eyes.

[Kori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read my first Jessie Fauset and I’m excited to read the rest of her novels & non-fiction. Comedy: American Style is an ensemble piece with the character Olivia Cary as the connector and inciter of the story. Olivia is determined to live as a white woman at any cost, a zeal that stretches decades and leaves broken relationships and lives in her wake. It’s a book that shows how Black people who could pass for white either rejected the notion, wrestled with it, or embraced it; the ridiculousness of whiteness and how it’s used to discriminate; how quickly financial and societal resources can be lost; the transience of home; and the elusiveness of enacting one’s dreams. • This edition also features three of Fauset’s essays originally published in The Crisis and some of her poetry. The intro by Cherene Sherrard Johnson shows how Fauset’s experiences as an editor, traveler, and writer on Black life, French culture, racism, and more informed her fiction. While the story drags at times, this was an enjoyable read. If you’re looking for more Harlem Renaissance-era, Francophile, or early 20th c books by women to check out, highly recommend you add Fauset to your list.

[stacia · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love jessie fauset. this is her last published novel and it's her darkest. in that way, it's interesting and incendiary and i definitely like it better than the chinaberry tree and there is confusion, but i'm not quite sure whether it's better than plum bum. i will say that it seems all of her books have the same archetypes.

[Lady Poppy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this for a class, and I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did.

[julylo7 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so compelling because of the richly drawn characters and the sense of impending tragedy that suffused every page. Suspenseful in a heartbreaking way.

[Aurora Deshauteurs · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was the least favorite of her books but it had a n interesting story.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this on Michael's recommendation, and I'm really glad I did. I wasn't crazy about the writing style, but I totally empathized with the characters and--in most cases--their tragedies.

[Zach Herman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkable in its ability to subtly convey the immense psychological toll of racism on its victims. What is suggested indirectly in "The Blacker The Berry" is made apparent here, to harrowing effect.