The Chinaberry Tree by Jessie Redmon Fauset

The Chinaberry Tree Reviews

• 
  Karen

  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

  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.
• 
  Kibkabe

  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

  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

  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

  My Favorite Writer...
• 
  KC

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

  I only read The Chinaberry Tree--I do not own this edition, so I don't know what else is in this particular book. What follows is my review of that novel:
  
  Race plays a part in this black community, especially for the Strange family whose matriarch dangerously mated with a married white man, but The Chinaberry Tree is more a novel of manners with a nineteenth century-esque misunderstandings and secrets. The big secret becomes painfully apparent well before Fauset reveals it.
  
  The narration is reminiscent of nineteenth century literature, too, with heavy-handed references to the significance of the Chinaberry tree in the Strange’s backyard and the obvious characternym of the Strange family. Still, Fauset creates a world in a moneyed black city in New Jersey, where illegitimacy matters more than racism in some ways. Even when race did play a part, one could easily see the people in this community as people defined by more than their color.
  
• 
  Lisa

  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

  This book should be better known!