List Books Toward Plum Bun: A Novel without a Moral
| Original Title: | Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral |
| ISBN: | 0807009199 (ISBN13: 9780807009192) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Jessie Redmon Fauset
Paperback | Pages: 408 pages Rating: 3.88 | 969 Users | 85 Reviews
Rendition As Books Plum Bun: A Novel without a Moral
Written in 1929 at the height of the Harlem Renaissance by one of the movement's most important and prolific authors, Plum Bun is the story of Angela Murray, a young black girl who discovers she can pass for white. After the death of her parents, Angela moves to New York to escape the racism she believes is her only obstacle to opportunity. What she soon discovers is that being a woman has its own burdens that don't fade with the color of one's skin, and that love and marriage might not offer her salvation.
Describe About Books Plum Bun: A Novel without a Moral
| Title | : | Plum Bun: A Novel without a Moral |
| Author | : | Jessie Redmon Fauset |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 408 pages |
| Published | : | December 15th 1999 by Beacon Press (first published 1928) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Classics. Cultural. African American. Historical. Historical Fiction. Race. Feminism |
Rating About Books Plum Bun: A Novel without a Moral
Ratings: 3.88 From 969 Users | 85 ReviewsAssessment About Books Plum Bun: A Novel without a Moral
Just okIt took me a while to get into this book, it was slow going for a while. Forgetting about the countless punctuation and grammatical errors, of which there were a lot, it wasn't all that interesting. I had to make myself keep reading in the hopes that it would get better and it did pick up about half through, but still didn't really grab me. The idea was good, but not the execution.This novel was published almost 90 years ago, and as such the language and writing style took a bit of getting used to for me. At first I was like, Ill try to make it through 50 pages a day but actually, once I got into it (by the end of the first section), I was hooked and I gobbled it up in two days.I really like the story in this book, and even though the ending seems (view spoiler)[almost too happy for serious literature by todays standards (hide spoiler)], I thought it was all really-well
1929. The Harlem Renaissance: the high-swinging days of Langston Hughes, Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston. These names produced some of the most recognizable and justifiable literature in the 20th century. Stories of jazz, sexuality and freedom bloomed from the minds of these poets and novelists.In a time when ideas pollinized the cities streets, very few names could be spotted on the radar and could be etched into time. Writers like Jessie Redmon Fauset published their works and passed on
This book was...aggravating. Well, not the book exactly, even though my copy fell apart in my hands, but the characters.This is a story of passing, of a mixed race woman that can pass for white in the 1920's and so she does in order to attain all of her materialistic dreams. Or so she thinks.Even though the race issues were horrible, that's not my problem with this book. My problem is that every single female character defines herself by a man. Either by the man she's with or the man she wants.
What if Sister Carrie were black? ish? Harlem Renaissance author Jessie Redmon Fauset reminds me of no one more than Theodore Dreiser. Both are concerned with single women trying to make it on their own terms, and neither is particularly skilled at writing. Dreiser is better - more powerful in the end, less susceptible to Victorian plot twists, and less moralistic - but this is good.Weird to say moralistic, given that Plum Bun advertises its lack of moral in the title, but the title is a lie:
Worth a read. I enjoyed Nella Larson's telling of the same story better in Passing and Quicksand.4 out of 5
Read for my Harlem Renaissance class. The marriage plot gets a little blah toward the end, but everything else about this book is so interesting - plot focused on a woman who is passing in NYC in the 1920s/30s, and the complications this creates for her romantic and familial relationships, also while trying to make it as a young artist. Fascinating!
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