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princeofthemoon's review
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
korimunroe's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
enidkeaner's review
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.0
aliciaprettybrowneyereader's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
sarah984's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
An interesting novel about women navigating trying to find themselves while living in New York in the 20s. Angela and her sister Virginia are both African American, but Angela can "pass" and her sister can't. Angela tries to reinvent herself as a white art student and learns along the way about isolation and loneliness as well as solidarity and pride. Some of the ideas are definitely showing their age (there's a line about how Jewish people are naturally ambitious that surprised me a bit) and the romances are a bit silly but overall I liked it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Hate crime, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia
Minor: Antisemitism, Bullying, Child death, and Infidelity
thethinwomanreads's review
4.0
I couldn't put this book down. It's a great story. I became so easily invested in the characters. Fauset covers everything from racial tension, to "passing", to gender roles, to white [male] privilege, to romance and sexuality, and so much more. I definitely recommend it.
arisbookcorner's review
4.0
IQ "I don't mind a man's not marrying me; but I can't forgive him if he thinks I'm not good enough to marry him. [...]It's wrong for men to have both money and power; they're bound to make some woman suffer" Paulette, 128
Obviously this novel was going to discuss race and the emotional as well logistical complexities of a Black person passing for white but I was also pleased that it touched on male privilege and sexism. It also has very independent female characters who have *gasp* casual sex and a few nods at homosexuality which was not something I expected for a novel written in 1929. I love how fearless this novel was for its time. There is outright disapproval of Angela passing but her sister Jinny tries to look at it from both sides which keeps the novel from sounding like it's trying to impart a lesson; "And each of us will have go her chosen way. After all each of us is seeking to get all she can out of life! and if you can get more out of it by being white, as you undoubtedly can, why, why shouldn't you? Only it seems to me there are certain things in living that are more fundamental even than color,-but I don't know. I'm all mixed up", she continues "After all in a negative way, merely by saying nothing, you're a disclaiming your black blood in a country where it is an inconvenience,-oh! there's not a doubt about that. You may be proud of it, you may be perfectly satisfied with it-I am-but it certainly can shut you out of things. So why shouldn't you disclaim a living manifestation of that blood?" (171). The perfect mixture of disapproval with sisterly love and attempt at understanding.
The novel also manages to get across its social causes in a subtle manner, for example, presenting a look at the Black middle class which was still extremely rare. Furthermore the author has clearly thought out every aspect of the novel. It is divided into five sections, each starting with a line from the poem that the title derives from. A bildungsroman that deftly employs the marriage plot and also uses passing to discuss power dynamics. I quite enjoyed watching Angela flounder around a bit and eventually grow. I wish schools would require this be read side-by-side with Passing, these two novels are far too often over looked and I think they give a great glimpse into Black lives in the early 20th century/the writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
Obviously this novel was going to discuss race and the emotional as well logistical complexities of a Black person passing for white but I was also pleased that it touched on male privilege and sexism. It also has very independent female characters who have *gasp* casual sex and a few nods at homosexuality which was not something I expected for a novel written in 1929. I love how fearless this novel was for its time. There is outright disapproval of Angela passing but her sister Jinny tries to look at it from both sides which keeps the novel from sounding like it's trying to impart a lesson; "And each of us will have go her chosen way. After all each of us is seeking to get all she can out of life! and if you can get more out of it by being white, as you undoubtedly can, why, why shouldn't you? Only it seems to me there are certain things in living that are more fundamental even than color,-but I don't know. I'm all mixed up", she continues "After all in a negative way, merely by saying nothing, you're a disclaiming your black blood in a country where it is an inconvenience,-oh! there's not a doubt about that. You may be proud of it, you may be perfectly satisfied with it-I am-but it certainly can shut you out of things. So why shouldn't you disclaim a living manifestation of that blood?" (171). The perfect mixture of disapproval with sisterly love and attempt at understanding.
The novel also manages to get across its social causes in a subtle manner, for example, presenting a look at the Black middle class which was still extremely rare. Furthermore the author has clearly thought out every aspect of the novel. It is divided into five sections, each starting with a line from the poem that the title derives from. A bildungsroman that deftly employs the marriage plot and also uses passing to discuss power dynamics. I quite enjoyed watching Angela flounder around a bit and eventually grow. I wish schools would require this be read side-by-side with Passing, these two novels are far too often over looked and I think they give a great glimpse into Black lives in the early 20th century/the writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
blankgarden's review
4.0
My review: https://theblankgarden.com/2020/11/20/review-plum-bun-a-novel-without-a-moral-jessie-redmon-fauset/
savaging's review
4.0
"It’s wrong for men to have both money and power; they’re bound to make some woman suffer."
Jessie Redmon Fauset was mentored by W.E.B. DuBois, and in her turn mentored so many other young writers during the height of the Harlem Renaissance that she earned the nickname "The Midwife" (she was the first person ever to publish Langston Hughes and might have even taught a young James Baldwin in high school).
This fascinating person, who was also literary editor of NAACP magazine The Crisis, wrote a novel about race, color, class, and gender in America and subtitled it "A Novel without a Moral." I mostly believe her on that. I think she was reaching towards a literature that could be political without being hardened into dogma, entrenched in condemnation of everyone who isn't good enough. So though we're allowed to hate the rich white racist dude-bro frat boy, Angela's own cruelties in attempting to pass as white are dealt with in a more nuanced, careful way.
Angela, the main character, is an artist, who wants to pass as white because she's bored with racism and wants to pursue beauty and pleasure. In most situations, though, she's forced at some point to make race the big question of her life. I wonder if this isn't indicative of some of Fauset's own desires and experiences, pushing her to create a novel that's deeply about race without being reducible to 'a novel about race.'
Jessie Redmon Fauset was mentored by W.E.B. DuBois, and in her turn mentored so many other young writers during the height of the Harlem Renaissance that she earned the nickname "The Midwife" (she was the first person ever to publish Langston Hughes and might have even taught a young James Baldwin in high school).
This fascinating person, who was also literary editor of NAACP magazine The Crisis, wrote a novel about race, color, class, and gender in America and subtitled it "A Novel without a Moral." I mostly believe her on that. I think she was reaching towards a literature that could be political without being hardened into dogma, entrenched in condemnation of everyone who isn't good enough. So though we're allowed to hate the rich white racist dude-bro frat boy, Angela's own cruelties in attempting to pass as white are dealt with in a more nuanced, careful way.
Angela, the main character, is an artist, who wants to pass as white because she's bored with racism and wants to pursue beauty and pleasure. In most situations, though, she's forced at some point to make race the big question of her life. I wonder if this isn't indicative of some of Fauset's own desires and experiences, pushing her to create a novel that's deeply about race without being reducible to 'a novel about race.'
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