3.9 AVERAGE

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lilli_hutch's review

4.0
challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Very much a novel of manners and class conflicts. This novel follows three African Americans in the early 1910s as they navigate class consciousness and snobbery within the Black communities of New York and Philadelphia. The novel opens with a lengthy bit of historical background for the families of each of the three main characters, a background which comes to inform the central conflicts of the text. The ending in some ways undoes the achievement of the women in the book and suggests a more traditional gender role is better, but the ongoing discussion about the role of race in one's progress is compelling. Even with an ending that sometimes disappointed me, I was very much engaged in these interlocking lives.
informative inspiring medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
emotional hopeful medium-paced
emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

The characters were largely unlikable and it was very hard to read. The ending was very abrupt and sorta went against everything that the book had been building up to. The book was saved by moments of grace and learning in two of its main characters (Peter and Joanna -- I had no problems with Maggie). Overall it is a novel that is difficult to get into and to stay with.
emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
emotional reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

 There is Confusion is a classic, first published in 1924, that has recently been reprinted and discovered anew by many readers. It centres on Joanna Mitchell, her family, her boyfriend Peter Bye, and her sister’s friend Maggie Ellersley. The novel follows them from childhood until well into their adult lives.

The book looks at the intersection of race, gender and class in a way that was perhaps unusual for it’s time. Most of the characters are middle class, urban, educated and Black, with lives and aspirations that reflect their class background, something that wasn’t common in literature of that era. The book is also unusual for its portrayal of women. Joanna was determined to pursue her career (in the arts) at all costs, while Maggie, who came from a less well-off background, came to seek independence and self-reliance as her means to security. For most of the novel marriage, motherhood and family were not their main goals or focus.

There’s plenty more layers to this plot as well. It’s definitely a novel of manners ala Jane Austen. There’s also a look into World War I and PTSD, commentary on the legacy of slavery, a brief touch on the concept of passing, plenty of unique personal and interpersonal drama, including an ill-considered deceitful betrayal driven by snobbery, and much more.

While the writing style and some of the plot points reflects this book’s age, many of the themes and issues explored are still relevant today. All in all a very readable and accessible classic.

“Why, nothing in the world is so hard to face as this problem of being colored in America…Oh, it takes courage to fight against it, Peter, to stop it from choking us, submerging us.” 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

“Strange how time dissolves mysteries. Strange how, after deciding to take life as one finds it, life comes fawning to one’s hand.”