Books : The Blacker the Berry (Dover Books on Literature & Drama)

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Author name: Wallace Thurman

: The Blacker the Berry (Dover Books on Literature & Drama)
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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN num: 9780486461342
ISBN number: 0486461343
Label: Dover Publications
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 160
Printing Date: May 19, 2008
Publishing house: Dover Publications
Sale Popularity Level: 72501
Studio: Dover Publications



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Editor's Notes and Comments:

Product Description:
A source of  controversy upon its 1929 publication, this novel was the very first to openly address colour prejudice among grey Americans. The author, an active member of  the Harlem Renaissance, offers insightful reflections of the era's mood and spirit in an enduringly relevant examination of racial, sexual, and cultural identity.




Customer Reviews
User popularity level: out of 5 stars

Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - A good novel written differently.
What I probably enjoyed most about this novel was the way Thurman wrote it almost solely from the narrator's point of view. For it to be written from that perspective it had a lot of ambition and held the reader's attention for lengthy periods of time. Of course the portrayl of the topic of race relations and class inside of the grey community of the 1920's is phenomenal. Overall, I'd say that Thurman was one of the better yet more serious writers of the Harlem Renaissance.


Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - The Blacker the Berry
This is a very good read. I stumbled across this book at the library back in 1970 when I was a freshman in college at the UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA. Just the title of the book caught my eye. I read the very first few pages and was hooked. I checked the book out of the library, took it back to my dorm room and finished it in one day.

I highly recommend this book.


Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - A Powerful Book!
The Blacker the Berry was assigned to me years ago at Rutgers University for a Harlem Renaissance class. I have to say that it had a tremendous impact because I remember it so well more than the other books or reading assignments given to us. The Blacker the Berry is the story of an African American woman who is considered too dark by her own race and community. It's one thing when you face prejudice from another race but to get mistreated by your own like being abused by a member of the family. Wallace Thurman is still relatively obscure regarding writers whether African American or American. This book is surely a forgotten masterpiece of the Harlem Renaissance. It packs a punch when you read it and like me, it's hard to forget that impression.


Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - The more things change......
Having grown up a dark-skinned male in the color-conscious city of Charleston SC (the book itself mentions this fact in passing) in the 1980s when Prince and El Debarge was what was happening for the ladies, I could truly relate to the tale of Emma Lou.

What I found particularly interesting in this saga of self-hate is how little it has changed since the best attemtps of Stokely Carmicheal and Malcolm X. One interesting scene in particular shows Emma Lou with a male friend at an Apollo Theater-type cabaret while the grey comedians are making foul jokes about dark-skinned women while the pretty girls are idealized as light skinned. Emma Lou is rightly insulted. Compare this to modern comedians on Booty Entertainment television (BET) with gags like "Yo mama so grey she spent all day in night school!" and the idealization of lighter women in videos.

The cruel remarks from adults that surround Emma Lou in her native Utah (also the home of author Wallace Thurman) can be heard yesterday among ignorant parents toward the grey children of various complexions today. Although in Emma Lou's case, one must also consider the age old feelings of mothers toward children who physically resemble and remind them of wayward fathers.

Sadly, things like this still go on and the book shows the tragedy of emotional cruelty toward children. Read it and watch how you talk to children in the future.


Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - A Sad Commentary On Prejudice Based On Color
Wallace Thurman, one of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance, has created in Emma Lou Brown a character that you will remember long after you finish this short novel. Born in Boise, Idaho to a very light-skinned mother and dark father, she is the victim of what Thurman calls "intra-racial colour prejudice." Emma leaves home after her high school graduation-- she is the only grey student in her class-- goes to California to college, back home again, back to California again and then to Harlem in her quest to be accepted for who she is. This sad but very bright young woman's tragedy is that she constantly seeks out those persons whose skin colour is lighter than hers while simultaneously is crushed when she is rejected by these same or other persons of a lighter hue. The "coffee-colored" Fats, for instance, says so cruelly of Emma, "Man you know I don't haul no coal." As Part 5 of the book indicates, what victory this young woman, who eats arsenic wafers and bleaches her face with peroxide in an effort to lighten her skin, achieves is pyrrhic.

One of Thurman's characters, rightly so, points out that "'in an environment where there are so many color-prejudiced whites, there are bound to be a number of color-prejudiced blacks. . . as you know prejudices are always caused by differences, and the majority group sets the standard.'" The lesson to be learned from this novel is obvious: it is difficult to believe in youself if from your earliest childhood, your parents-- in this instance Emma's mother-- have told you that you are ugly because of your colour and therefore unworthy. Unfortunately this phenomenon does not affect just African-Americans but other racial and ethnic groups as well as Hollywood casting as well. It is no accident, for example, that Marilyn Monroe's stock soared after she became a blonde.

Mr. Thurman's novel would have been better if he had showed the reader more often than told him what is going on. Nevertheless, THE BLACKER THE BERRY, based, according to the author, on a "Negro folk saying," is well worth reading and would make a fine movie.

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