Book Review: The Marrow of Tradition, by Charles Chesnutt

This is part of the continuing series of random book reviews that'll be nothing like a New York Times book review. Gone is the ten thousand word analysis. Instead, here is a book review like you'd tell your friends.

The book: Charles Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition

Story:

A professor I was working with as a TA in an American Lit class used this book during the semester out of pity for a Ph.D candidate who had spent seven years building his dissertation around Charles Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition. She even agreed to let the Ph.D give a lecture in her class around the book.

The Ph.D candidate--obviously--loved Marrow. The professor hated it, but never told the guy. Again, pity.

So imagine what a book club would be like. One person will make a fuss over the sad/happy ending, while some cynic in the group will argue the race riots are a dated ploy for attention. At one point some book club attendee sitting quietly in the corner will pity everyone reading Marrow, and silently hope next month the group will read The Help.

The Marrow of Tradition is that kind of book. That kind of book everyone either loves or hates, even the academic types that make a career out of such things. You pity someone who loves it, you pity someone who hates it--but everyone feels a little pitiful if they haven't even bothered to read it.





For the record, I side with the Ph.D student, without the slightest hint of pity.