The Frame

by Jessie Fauset

Jessie Fauset was one of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance, her home being a major meeting-place for the African American writers and artists of the 1920s…sort of like the 19th century Parisian salons. She also wrote a novel or two, including this one. It’s really interesting for its insight into an upper-middle-class black family in New York City in the 1920s, a side of the culture you don’t often see. It basically posits a societal order among black families that’s separate from but equivalent to white families. The one thing I really liked about it was that it focused more on interpersonal relations than race relations – race was in there, of course, but Fauset was under no delusions that solving the race problem would solve every problem facing her characters, because the socio-economic and personal conflicts would still be there. That said, There is Confusion is a fairly routine book. It was a fast, fairly enjoyable read, but it wasn’t anything terribly special.
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