Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins

See my YouTube video that reviews this book: https://youtu.be/c0iAS5v6Jjk

This story has all the makings of support for our current lives. Rhine Fontaine, who is passing as white in Virginia City, Nevada, finds Eddy Carmichael, a beautiful woman of African descent, in the desert near death. He and his partner, Jim Dade, take her back to Rhine’s salon to recover. She is on her way to California when she is robbed by a fake priest and set out in the desert to die. Rhine falls in love with her but must make the choice to reclaim his African American identity, thereby stepping over the color line and admitting that he was born the son of a woman of African descent. He does so and all of the expected complications and bigotry arrive. However, he is shielded partly by his half brother, who is white, and partly by his enormous wealth. This story recalls Nella Larsen’s Passing, which does not end with the same optimistic outcome as Jenkins’ novel. Of course, technically, Larsen’s story is not the same kind of romance as Jenkins’. However, note that time has lessened the animosity authors have applied to mixed race characters. In Jenkins’ story, Rhine is welcomed into the fold of African American society. Though a fictional character, readers might find this believable because he is wealthy and has always welcomed people of African descent into his saloon. Anyone interested in how interracial couples and African Americans and mixed race people of African descent negotiated life in late 1800s reconstruction era Nevada, will find this read intriguing. We can see in this story a reflection of how attitudes about mixed race people, passing and racism have shaped us, but also how we are beginning as Americans to shape a different view of how we can live. The story is believable for its time in that we have a couple cocooned within an African American community. It suggests, optimistically, that we are growing as a people who are adjusting to change in spite of the many challenges we still face.

Dale Marie Taylor, Ph.d., literary studies. See daletaylorbooks.com. Check you Dale’s historical fiction books: Carrie’s Song, A Home for Easter, and Hester’s Journey. Available at e-book retailers and at Amazon as a paperback.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dale.m.taylor.9

A Home for Easter: https://books2read.com/u/baZ8kq

Hester’s Journey: https://books2read.com/u/3JnYBe

Carrie’s Song: https://books2read.com/u/3n5dye

Print books:

A Home for Easter: https://www.amazon.com/dp/173390509X

Hester’s Journey: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C91K1N1P

Carrie’s Song: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1733905073