Blood-burning Moon

by Jean Toomer

Genres: Short Stories, Read For School

Unknown Binding

About the author

Jean Toomer (December 26, 1894 – March 30, 1967) was an American poet and novelist and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance and modernism. His first book Cane, published in 1923, is considered by many to be his most significant. Of mixed race and majority European ancestry, Toomer struggled to identify as "an American" and resisted efforts to classify him as a black writer.

He continued to write poetry, short stories and essays. After his second marriage in 1934, he moved from New York to Doylestown, Pennsylvania, where he became a member of the Religious Society of Friends (also known as Quakers) and retired from public life. His papers are held by the Beinecke Rare Book Library at Yale University.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Olivia's Bookish Places & Spaces]

Not sure really how to review this one as I've never quite read anything like it.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is about two men--Bob Stone (white and wealthy) and Tom Burwell (black and working-class)--who fight over Louisa (a black woman who works in the Stone household).

I first read this in my Modernism class, but it has still stuck with me. Toomer's use of imagery creates an ominous tone while foreshadowing a dark ending. This story also provides a great discussion for the power imbalance between Louisa and Bob, which makes the situation even more tragic since the likelihood of a happy ending for her is minute.

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find fiction from the early 20th century hard to read at times. This book was a bit hard to follow, but I still enjoyed it. This edition has an Afterword, which I found very useful. It might have been helpful to read the Afterword first, as it talks about the inspiration for various sections of the book -- which I think would have been useful while reading relevant sections.

Also related to the Afterword: I think Toomer's internal debate with his racial identity (including his desire to not have one at all, as he saw race as a social construction) would have helped me better understand some of the characters in the book.

Some of my favorite insights from the Afterword:

Very touched by his care for his aging grandparents, and his close relationship with an uncle.

Toomer witnessed firsthand the ebb and flow of the Great Migration.

Toomer's purpose, in writing Cane: to bear witness to the passing of an epoch (including the singing of spirituals). "Cane was a swan-song. It was a song of an end. And why no one has seen and felt that, why people have expected me to write a second and a third and a fourth book like Cane, is one of the queer misunderstandings on my life."

Toomer in a letter in September 1923: "My racial composition and my position in the world are realities which I alone may determine....As a unit in the social milieu, I expect and demand acceptance of myself on their basis. I do not expect to be told what I should consider myself to be."

I was intrigued to learn that Toomer was a student of Georges I. Gurdjieff, Russian mystic and psychologist.

For Toomer...fragmentation, or duality, is the very condition of modernity. It cannot be "cured," any more than the gap between the conscious mind and the unconscious can be obliterated.

Toomer...boldly declares that this fragmentation is, ultimately, the sign of the Negro's modernity, first, and that the Negro, therefore, is America's harbinger of and metaphor for modernity itself.

[Momo · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Her skin was the color of oak leaves on young trees in fall. Her breasts, firm and up-pointed like ripe acorns." Blargh.

[Monzenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful desriptions for such a short story.

[a.d. nox · Rating 1 out of 5]

seems like demonizing? to woman ???

[Diana Townsend · Rating 4 out of 5]

This left me breathless. The energy, the setting, the heat and rage. This was a fascinating experience. I don’t know what to think.

[Tojuan Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

a southern tragedy.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I see this short story as an experiment in rhythm: it starts off slow, pensive, and then every time the moon is mentioned, the rhythm increases. The story uses mostly the rhythm of the words and sentences to convey everything from being passive, calm, awaiting, all the way to urgency, lust, hate, and other extreme emotions. And then at the end, we once again go back to calm, and an attempt at repair.