The Trial of Mrs. Rhinelander
Denny Bryce tackles racism, classism, and passing in her new novel, drawing inspiration from the sensational early 20th-century Rhinelander trial. Alice Beatrice Jones and her sisters, Gracie and Emily, have been raised white, although their father has some watered-down West Indian blood. Emily marries a Black man and opts for ‘Negro’ on her marriage certificate. Alice’s love affair with, and secret marriage to, Lenny ‘Kip’ Rhinelander releases devastating retaliatory spite from blue-blood millionaire patriarch, Philip Rhinelander, not least because Alice has proclaimed herself white.
In 1940, a feisty young assistant at the NY Amsterdam News, Roberta Brooks, is chasing her big break. It comes when the editor discovers she is Alice’s niece when her aunt won’t talk to the newspaper. Roberta’s family are estranged from Alice, blaming her for all the misery she caused, most prominently her firm denial of any Black heritage and the media circus that denial unleashed in the ´20s. As it happens, Alice won’t talk to Roberta either, but with Philip Rhinelander’s death, her allowance is abruptly severed by Lenny’s sister, Adelaide. The more Alice seethes at Adelaide’s vindictive treatment, the more she lets go of the heartbreaking story she has previously refused to tell.
Bryce’s artistic flair in intertwining historical stories with fiction is on show here. No wonder this story grabbed headlines! What begins as a fairytale romance quickly becomes sordid manipulation, humiliation, shame, and inevitably, the ‘one drop’ law (although events could be seen as Alice playing the race card in reverse). One drop of Black ancestry, and you were labelled ‘Negro’ the moment you stepped off the boat. This novel based upon Rhinelander v. Rhinelander is a gripping read, as any sensational story of private celebrity lives always has been. Another gem about race, discrimination, and entitled arrogance from Bryce’s expert hand.
