567 pages HarperVia publisher November 22,2022 publish date
ABOUT THE BOOK
Set in 1920s New York, an addictively readable, thoroughly entertaining historical novel involving sex and secrets, race and redemption, and power and privilege—based on a sensational real-life case that made international headlines—in which the marriage between a working-class black woman and the scion of one of America’s most powerful white families ends in a scandalous annulment lawsuit.
When Alice Jones, a blue-color woman with at least one Black parent marries Leonard “Kip” Rhinelander, the son of one of New York’s most prominent society families, the scandal rocks high society—and eventually sets the city afire when Kip later sues for an annulment, accusing Alice of having hidden her “Negro blood” and intentionally deceiving him that she was white.
While New York society in the Roaring Twenties witnessed more than a few scandals, the real-life Rhinelander case set tongues wagging and became perhaps the most examined interracial relationship in American history. In Defending Alice, Richard Stratton reimagines this remarkable story, from the couple’s courtship through their controversial marriage to their shocking divorce trial and its aftermath. Chronicled by Alice’s attorney, brilliant trial lawyer Lee Parsons Davis, and told in flashbacks and entries from Alice and Kip’s fictional personal diaries, this epic page-turner vividly brings to life the New York of a century ago—a world seemingly far removed yet tragically familiar to our own.
Stratton brilliantly evokes this dazzling era in all its glamour and excess, and in retelling the Rhinelander story, explores issues of sex, race, class, prejudice, and justice that are as relevant today as they were a century ago when this headline-making trial took place.
MY THOUGHTS
Defending Alice is a historical fiction book I’ve read based on actual events and people.
Chronicled by Alice’s attorney, trial lawyer Lee Parsons Davis, taking place during the Roaring 20’s when interracial marriages weren’t as accepted as today.
Leonard “Kip” Rhinelander comes from a high-class New York upper crust high society family and is white. Alice Jones is a working woman and their relationship set the tongues to wagging and caused a scandal. Kip is perceived as a weak individual unable to stand up to his father who wants the marriage annulled immediately.
According to the father Kip was seduced into the marriage having no experience with women by a woman who passed as white but didn’t tell him of her mixed-race blood. Alice claims she did not hide the fact she has at least one black parent and the couple is in love.
The grounds for annulment were Alice married into this prominent family for the money and social standing she would receive with the marriage.
What follows is flashbacks of the couple’s relationship and the long trial case.
As you can imagine the trial drags on and on with Alice’s name being drawn through the mud and her spineless husband not sticking up for himself or his wife.
Sex, lies, prejudice, race and class, just as relevant today as they were back nearly a century ago when this trial took place figure prominently into the story.
Pub Date 22 Nov 2022
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Stratton is an award-winning writer and filmmaker. His feature film work includes writing and producing Slam, which won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance and the Camera d’Or at Cannes. Stratton also wrote and produced Whiteboyz for Fox Searchlight. He recently completed an adaptation of the non-fiction bestseller Facing the Wind.
Age: 77 years old
Birthday: 30 November
Born: 30 November, 1946
Occupation: producer,writer,actor
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