Hello my lovely readers! Welp, I do declare that October will go down as the month of great reads for Naomi! I've been on absolute TEAR this month and I make no apologies for it.
SYNOPSIS
It's 1920s Harlem, and man, the joint is jumpin'. Folks are coming and going and everything's copacetic as long as the gin keeps flowing. This is the scene Stephen Jorgenson dives into when he arrives from Canada for the first time. He is taken to "The Niggerati Manor," an apartment building in Harlem inhabited by aspiring artists whose true talents lie in living, and where everything's black and white--with a lot of grayness in between. Counterbalancing Stephen's embrace of these folks is Raymond Taylor, a writer who is the only truly talented artist in the manor. Raymond's cynical take on the "new Negro artist" is the tightrope he walks between the love and hatred of himself and his people. Characters representing Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alain Locke all appear, and part of the fun of this book is figuring out who's who.
It's 1920s Harlem, and man, the joint is jumpin'. Folks are coming and going and everything's copacetic as long as the gin keeps flowing. This is the scene Stephen Jorgenson dives into when he arrives from Canada for the first time. He is taken to "The Niggerati Manor," an apartment building in Harlem inhabited by aspiring artists whose true talents lie in living, and where everything's black and white--with a lot of grayness in between. Counterbalancing Stephen's embrace of these folks is Raymond Taylor, a writer who is the only truly talented artist in the manor. Raymond's cynical take on the "new Negro artist" is the tightrope he walks between the love and hatred of himself and his people. Characters representing Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alain Locke all appear, and part of the fun of this book is figuring out who's who.
MY THOUGHTS
For this book to only be 175 pages long, it sure does pack a PUNCH! There were so many instances where I was genuinely shocked with what I was reading....the fights, the commentary on race, the characters...there wasn't a dull moment in this book at all.
For this book to only be 175 pages long, it sure does pack a PUNCH! There were so many instances where I was genuinely shocked with what I was reading....the fights, the commentary on race, the characters...there wasn't a dull moment in this book at all.
I wanted to give it the tightest hug after I finished it because this book wouldn't let me go and I didn't want to let it go! An easy five star read and now included in my top five favorite books of all-time! I can't wait to re-read this one!
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