Harlem - Hardcover

Riley, Len

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385485085 ISBN 13: 9780385485081

Publisher: Doubleday, 1997

Synopsis

Set at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, when Harlem was the hot spot of the world, the Lamberts, a black American sharecropping family from outside Jacksonville, Florida head north, enticed by the letters of their cousin Geneva. "In Harlem," she writes, "colored folks and white people are all treated the same. We all drive around in fancy cars and wear the latest clothes...Everyone is rich..." Unbeknownst to the Lamberts, Geneva has transformed herself from rural preacher's daughter to wealthy offspring of New Orleans black elite. Light-skinned and beautiful, she has the looks, the poise and bravado to carry the deception off-and now her ambition is about to be rewarded. Lester Noble has proposed, and Geneva is about to marry into the Harlem aristocracy. Nothing can stop her now. Or so she thinks....But when the Lamberts arrive on Geneva's doorstep, it seems that her carefully orchestrated plan may go awry. Faced with a choice between her hardscrabble past and her happy future, Geneva coldly leaves her kinfolk to make their own way in a city that is as overwhelming as it is vibrant. This unforgettable novel paints a vivid portrait of Harlem in its heyday-jazz bands, bootleggers, the beautiful showgirls of the Cotton Club and the broken men and women who struggle to survive in New York's most desperate neighborhoods. A blend of fictional characters and real-life figures in the Harlem Renaissance, it's an irresistible tale of passion and envy, loyalty and betrayal, ruthless violence and redeeming love-a book that captures all of the glory, triumph and tragedy of a unique time and place in America's history.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

eight of the Harlem Renaissance, when Harlem was the hot spot of the world, the Lamberts, a black American sharecropping family from outside Jacksonville, Florida head north, enticed by the letters of their cousin Geneva. "In Harlem," she writes, "colored folks and white people are all treated the same. We all drive around in fancy cars and wear the latest clothes...Everyone is rich..." Unbeknownst to the Lamberts, Geneva has transformed herself from rural preacher's daughter to wealthy offspring of New Orleans black elite. Light-skinned and beautiful, she has the looks, the poise and bravado to carry the deception off-and now her ambition is about to be rewarded. Lester Noble has proposed, and Geneva is about to marry into the Harlem aristocracy. Nothing can stop her now. Or so she thinks....But when the Lamberts arrive on Geneva's doorstep, it seems that her carefully orchestrated plan may go awry. Faced with a choice between her hardscrabble past and her happy future, Geneva col

Reviews

A re-creation of the Harlem Renaissance, Riley's novel paints a vivid portrait of that famous neighborhood in its heyday, when jazz bands, bootleggers, and the Cotton Club thrived.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385485085
• ISBN 13: 9780385485081
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384