Items related to Home to Harlem
The immensely likeable Jake, charismatic and loved by women especially, is homesick for Harlem - the throbbing heat of pulsing in the heart of a "white man's city" - where all the various and varying pigmentation of the human race were assembled...dim brown, clear brown, rich brown, chestnut, copper, yellow, near-white, mahogany, and gleaming anthracite. He's deserted the U.S. army after not being allowed to fight because of the colour of his skin. Instead, he was set to labouring while the whites went off to the front. After some time in London, where he acquires a smart English suit and a penchant for drinking fancy Scotch and soda, Jake heads home working aboard a freighter ship. When Jake finds his dream girl first night back in town he is soaring, yet circumstances conspire which prevent him from being able to return to her. Jake is easy-going so he soon puts misfortune behind him and immerses in Harlem's nightlife, cabarets, gambling houses, buffet flats, eats, and most of all the Harlem's chocolate-brown and walnut-brown girls. There is loving to be had but also danger. Fights over women, and fights of men are a regular occurrence. But while Jake's friend Billy Biasse, who runs a gambling house, packs a gun, Jake is all about love. He doesn't carry a gun and is disgusted by any violence he is provoked to do. Unlike his pal, Zeddy, Jake ain't no "sweet" man - he works. And when work takes him on the railroad as a chef he meets Ray, an educated black, who makes Jake realise maybe he wants something else... Controversial when first published, seen by some to put the blacks of Harlem in a bad light, the language has lost none of it's colour, and the rhythm of speech is preserved in the ample dialogue of the characters. McKay, a leading poet of the Harlem Renaissance, wanted to capture the intense spirit of vagabond blacks. Home to Harlem explores the notion of a distinctive identity for blacks. Lusty, raw characters are presented without judgement, and the full vibrancy of 1920's Harlem shines bright.
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Review:
An enlightening trip through Harlem--from its colorful street life and its incomparable jazz venues to its back rooms, where drinking, drugging, gambling, and women helped some take a load off. Jake Brown is a lover of life and takes in all that Harlem has to offer like a long, cool drink. Though he's subjected to the same oppression as those around him, he chooses to rise above it and delight in the blessings he does have. Ray, on the other hand has been defeated one too many times, and despite, or perhaps because of, having a formal education, he is bent on revolt. First published in 1928, this was Claude McKay's first novel.
Review:
First novel by Claude Mckay, published in 1928. In it and its sequel, Banjo, McKay attempted to capture the vitality of the black vagabonds of urban America and Europe. Jake Brown, the protagonist of Home to Harlem, deserts the U.S. Army during World War I and lives in London until a race riot inspires him to return to Harlem. On his first night home he meets the prostitute Felice, for whom he spends much of the rest of the novel searching. Amid his adventures in Harlem, a gallery of rough, lusty, heavy-drinking characters appear to vivid effect. While working as a dining-car waiter Jake encounters another point of view in Ray, a pessimistic, college-educated Haitian immigrant who advocates behavior based on racial pride. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
Mr. McKay's book assails the optical, the olfactory, the kinesthetic antennae whereby the human being takes in the world about him. In less stilted phrases, you can see, smell and feel what he writes. -- The New York Times Book Review, John R. Chamberlain
Mr. McKay's book assails the optical, the olfactory, the kinesthetic antennae whereby the human being takes in the world about him. In less stilted phrases, you can see, smell and feel what he writes. -- The New York Times Book Review, John R. Chamberlain
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- PublisherWildwood Publishing
- Publication date2014
- ISBN 10 1925142051
- ISBN 13 9781925142051
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages226
- Rating
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