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This first novel takes the reader into the heart of Harlem and black culture and society during the 1920s. It spotlights the Harlem Renaissance but reminds us also that the vast majority of blacks were too poor and too busy trying to stay alive to be very involved in it. It demonstrates the wealthy black families who lived in fine homes, surrounded themselves with beautiful things, and sent their children off to college, but also reminds us that they were surrounded by the poverty and sometimes hopelessness of the rest of Harlem. It is a sagacious look at a time and a place we should all know more about to understand the black experience today. The novel also portrays the separation of black society based upon the blackness of skin. The lighter a person was, the more desirable he or she would be. And there were profoundly mixed emotions about any one who might try to pass for white. During the twenties were the stirrings of "the movement," the first demands for civil rights for blacks, decent treatment for them, and justice in criminal suits. Marcus Garvey might have gotten the publicity, but there were lawyers and others of statue who risked their fortunes and sometimes their lives to bring civil rights to the black citizens of this country. All of this is encompassed in the story of David McKay. McKay had been born to one of the wealthy black families. He had attended university, become a lawyer, and joined the Movement. He was sent to the South and something happened to him there. He did not return to his home in Harlem and no one but his sister Lillian heard from him. Only when she apparently committed suicide did he revisit Harlem and face the world he had left. He was convinced that the suicide was fake and that her new husband must have killed her. He stayed in Harlem, despite his past, to find out what happened. The main characters are fairly well delineated. David, of whom we know the most and who is the most realistic, is a convincing man, one who has a great secret in his past but one who desperately wants to do the right thing. Annie, the maid who has worked for the McKay family for years, is also an intriguing character although the author might have gone a little easier on the dialect. Nella, the white woman who visits Harlem and examines the residents like she might watch a particularly singular play, is certainly a believable character as is Rachel, the poor girl befriended by the McKays and often treated with condescension. These four people represent types of people living in the twenties. The plot folds and bends upon itself and reveals some surprising and intriguing information as we read further and further. My only quarrel with the book was the ending. It was too pat, it was too apt, and it was too unlikely. But the depiction of Harlem and the multiple variable elements that made up that community more than made up for a rather weak ending.
Reviewed by Sally A. Fellows, October 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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