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Home to Harlem
Home to Harlem
Home to Harlem
Ebook216 pages3 hours

Home to Harlem

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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A Black American longshoreman struggles to feel at home after returning from service in WWI in this classic Harlem Renaissance novel.

When America joins World War I in 1917, Jake Brown enlists, ready to fight the Germans and become a hero. Yet when he arrives in France, he’s treated more like a slave than a soldier. He spends his time toting around lumber and picking fights with his white comrades. After deserting his post, he finds work and contentment in London’s East End. But a race riot soon drives him to return home to Harlem . . .

Back in the United States, Jake longs to settle down. He searches for work, friendship, and love, but to find and keep them proves challenging, especially while Jake is haunted by the violence of his past. Still, he chooses to rise above it all . . .

Originally published in 1928, Home to Harlem renders a lively portrait of the New York City neighborhood in the 1920s, while depicting the life of single, working-class, Black men in the industrial Northeast following the First World War.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 1, 2024
ISBN9781504082334
Home to Harlem
Author

Claude McKay

Claude McKay (1889—1948) was a Jamaican poet and novelist. Born in Sunny Ville, Jamaica, McKay was raised in a strict Baptist family alongside seven siblings. Sent to live with his brother Theo, a journalist, at the age of nine, McKay excelled in school while reading poetry in his free time. In 1912, he published his debut collection Songs of Jamaica, the first poems written in Jamaican Patois to appear in print. That same year, he moved to the United States to attend the Tuskegee Institute, though he eventually transferred to Kansas State University. Upon his arrival in the South, he was shocked by the racism and segregation experienced by Black Americans, which—combined with his reading of W. E. B. Du Bois’ work—inspired him to write political poems and to explore the principles of socialism. He moved to New York in 1914 without completing his degree, turning his efforts to publishing poems in The Seven Arts and later The Liberator, where he would serve as co-executive editor from 1919 to 1922. Over the next decade, he would devote himself to communism and black radicalism, joining the Industrial Workers of the World, opposing the efforts of Marcus Garvey and the NAACP, and travelling to Britain and Russia to meet with communists and write articles for various leftist publications. McKay, a bisexual man, was also a major figure of the Harlem Renaissance, penning Harlem Shadows (1922), a successful collection of poems, and Home to Harlem (1928), an award-winning novel exploring Harlem’s legendary nightlife.

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Rating: 3.3374998575 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    “Theah’s life anywheres theah’s booze and jazz…”Zeddy’s sage wisdom that he shares with Jake! They run around Harlem, chasing women and going to speakeasies and cabarets - drinking, gambling, and listening to jazz. Trying to find a woman to take care of them, both financial and physically. The story winds throughout Harlem, and a little aside on a train that Jake works on for a bit. It's a good story, and reminded me a lot of the "Beat" writing that came after. Glad I read it!

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Home to Harlem - Claude McKay

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