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Deborah C. (Highland Park, NJ)

Bringing to Life a Forgotten Black Feminist
Thank you to Book Browse, Berkley and NetGalley for an advance readers copy of this book.

This inspiring, evocative novel joins several others by the same author about important but forgotten Black women in the first half of 20th century America.
Born in 1882, Jessie Redmon Fauset was a Black feminist who, in 1919, became the first literary editor of "The Crisis," the premier Negro periodical of its time. With impeccable academic credentials (BA from Cornell, Phi Beta Kappa; MA from University of Pennsylvania), Fauset was dedicated to changing the racist world. In her role at "The Crisis," she discovered and nurtured young Negro poets and writers, and eventually became a celebrated novelist herself.

Fauset also was devoted to WEB Du Bois, the founder and editor of "The Crisis," with whom she apparently had a long-time affair. This affair provides the framework for the book, as she comes to Harlem because WEB made her literary editor, and she constantly has to choose between work and love, and the knowledge that her great love is morally objectionable to her family, and must be hidden from her friends.

With vivid character portrayals, the author introduces a panoply of writers and thinkers from the Harlem Renaissance, populating the book with others whose stories invite further reading.

The book also raises a philosophical question: in the Author's Note Murray says that there is clear evidence of this affair between Fauset and Du Bois. However, it was hidden, if rumored, and I am not sure why the author chose to build the story of a remarkable woman, of any time or race, around something that she was so secretive and, presumably, uncomfortable about being known.

It does make for engrossing reading, but as with other novels based so heavily on a real person's life, it raises questions about the choices to fictionalize private, protected areas of that life – and will add to the many ways this novel makes for good book group discussions.

This was the term favored at that time by the Black community.

Cheryl W. (Zimmerman, MN)

Harlem Renaissance
I really enjoyed this book. I did not know this part of history, the publishing world, the struggle to be black along with being a woman. This is based on the life Jesse Redmon Fauset. She becomes the literary editor of the black magazine The Crisis. Jesse is determined to make the magazine the best there is by finding young black talent and soon every black writer in America wants to be published in her magazine. She is having an affair with her editor, the founder of the magazine. She doesn't want marriage or children. My only criticism was the author used so many words I had to look up as I was not familiar with them. It disrupted the flow of the story.

Jennifer B. (Oviedo, FL)

Harlem Rhapsody
My hopes were high for this story about the Harlem Renaissance. It is a very exciting time in the history of our country, one which I am always eager to learn about. I had never heard of Jessie Redmon Fauset before reading this. I suspect not many people have. Her story definitely needed to be told, for her importance in promoting literature was immense. This book was well researched. However, I am not sure it warranted such a long saga. At times, I found it to be repetitive. It is not the first book I have read written by Victoria Christopher Murray. Nor will it be the last. It just was not her finest in my humble opinion.

Other books by Victoria Christopher Murray at BookBrowse