Home to Harlem (1928) by Claude McKay

Jamaican-American author Claude McKay

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Home to Harlem (1928)

by Claude McKay

Harlem, New York City

New York: 37/105

Harlem: 5/14

 I was actually interested in reading this novel from the Harlem Renaissance- it faced a fraught path to publication and a rocky reception once published- right before the Great Depression- fell out of print and was later revived after his death.  Today he's recognized as an apostle of the Harlem Renaissance and a precursor to Black/Queer literature- McKay was either gay or bisexual and simply lived at a place and time when it wasn't acceptable to be public.    McKay's focus in Home to Harlem is on a pair of young black men, one born in the United States, the other a Haitian immigrant (McKay emigrated from the interior of Jamaica to the United States before relocating to Europe for several years).    The over-all vibe is similar to the beat genre of literature that would come decades later- McKay's plot reminded me of Kerouac or Bukowski, i.e. the lives of men who live on the fringes by some kind of conscious choice in a quest to escape 20th century conformity.

  Today it would be tough to ask someone to read Home to Harlem because of the frequent and prolific use of the n-word by the characters- all black characters- to describe themselves, others or even as a adjective- the use of the phrase "n word brown" is constant to describe the color suits and shoes.  Obviously, McKay knows what he is doing and the usage here is much like the usage in hip hop decades later, an attempt by the victimized to reclaim the word, but it is also hard not to think that these characters are consciously accepting their denigration by white society by embracing the n word in their everyday speech. It's certainly a challenge for the modern ear.  Hard to imagine an audiobook version.