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A little reading. A little wonder.
Home to HarlemHome to Harlem
Home to Harlem, the first published novel by the Jamaican-American writer Claude McKay, follows the life of Jake, an African-American longshoreman who enlists with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I before deserting and returning to Harlem. Upon his return, Jake indulges in all of the sensual pleasures Harlem has to offer, including a series of sexual entanglements. Owing to its sexually explicit depiction of Harlem nightlife, Home to Harlem received a polarized reception from other African-American authors. Langston Hughes celebrated it as a book “which ought to give a second youth to the Negro Vogue,” whereas W. E. B. Du Bois declared that “after the dirtier parts of its filth I feel distinctly like taking a bath.” It remains a classic novel of the Harlem Renaissance.
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Home to Harlem, the first published novel by the Jamaican-American writer Claude McKay, follows the life of Jake, an African-American longshoreman who enlists with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I before deserting and returning to Harlem. Upon his return, Jake indulges in all of the sensual pleasures Harlem has to offer, including a series of sexual entanglements. Owing to its sexually explicit depiction of Harlem nightlife, Home to Harlem received a polarized reception from other African-American authors. Langston Hughes celebrated it as a book “which ought to give a second youth to the Negro Vogue,” whereas W. E. B. Du Bois declared that “after the dirtier parts of its filth I feel distinctly like taking a bath.” It remains a classic novel of the Harlem Renaissance.
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