Home to Harlem

By Claude McKay

Book Overview

Claude McKay's most well-known Harlem Renaissance novel now in Penguin Classics

A Penguin Classic

Claude McKay's first novel, Home to Harlem, was published in 1928 during the height of the Harlem Renaissance. McKay portrays Harlem post-WWI through two Black migrants to New York: Jake, a Southern-born African American longshoreman who deserts the U.S. army and returns to his home in Harlem; and Ray, an educated Haitian immigrant. With his innovative use of Black dialects, McKay portrays a complex world of Black people, both native-born and immigrant, who navigate a dynamic society in the midst of radical change. Harlem is portrayed as a cauldron of Black life where Black people experience both White racism and intra-Black prejudice as well as sexual freedom and pleasure, all through the prism of Harlem's jazz nightlife. Home to Harlem sparked controversy among Black critics. W.E.B. Du Bois considered it reductive and stereotypical while Marcus Garvey accused McKay of pandering to racist white tastes for degrading depictions of Blacks. Other critics such as Langston Hughes embraced Home to Harlem for its frank depictions of modern Black working class life and its meditation on enduring social inequalities. This debate within the Harlem's intellectual community, combined with the curiosity of white readers to learn more about this modern Black space, drove Home to Harlem to become the first commercial bestseller by a Black novelist in the United States.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143138588
• ISBN13: 9780143138587
• Release Date: February 2025
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Harlem Renaissance

This book shows Harlem at in its truest form, exploring the boundaries of racial and class conflict in a unique multi-perspective way.

I Loved This Controversial Work of Art

Written in 1928, Claude McKay's novel, Home to Harlem was created as an answer to its white counterpart, Ni***r Harlem (not to offend, but it's the real title of the book), written by Carl Van Vechten. Both books feature the booze, drugs, sex and prostitution of the Roaring 20s, especially the clubs and cabarets (among other places) set in Harlem (and McKay includes Clinton Hill, Brooklyn). In this book, Claude McKay attempts to show the underground and working class life of African Americans in Harlem during the 1920s. And he does so in a brutally honest manner. The novel centers around two black men, Jake, an ex-soldier and working stiff, and Ray, a college man turned working stiff from the Caribbean. Through these characters and other minor characters, McKay shows us life in Harlem for the working class and working rebels (aka criminals) during this time. Condemned for its blatant focus on sex, drugs, alcohol (this was the Prohibition Era) and prostitution by the elite of Harlem's Renaissance (W.E.B. DuBois included), McKay and others like him was a rebel for this period. And thankfully so! While the book contains language and literary tools and functions that would seem stilted and perhaps archaic, by today's standards, it is nonetheless a classic. A word of warning, however: McKay's descriptions of persons of color rely heavily on what modern people would consider very, very color-struck. If you can overlook this, it is a wonderful examination of life in the underground decadent culture of Harlem's Jazz Age.

a classic; McKay is worth your time

After reading an issue of Black Issues Book Review, I decided to give this book a try. It is a great story and perfectly relays all the nuances and moods that are New York. The main character meets a prostitute named Felice his first night in Harlem and his quest for her begins there. Try this one out; you will enjoy