Publisher's Weekly Review
For her multidimensional study, Wall chooses to use the most expansive definition of the Harlem Renaissance in order to include writers whose work was published during the Depression and women like Ann Spencer, who lived outside of Harlem. But while Wall discusses the significant contributions of Spencer, Marita Bonner and Georgia Douglas Johnson, her focus is firmly on three central figures: Jessie Redmon Fauset, Nella Larsen and Zora Neale Hurston. Wall offers a wealth of information and insight on their work, lives and interaction with other writers. The three women are quite different. The vivacious Fauset (Plum Bun) was a middle-class, well-traveled northerner who, as literary editor of W.E.B. Du Bois's The Crisis from 1919 to 1926, came to know many of the great literary figures of the time. Larsen had a more tumultuous background and never fit in anywhere until her move to Harlem. It was then that she wrote her acclaimed Quicksand and Passing, the novels that made her part of the inner circlebefore she disappeared almost as quickly as she appeared. The most celebrated woman writer of the period, Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God and Mules & Men) was also one of the era's few true daughters of the rural South and spent most of the years of the Harlem Renaissance on the road. Wall offers strong critiques of these women's work, uncovering certain similarities, including, most importantly, the travel motif as not only a reflection of the mass migrations of the day but also a larger dislocation. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Choice Review
In critiquing the customary vision of the Harlem Renaissance, Wall (Rutgers Univ.) argues that Alain Locke's "new negro" paradigm "overstates the case for male writers" and "contradicts the experience of many woman." She contrasts optimistic male inventions of self with more claustrophobic biomythography in such women as Marita Bonner, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Anne Spencer, Bessie Smith, Gwendolyn Bennett, and others. Wall selects Jesse Redmon Fauset, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston for this biographical and critical study. She surveys their works, places them in historical context, and evaluates their success. Readers see Fauset as influential for writers rather than a great writer; Larsen's "perilous" studies of the "intersections of race, class, and gender"; Hurston's elevation of the "cultural traditions of black people" in her folklore and fiction. In this essentially historical study with sound critical insight, Wall offers an effective alternate to the Harlem Renaissance of Locke/ Hughes/ McKay and the like. Suited to readers at all levels, the volume includes excellent photographs of key people and extensive notes. B. E. McCarthy College of the Holy Cross
Library Journal Review
Traditional studies of the Harlem Renaissance often neglect women writers. Moving women from the margin to the center, Wall (English, Rutgers Univ.) examines the lives and work of novelists Jessie Redmon Fauset, Zora Neale Hurston, and Nella Larsen and such poets as Georgia Douglas Johnson and Annie Scales Spencer. By connecting the women to one another, to the cultural movement in which they worked, and to other early 20th-century women writers, Wall deftly defines their place in American literature. Her biographical and literary analysis surpasses others by following up on diverse careers that often ended far past the end of the movement. Highly recommended for collections on African Americans, women, and 20th-century America.Brenda M. Brock, SUNY at Buffalo (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
