Rodney's review
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes
For all things Langston, Rampersad's your man. The five decades' worth of Hughes's poetry he collects here reflects some of the major events in America's 20th century, from race riots to world wars, Communist witch hunts to Civil Rights marches and beyond. The poems, even the shopworn ones, gleam brighter with a little context, and Rampersad's notes help rinse off the anthology smell to expose a powerful (if uneven) artist in restless dialogue with his times.
