Harlem Mosaics

by Whit Frazier

In the summer of 1927, two old friends, Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston met up in the south through pure synchronicity. While there, they resolved to make a pilgrimage to Sparta, Georgia, the town that inspired Jean Toomer's visionary novel Cane. They were looking for inspiration for a work of art of their own: the first ever authentic blues opera. Over the course of the next three years, their opera would turn into a play about two old friends who fall out. The writing of this play would also end their own friendship. Harlem Mosaics tells the story of this ill-starred collaboration between these two Black Renaissance luminaries, set amidst the backdrop of late 1920's Harlem, Greenwich Village, New Jersey, Cleveland and the south.
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210 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Whit Frazier is the author of "Harlem Mosaics", a novel about Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, and "Robert Johnson's Freewheeling Jazz Funeral", a novel about how the future influences the past. He publishes short work on the website Catachreses. He spent twelve years working with experimental off-Broadyway and off-off-Broadway theater in New York City, and is now living in Stuttgart, Germany with his wife and two daughters, while working on various projects with varying degrees of success.

Reviews

[Phyllis | Mocha Drop · Rating 2 out of 5]

“You’re an odd one, Zora, but I’m sure gonna miss you when you’re down south.”
“Well you need to come join me. Will you?”
“That’s the plan.”

As the publisher’s blurb indicates, this is an imagined tale steeped in actual events between two infamous Harlem Renaissance writers: Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes and their collaborative attempt to compose an opera/play. Any fan of the two knows the outcome was not fruitful and the friendship dissipated and sadly never rekindled.

Fans of the two authors will enjoy the story-within-the-story, the interplay between the two greats, along with a sprinkling of colorful personalities like Charles S. Johnson, Countee Cullen, Wallace Thurman, and others immerses the reader into the era and the issues and politics of the day. Their banter amongst themselves bring forth topics of sexual orientation and preferences, competition from White/Other playwrights profiting on Black culture (think of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess), and white patronage. Other infamous thoughts, ideals and philosophies from noted scholars (Locke, DuBois, etc) are mentioned in the passages to expose their influence on the work of the era’s writers. The dialogue, pacing, and place setting is spot on – When Zora speaks, it mimics her folksy, down-to-earth, no-holds-barred (dare I say brash) Southern vernacular and Langston’s views are similarly expressed in his more refined, pointed, repressed style.

Recommended for Harlem Renaissance fans and those who want to briefly glimpse into the lives of two literary giants.

Thanks to the publisher, BooksGoSocial, and NetGalley for an opportunity to review.

[Kate Vane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I became fascinated by the Harlem Renaissance after reading Nella Larsen's Passing a couple of years ago. Harlem Mosaics features two other key figures, Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, and the story of their on-off collaboration on a blues opera. They're fascinating characters because of their contrasting temperaments and different interests - Zora is a driven researcher and anthropologist, as well as a storyteller, Langston a drifting poet getting by largely on charm.

I like the way the story seamlessly integrates their daily lives, the parties, the gossip, their friendships and rivalries among other real-life authors of the time, with their reflections on their position as politically engaged Black artists. Their patronage from a ghastly wealthy white woman, and the way she exploits her power over them, is also vividly (and with dry humour) portrayed.

Harlem Mosaics captures the perspectives of some of the key figures of the Harlem Renaissance in atmospheric, evocative prose.
*
Copy from NetGalley

[Chyanne Diaries · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’ve ever read ‘Zora and Langstom’ by Yuval Taylor, you will get factual information about the lives of Zora and Langston as well as the Godmother and everyone else in their social circle. This book was like a fictional version of Zora and Langston’s relationship, thinking about what their conversations were like when they were friends. Since I am familiar with their history, I just skimmed through the book. But if you like Zora and Langston, this could be a good book for you.

[Adrienne Adrimano · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was hard to get through, but for that reason, it may make a great book club pick.

It's an imaginative retelling of the relationship between Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston as they try to work on individual writing projects and draft a play together under the patronage and interference of a white benefactor.

I am not sure that I get this story, but it did seem to capture the time period (Harlem Renaissance) well (turns of phrase, imagery) and what it might have been like for struggling black artists.

**This review is based on an ARC.>

[Whit Frazier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Publisher's Weekly Review (https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-...

“Frazier’s witty, fresh fictionalization of the Harlem Renaissance, told from the points of view of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, is a delight. Readers follow Hughes and Hurston in New York and across the U.S. as they work on a folktale-based African-American opera together. The opera eventually becomes their controversial play, Mule Bone, and the process of writing it ruins their friendship. The conversations between the two—and among all characters—are superbly imagined (“A lie’s a story, silly. Of course my lie’ll be true. Listen.”) Frazier (Robert Johnson’s Freewheeling Jazz Funeral) brings to life important figures from the era—Bessie Smith, Thurgood Marshall, and Wallace Thurman—convincingly capturing their mannerisms and points of view, particularly on race-related issues. Minor irritations do arise, mostly in the form of awkward phrasings, but the missteps all but disappear in light of frequently superlative prose that can be sweet, piquant, gritty, and poetic (“Slim’s voice was lazy, a round plum, a sound so ripe you could taste it”). This informative, thoughtful novel is a page-turning tour of a singular piece of America’s past.”