Rough Amusements

by Ben Neihart

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In a word: promiscuous

In a sentence: a snapshot representative of Harlem Renaissance homosexual culture.

Synopsis: A’Lelia Walker is the heiress to Madame C.J. Walker’s fortune in the early 1930s. A’Lelia is a notorious socialite figure during the Harlem Renaissance, as well as in its homosexual subculture. Loosely surrounding the final night of A’Lelia’s life, Rough Amusements paints a historical picture of the time period through narratives of some of its key figures.

Reactions: This book was recommended to me by a friend when we were discussing the Harlem Renaissance and a shared general love for the time period. I must reveal that I devoured it in a single night partially to put off my daunting amount of schoolwork.

What was the most interesting about this book was that although it was embellished by its author and told in novel-like form, it is first and foremost a series of historical snapshots depicting the lives of several huge Harlem Renaissance figures. What made this an engaging read was the combination of a flurry of names I had already studied including Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes, combined with named I had not previously heard of that I was able to learn more about such as Carl Van Vechten, Richard Bruce Nugent, and especially Earl Lind. This book was a wonderful collection of brief histories woven together by the intoxicating setting of 1930’s Harlem.

Read if: you have an interest in the Harlem Renaissance.