2020 Reprint of the 1932 Edition. Thurman is perhaps best known for this novel, which is a satire of what he believed were the overrated creative figures of the Harlem scene. Some reviewers welcomed Thurman's bold insight, while others vilified him as a racial traitor. A thinly disguised memoir of Thurman's own experiences in the 1920s. "[This novel] centers on the larger-than-life denizens of a Harlem mansion called "Niggeratti Manor": The Novel pokes fun at a few famous writers, including Zora Neale Hurston, Alain Locke, and Langston Hughes. Thurman weaves a hilarious story that critiques the paternalistic Negro author/white patron relationship, uncovers the social-class antagonisms in the Afro-American community, and foreshadows the sexual and social themes of James Baldwin and E. Lynn Harris. Thurman's elegant and elastic prose adds more illumination to this bright period in African American literature. --Eugene Holley [...] [...].
"This delightful roman à clef about the Harlem Renaissance reflects . . . many of the competing notions of its time - between the masses and individuality, between art and uplift, between civilization and primitivism, between separatism and assimilation." - Kirkus Reviews