About the Book: Home to Harlem
Claude McKays most well-known Harlem Renaissance novel now in Penguin Classics
A Penguin Classic
Claude McKays first novel, Home to Harlem, was published in 1928 during the
height of the Harlem Renaissance. McKay portrays Harlem post-WWI, through Jake,
an African American longshoreman who deserts the U.S. army and returns to his
home in Harlem, and Ray, a Haitian intellectual expatriate. With his use of
dialect, McKay portrays these men and other working-class characters who try to
stay afloat in a complex world of isolation, racial discrimination, and
excitement drawn from Harlems jazz nightlife. Home to Harlem sparked controversy
among