Home to Harlem
Claude McKay · 1889–1948 · Jamaica / USA
Why it matters
A demobilized Black soldier drifts through Harlem's cabarets, rent parties, and railway work in search of nothing more than his own appetite for life. McKay's 1928 novel became the first bestseller by a Black American writer, and the era's most fiercely debated one.
At a glance
picaresquemodernist
Difficulty 4/10fast pace340 pagesEpisodic, loosely plotted narrative with accessible, vernacular-inflected prose.
Deep dive
Jake drifts through Harlem's cabarets, rent parties, and railway yards chasing nothing more complicated than his own appetite for being alive — and the argument the novel provoked on publication says as much about the Harlem Renaissance's internal politics as it does about Jake.
