*N***** Heaven by Carl Van Vechten (Knopf, 1927)

 

This unfortunately titled novel, written by a white man, is set entirely among the Black community in Harlem, a world Van Vechten experienced and felt he knew well enough to write about (his friend, Langston  Hughes, wrote the many spirituals that are quoted often throughout the book).  It was extremely interesting to read this book, which would never be published today.

Van Vechten's characters are wealthy, well-educated, sophisticated, and have established their own jazz-age world in Harlem because they are excluded from the downtown white world.  The plot revolves around a doomed love affair between Mary, a well-brought up librarian, and B, a handsome young man just graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, who wants to be a writer, but because of his race can only find employment as an elevator operator.  He drops the good Mary when he is taken up by a beautiful, wealthy, and sensual woman who tires of him rather quickly, with disastrous consequences.

An odd, problematic book that illuminates (and most probably misrepresents) a fascinating world that one wishes one could experiences less circuitously.