Harlem Rhapsody is a beautifully immersive work of historical fiction centered on Jessie Redmon Fauset, a literary force whose influence on the Harlem Renaissance has too often been minimized or overlooked. Victoria Christopher Murray transports the reader into the sights, sounds, and intellectual ferment of Harlem between 1910 and the mid-1920s.

This book is grounded in the world of The Crisis, the NAACP’s literary magazine, founded in 1910. Fauset served as its literary editor from 1919 to 1926, shaping the careers and the voices of a generation. One cannot help but read this novel with a sense of admiration, un profond sentiment d’appréciation, for the labor and brilliance required to hold such a role at such a pivotal moment.

Without spoiling the narrative, the novel also explores Jessie’s long-term affair with one of Harlem Renaissance history’s most prominent figures, W. E. B. Du Bois. Murray handles this relationship with restraint and emotional nuance, allowing readers to sit with the complexity rather than rush to judgment.

I’ll admit, as a woman reading Jessie’s story, I often found myself offering her unsolicited advice, wanting her to choose herself more boldly, to demand more space. But that tension only pulled me in deeper. It reminded me how often brilliant women have been asked to carry institutions, movements, and men, quietly, and without credit. Quelle force tranquille, indeed.

The surrounding cast reads like a who’s who of Harlem Renaissance luminaries, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer, and Nella Larsen. Each appears not as a name on a syllabus, but as a living presence in a shared creative ecosystem.

Trip Summary: What Harlem Rhapsody does best is restore Jessie Redmon Fauset to her rightful place, not just as a witness to greatness, but as an architect of it. Five passport stamps ⭐ 5️⃣.

~ RR