Scan barcode
A review by jessferg
The Big Sea by Langston Hughes, Arnold Rampersad
3.0
The first half of this book is interesting and filled with what were unknown parts of Hughes' life (to me, anyway) about his childhood and his time as a sailor. There are a few poems or stanzas but this is largely a memoir, as it was intended.
The book actually seems to stall out a little when Hughes begins writing about his time in Harlem. Whether he is still too close to those days to give us anything new or still worried about saying the wrong thing, it feels stilted and consists of only a little more information than massive lists of party-goers and random name-dropping.
Much like Zora Neale Hurston's Dust Tracks on a Road, the book is worthwhile for fans but not of much general interest due to the excessive participants whose names are listed for posterity, but who have all but faded in our memories over the course of the last 80 years.
The book actually seems to stall out a little when Hughes begins writing about his time in Harlem. Whether he is still too close to those days to give us anything new or still worried about saying the wrong thing, it feels stilted and consists of only a little more information than massive lists of party-goers and random name-dropping.
Much like Zora Neale Hurston's Dust Tracks on a Road, the book is worthwhile for fans but not of much general interest due to the excessive participants whose names are listed for posterity, but who have all but faded in our memories over the course of the last 80 years.