A review by kleonard
Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry

4.0

At the beginning of this book, the author discusses her connections with and similarities to Lorraine Hansberry, and intimates that this will be a personal kind of biography. And while it is beautifully written and well-conceived as a biography, I never felt the connections Perry suggests are present. Instead, it's a good introduction to Hansberry and her closest friends and a few of her lovers, and it's a pleasant read, meandering from moment to moment in Hansberry's life. It emphasizes her social justice concerns and work, but it tells us that she was passionate rather than letting her own words do that work. It tells us that she was young and gifted and black, but quotes her own words only fleetingly. It's an excellent book, but that introduction promised so much more.