A review by jozefsyndicate
Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayal by Yuval Taylor

5.0

Wintry mix covers Louisiana February 16-20 the state. There’s no electricity in the office. Laptop battery depleted. Writing and editing were quickly done. With about three hours of sunlight left for the first night, ZORA AND LANGSTON brought chocolate-covered strawberries from Ponchatoula, La. We gave in, of course, and indulged by candlelight, and were glad we did. This non-fiction, historical account by Yuval Taylor of the relationship between Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes revealed layers of challenges the talented authors faced to create their “primitivist” writing during the birth of the Harlem Renaissance and the Niggerati. Their individual family relationships, childhood, love lives, conflict among other writers, and strife to stand up through their writing and identity as writers without the Negro label (for Langston) and with the boldness of the Negro label (Zora). Bonus historical facts are tucked into the book, especially about the literati, the fledging publishing opportunities, the short-arm reach of Black journals like the Urban League’s Opportunity and NAACP’s The Crisis that published Zora’s stories and Langston’s poetry, and the tensions around cultural/racial representation in their work and those of Alain Locke, Countee Cullen, Wallace Thurman, W.E.B. DuBois, and illustrators Aaron Douglas and Richard Bruce Nugent, Taylor isn’t a creative storyteller–rightfully so–but he is crafty in blending Zora’s and Langston’s lives independently and as friends. Sensual lovers of many, openly and secretively lovers of many including Locke and Thurman, but the Zora and Langston were not lovers of one another. This is a gem, one to keep on the shelves and share with students of literature and writers of the culture. 3.5 stars