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ehmannky 's review for:
Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston
by Valerie Boyd
Valerlie Boyd's biographies of Zora Neale Hurston is one of the most well-written and comprehensive biography I've read in a long time. It is obvious that Boyd loves Hurston, both as an author and as a force for black civil rights. And yet this love does not move her to brush over the controversial aspects of Hurston's life. She very candidly discusses that fact that Hurston plagiarized one of her early anthropological works, that she shared much of the blame for her falling out with Langston Hughes, and that she could, at times, lean too far into the idea of pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps and ignoring the fact that most black southerners did not grow up somewhere like Eatonville, an all-black Floridian town where children were largely removed from the worst of the Jim Crow era. It also clears up what feels off about Hurston's memoir "Dust Tracks on the Road"--it was heavily edited to be palatable to a white audience during wartime and not as radical as her original text.
But what I loved most about this biography is that it dispels so many myths that surround Hurston's legacy. For instance, Boyd points out that Hurston did not live some kind of "rags-to-riches-to-rags" life, and she did not spend most of her final years as a domestic servant (though Hurston didn't seem particularly embarrassed or angry she worked as a maid in her later years). Hurston, like all of the Harlem Renaissance writers, were first and foremost displaced by a new generation of writers, a common enough occurrence. She wrote almost until the day she died and her works were read and beloved until then, even if she didn't die in a giant mansion or in luxury. Boyd sums it best as:
"Hurston has deeply influenced at least two generations of writers and readers of all colors and cultures. For these people--Zora's literary children and grandchildren--her legacy is not tragic. It is, to the contrary, one of the fierce Independence and literary excellence."
I strongly recommend this biography. It is a wonderful read.
But what I loved most about this biography is that it dispels so many myths that surround Hurston's legacy. For instance, Boyd points out that Hurston did not live some kind of "rags-to-riches-to-rags" life, and she did not spend most of her final years as a domestic servant (though Hurston didn't seem particularly embarrassed or angry she worked as a maid in her later years). Hurston, like all of the Harlem Renaissance writers, were first and foremost displaced by a new generation of writers, a common enough occurrence. She wrote almost until the day she died and her works were read and beloved until then, even if she didn't die in a giant mansion or in luxury. Boyd sums it best as:
"Hurston has deeply influenced at least two generations of writers and readers of all colors and cultures. For these people--Zora's literary children and grandchildren--her legacy is not tragic. It is, to the contrary, one of the fierce Independence and literary excellence."
I strongly recommend this biography. It is a wonderful read.