Rough Amusements

March 24, 2003
Novelist Neihart's fun, quick read on the Harlem Renaissance's barely veiled gay culture is framed through the lens of the 1930 Faggots Ball, an annual drag bash that served as a precursor to the gay balls of today. One of the grand dames of the event was A'Lelia Walker, a rich giant of a woman. Though the events and figures are real, Neihart (Burning Girl) points out that he's taken great liberties in imagining scenes and dialogue, and presents his work more as historical fiction. A'Lelia was the daughter of Madame C.J. Walker (see above). Neihart's A'Lelia inherited her mother's knack for playing it grand, but she did it in the context of decadent parties where she kept her favorite people close to her side, including writer Langston Hughes and right-hand woman (and possible lover) Mayme White. The book has far less to do with A'Lelia Walker than it does with down-low culture; readers are given hints about the sexual mores of Renaissance figures like Richard Nugent and Harold Jackman. But the mini-portraits of these figures pale in comparison to the book's most compelling sketch, that of the wretched "baby-doll fairy" Jennie June, aka Earl Lind. Basing his sketch on Lind's memoirs, Neihart shows how June's appetite for sex and male domination refused to be satiated, even after some of her sex partners horrifically abused her. Those looking for in-depth, scholarly analysis of A'Lelia Walker's life as a troubled heir won't find that here. Also expect no major illuminations of drag-queen culture; much of the work's smoky, tragic (bordering on stereotypical) terrain has been already covered elsewhere. Instead, this breezy, over-the-top narrative romps through the rough amusements of parties, sex and violence.

March 15, 2003
Fascinating, engaging, and exhilarating, this "urban historical" by novelist Neihart is an "entertainment," a mix of footnoted references, real-life figures, and imaginary characters that purports to tell the "true story" of A'Lelia Walker, daughter of multimillionaire Madame C. J. Walker, who pioneered personal-care products for African American women. Flamboyant and voracious, A'Lelia spent her huge inheritance as only spoiled, second-generation elites can, lavishly, especially when it came to her celebrity-filled parties attended by the same New York society and Harlem Renaissance notables who frequented the undercover gay world A'Lelia gloried in, and which adored her and her excesses, including her same-sex "rough amusements." This is an alluring tale of sexual liberation, featuring a stellar cast, including Langston Hughes, Carl Van Vechten, Countee Cullen, Richard Bruce Nugent, and Harold Jackman, who all converge on the 1930 Faggots Ball at the Manhattan Casino in Harlem, complete with the (in)famous drag "Jennie June" (Earl Lind) and Dutch Schultz's gangsters, who are intent on harming A'Lelia, who died a suitably decadent death in 1931.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)