Claude McKay (Home to Harlem) was one of the most significant Harlem Renaissance writers, and the first African American to have a bestselling novel in the U.S. He completed his ambitious satirical novel Amiable with Big Teeth: A Novel of the Love Affair Between the Communists and the Poor Black Sheep of Harlem under contract in 1941, but it was rejected and somehow vanished into the files of an independent publisher. It was rediscovered in 2012, and this is its first publication.
McKay drew heavily on his personal knowledge of the celebrities, artists and political figures of his time to create vivid characters with international connections and warring interests. Many of his themes and concerns are still all too relevant. He illustrates the problems of competing ideologies, style over substance, self-serving egos and ignorant good intentions. His complex and flamboyantly dramatic plot centers on the efforts of Harlem black nationalist intellectuals to rally support for Ethiopia after its invasion by Italy, and the attempt by Communists to hijack that movement. "What for? Not for our interest but for their interest.... When we resist them they try to put us on the spot, saying we believe in segregation. They use their superior white position to promote a lie against our vital interests and whitewash it to make it appear like truth." This is a rich, intimate, bitterly funny portrait of 1930s Harlem, the nightlife and street life, the social and political intrigue. --Sara Catterall