Customer Reviews

Infants of the Spring (Harlem Renaissance)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Thurman was not the most polished of writers, but he makes up that shortcoming by having a lot to say. I was enraptured with the number of ideas present in this book, and many times I paused to consider the weight of his words.

Yes, the text is often clumsy, but the dialogue is sterling. So this is really what the Harlem Renaissance was about? I wish I could have been there. There are so many memorable characters in this book, and they all are real and possess unique personalities. Even the minor characters are fleshed out.

Buy this book and read it. You won't regret it. After reading it, I have only one question: Why isn't Thurman's third novel, INTERNE, available? I can't think of any author to whom to compare Thurman. His dialogue reminds me a bit of Hemingway, but not really. Reading Thurman is a unique experience!

Politically incorrect, pedantic, with laughingly awful flights of "serious writing", this novel nonetheless opens up a window to the past with an immediacy few novels match. Thurman was there and he lets you know how it was. Important both as a historical document and one of the earliest examples of black gay literature, it will fascinate despite the clumsy writing. A window into a lost world if you're willing to forgive the prose.

I put off reading this for years because of its leadenly Shakespearian title, and was surprised and pleased to find when I did finally pick it up that it was a pacey, barbed and entertaining read. It's not 'hilarious' (as billed in the promotional blurb above) but it is sharp. In its astute but cynical take on its characters & their situation it made me think of Chester Himes, (& Thurman has a similar 'banged off' style to Himes), & in its subject-matter - black & white bohemia, & the politics of race & sexuality - it's very much a precursor to James Baldwin's 'Another Country'. The debates around the role of the artist, particularly the black artist, in this book seem to me as resonant today as they were when it was written: does a black artist have a duty to represent the race, to engage politically with racial issues in an overt or didactic way, or is his or her duty to art as a force - or truth - in itself? Thurman provides no answers, but he shows how such tensions - combined with self-delusion, brittleness, lack of application and other human failings - lead people who are struggling to be creative to collapse in on themselves, with disastrous results. Thurman's style is jaunty and, although highly engaging, deters the reader from empathising greatly with the characters; yet I found the end of the book, which is on one level camp, strangely moving and upsetting.

I'm not an English major and I possess no talent for critically analyzing literature. However, I am a black man with a desire to know more about his heritage, and I gained insights from this book that I could never garner from a history class. From the conversations between the characters, to the pictures painted of Harlem in the 1920's, the author gives an intimate look into the thoughts, fashions, music, literature and themes of the day.

Obviously based on facts, with names changed to protect the innocent, there is a truth to this novel that more than compensates for any writing flaws. This novel, more than Blacker the Berry, gives insight into the minds of the creative, genius, and often times tortured minds of those leading the renaisance.

I would reccomend this novel to anyone wishing to learn more about the details of life in Harlem during the 20's.

Wallace Thurman's "Infants of the Spring" illustrates the lives and ideals of the "New Negro" of 1920's Harlem. In a loosely biographical depiction of the young generation of artists, who defined themselves as the New Negro artists like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston and Thurman himself, Thurman interprets the role the relationship between the black artist and his art in a time of rapidly changing ideology. Like thier counterpart's of the white race, referred to as the "Lost Generation" by Gertrude Stein and company,Black intellectuals of the 1920's sought to find themselves in a reaction thier perceptions of the previous generation's failings. Rebelling against an older generation that gleefully supported WWI and retained the victorian ideology and rhetoric of the previous century, intellectuals both black and white looked to Art in order to recreate the world in terms modern and understandable to them. Thematically, the protagonist, Raymond, a talented writer who spends most of his time drinking and finding interuptions from his writing, attempts to break free from the boundaries of race on the art he produces. Raymond and his brethren in "Niggerati Manor" live in a world of white and black masks, Raymond's close friendship with the Nordic Stephen illustrates the Raymond's denial of racial differences. One of the main objectives of the young generation of writers in the Harlem Renaissance was to create for the sake of art alone. The young generation felt that to write only as and example of ones race constrained that art of the race aritst. Raymond's attempt to merge the two races in social settings, his attempt at integrating peacably and without issue, illustrates the pursuit of the artist's of the Harlem Renaissance to create art on a universal level, incorporating the knowledge of as Zora Neale Hurston put it "Colored Me". The young generation of artists to whom Thurman belonged to wrote about thier lives as blacks, but they did not constrain themselves to writing only about black issues, they wrote for a universal audience. They wrote with a knowledge of the ancient and magnificent contributions of the black race, and also with the modern hope of creating a truer and more reliable world. Although many people view this book as a sharp critique of the Harlem Renaissance, to me it seems to suggest a bit of the optimism of the generation of black intellectuals who took it upon themselves to uplift thier race through art.

Wallace Thurman wrote INFANTS OF THE SPRING in 1932, just two years before his untimely death from tuberculosis at the age of 32. The tragedy for all of us is that if he had lived longer, he probably would have written a very fine novel if this one and THE BLACKER THE BERRY are indications of what he would have produced. What this novel lacks in depth of character development, it makes up for in the number and different types of characters: Raymond, Paul, Bull, Steve, Sam, Euphoria, Eustace, Pelham, Janet, Amy, Lucille et al. In fact there are so many characters in this small novel that at times it is difficult, at least in the beginning, to keep them separated. Mr. Wallace suffers from what English instructors used to call "fine writing," in that he on occasion uses a five dollar word when a simpler one would have worked as well or better. The words "persiflage" and "tocsin" are good examples. Sometimes he writes beautiful descriptive language, for instance, his account of Raymond's visiting his friend Pelham in the Tombs, the local prison.

What this writer does very well is hold up a mirror to that exciting period of America's literary history, "The Harlem Renaissance." He asks a lot of questions-- but offers few answers-- about slavery, race, what is a fit subject for both the black writer and singer, the color bias in the black community, interracial dating, the difficulty of interracial friendships-- questions that still plague us eighty years later.

Infants of the Spring, by Wallace Thurman, is a novel of images. At first, the novel is written much like a play. It reads as a dialogue with stage directions. It's no wonder that it was later adapted for the theater. Nevertheless, as both Thurman and the reader become more in tune with the characters and plot, the dramatic quality of the work lends itself to the crazy, oftentimes shocking, images of Harlem during the roaring twenties and the Harlem Renaissance.

Centered among these images is Raymond Taylor, a cynical budding writer in search of his voice among the many influences of the period: alcohol, women, white patronage, and lofty black artists. Thurman uses these four influences to round out a number of characters as they try to create a community of artists in a building termed "Niggerati Manor." Bent on creating a cornerstone for artistic fervor and the defining of a period, what comes to pass is a falling apart of those initial ideals. As a result, the artists fall into pleasure seeking instead of production; drinking their lives away instead of making their statements about race and art.

Infants of the Spring falls short in its dealing with racial and gender issues. Often times themes are brought to the fore by Thurman and as quickly dropped to the way side in the turning of a few pages. Shortened chapters intensifies the "image" idea, and in these images Thurman fails to examine the repercussions of actions. A woman's abortion is brushed aside. A rape and the fate of the accused is nearly forgotten. Art, the main reason these individuals are together, is replaced by parties and drinking. These images could be the reason for the main character's fierce individualism; however, the feeling is that Thurman, himself, almost forgot these things happened. It leaves the reader wondering why they were even brought up if the significance of these things are not examined fully.

Surprisingly, an examination into role of women in the Harlem Renaissance is an interesting high point of this novel. It is worth examining the roles of Euphoria (Niggerati Manor's landlady), Raymond's potential love interest Lucille, and Janet and Aline who both fall in love with a white Nordic named Steven. What is the role of women in this novel?

Ultimately, this novel is about black consciousness. How did blacks see themselves and their artistic role during the Harlem Renaissance? Contrary to the title, these characters end the novel in no rebirth of spring. Time is undeterminant, yet one gets the feeling that the death that fall represents has found itself imbedded in Niggerati Manor and the people that once filled it's rooms.

Like so many books documenting life during Prohibition, the characters in "Infants of the Spring" drink preposterous quantities of alcohol. Indeed, one of the couple of climactic events that occur towards the end of this book involves a particularly debilitating hangover that, perhaps, is a symbol of what was becoming of the Harlem Renaissance.

But, okay, wow, what a book. It seems like many of the reviews here make the valid point that you have to make a few allowances for this one - the writing is a little brittle at times - but as the other admirers have pointed out, it's worth the trip. On the one hand it's so "then". A particular moment was happening in Harlem at that point, when a literary movement seemed to be on the verge of something big, and when Harlem was, temporarily, a tourist destination for white people. And of course it was the 1920s, and the love that dared not speak its name isn't speaking its name in this book either. But the closet door is being banged on quite loudly, you might even say with pizazz, and there are plenty of inferences to be read between the lines.

in the end, the protagonist, a stand-in for the author, is the most interesting character, someone who refuses to let anyone, black or white, presume they know who he is or who he should be.

I liked the idea of the book, but Thurman almost spoiled this one by creating too many characters for the reader to keep up with? There were several characters in the book that had nothign to do with the plot, as a matter of fact, I think it is safe to say that only four characters were needed in the entire book. Infants of the Springs was a slow read, and pales in comparison to Thurman's other novel, The Blacker the Berry.

Don't read, don't skim it, don't waste you time! I read the book because anything I open I must finish however, this one really was a pin to complete.

I will admit, the author has a lot to say and a lot to tell you, but the way it was done. The prose, no timing, no clear thoughts and no coherence. It was all too OVER THE TOP...

He will go on to tell you a back ground of a person and then throw in the present timeline. He use the word Negro and the Ni- - ger in the same paragraph with no though why a person would use both.

I do not think a lot of work was into detailing this book. There are so many characters and none are really describe, unless they are the unused Characters, such as Pig Lady.

Out of 170 pages, the last 50 or so had some sense in them. Particularly, the notion that Negro should not be around low class white. As though we must only be around the best whites to be seen well. Where as the low class white can hang around whoever they want and not be seen ill.

The other notion is, all negros on the same page of though. People often say that we can't ever agree as a people. Well, 29 million people with one thought is not really easy. So, let me use this point as for voting. We can't get ever negro to vote for the same man, but just to get every negro to vote would be great. And in this book, this is brought up in some light. People being of the communist light, or in the rebellion stage. Well, you don't have to pick a party, but at least make sure you have the same cause. To this degree, the book had some thoughts