New York Times Literary Treat of the Week.....

McFadden, Bernice L. Glorious.

There may be a female equal to the main African-American character of Ralph Ellison’s classic “Invisible Man.” Her name is Easter Bartlett, and just like her male counterpart she is also “kept running.” What spurs Easter on is fleeing from racism beginning with that in her 1910 Georgia hometown that raped her sister and quickened her mother’s death. She joins a backwoods entertainment troupe and falls for the lead dancer who proves racially hostile. Easter eventually joins the Harlem Renaissance of Langston Hughes and Fats Waller becoming a noted poet. Yet she soon recognizes that African-American writers of that period needed wealthy white benefactors to champion their works. McFadden even includes empowerment leader Marcus Garvey and an attempt to assassinate him in the rich historical backdrop to Easter Bartlett’s continual flight.

Reviewed by Bob.