Let’s just say this was historical fiction done right!

Victoria Christopher Murray gave us history with a hidden figure, Jessie Redmond Fauset at the center who is a force to be reckoned with.

Murray depicted such a pivotal time in African American history in a unique way. After moving to New York to become the first and only literary editor for The Crisis, Fauset hits the ground running making a name for herself! During this time Fauset keeps her “alleged” affair with Dr. Dubois under wraps with her head down in her work, but what is a woman supposed to do when she doesn’t understand her role in his life?

The spark that ignited in Fauset towards the end of the novel was everything to me especially during a time when black women had no voice. She was truly behind the literary birth of so many writers during the Harlem renaissance and I’m so glad I know more about her story.

5 ⭐️
Thank you Berkley and Net Galley for this digital ARC

Pub Date: Feb 04 2025

If you know me, you know I love a good historical fiction read. When I first started this book, I had no idea of how important literary great Jessie Redmond Fauset was. She was responsible for discovering quite a few Black writers that paved the way for what Black Literature is today. I enjoyed reading her story and how her work at The Crisis ( the official magazine of the NAACP) gave us literary greats such as Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Nella Larsen and so many more. Her editing and the guidance she provided to these young writers was remarkable and I am upset that I didn’t learn about her
sooner. However, this is not just any historical fiction novel, it also involves a scandalous affair between Jessie Redmond Fauset and W.E.B. Dubois. While I enjoyed this story, I felt like the affair overshadowed how important her work was during the Harlem Renaissance. I found myself wanting to know more about Jessie and her amazing accomplishments. At times, DuBois became a handful and I so badly wanted Jessie to walk away and do her own thing but she refused to leave “her babies” as she called them. When she finally did though, I was extremely proud of her. After the success of her first novel and leaving The Crisis, Jessie went on to publish four novels. She also wrote a number of poems, short stories, a novella, and
editorials while still at the magazine. With this book, I am hoping that more people learn about Jessie and all of her
achievements. I pray that Jessie got her flowers while she was still on this earth. Make sure to check Harlem Rhapsody outwhen it hits shelves on February 4th. Happy reading!

Enjoyed learning about another Hidden Figure, especially one that ignited the Harlem Renaissance and nurtured the careers of so many renowned writes that I revere. Jessie Redmond Fauset was a talented, phenomenal woman who lived a complex life with a man whom she shouldn’t have been involved with. Victoria’s writing places you in era. The story is filled with history, and fascinating partnerships/collaborations. You’ll want to pull out those old copies of the books by the writers Jessie worked with.

I found the novel to be a fascinating exploration of Jessie Redmon Fauset, a pivotal yet often overlooked figure of the Harlem Renaissance. As the literary editor of The Crisis, Ms. Fauset played a crucial role in shaping African American literature and fostering the talents of iconic writers. The story dives deeply into both her personal and professional life, including her complex and emotionally charged relationship with W.E.B. Du Bois, her mentor and confidant. While this focus adds a touching layer of humanity to her character, I felt that it sometimes drew attention away from her groundbreaking literary achievements.

That said, the author’s meticulous research and vivid storytelling truly bring Fauset’s extraordinary contributions to light, ensuring her legacy is both celebrated and understood. Despite a few slower moments, the book’s rich narrative and cultural significance made it a worthwhile and rewarding read.

Hey, hey, my favorites 😁💚. #annieethebookiee is back with another book review!

📚 Book Title: Harlem Rhapsody
📅 Published Date: 2/4/25
⭐ Rating: 4/5

Harlem Rhapsody takes readers on an unforgettable journey through the heart of the Harlem Renaissance. The author does a phenomenal job bringing this vibrant era to life with rich storytelling and compelling characters. The dialogue is poetic, the setting is immersive, and the themes of love, resilience, and cultural pride hit all the right notes. I found myself enchanted by the historical backdrop and the layered narrative that celebrates Black excellence in art, music, and community.

If you enjoy stories that transport you to another time and place while shedding light on the strength and beauty of a culture, this book is a must-read. The rhythm of Harlem beats on every page, leaving a lasting impression.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely!

Let me know if you’ve read it or plan to!

#annieethebookiee

I was so looking forward to reading Harlem Rhapsody, only to be disappointed. The story on its own merit was a good one and well written. My disappointment came in the fact the story centered around the long-term relationship between W. E. B. Dubois and Jessie Redmond Fauser, in my opinion glossed over the good works they did.
I am a long-time reader of Victoria Christopher Murray and will continue to read her works.
Thank you to Net Galley and Berkley for an ARC of Harlem Rhapsody above is my honest opinion on the story.

Racism
Sexism
Colorism
Harlem Renaissance
Affair
Father Impact on Relationships
This may not have been what I expected but I was pulled in immediately! I flew through this book, faster than I wanted or expected, and it may be due to the formatting. It’s like diary entries, in a way, and it just pulls you in. You can imagine what they see and how they feel. Heck it motivated me to get back into writing!
So much to be said but I can’t spoil anything. This won’t be a spoiler but this is about W.E.B & Jessie Fauset’s affair. Please note there’s so much you can take from this book! From the racism to community, there’s something you will learn and take away from this. I love how she honored them while still keeping them human and not glorified on a pedestal. They both accomplished great things but were still human at the end of the day. Fauset is not a renowned name like W.E.B and this book will definitely have you wanting to research more about her. She was the driving force of the names we know today from the Harlem Renaissance. She mentored, edited, and became good friends with them. Of course being in the same circle, most of them knew each other already. Through that, you see how Harlem is as a strong community. They looked out for each other and helped each other.
Lastly, her father left a huge impact on her to the point where it partly encouraged her relationship with W.E.B. This was something I found interesting because it’s not talked about often and fathers hold a lot of weight in who their daughters entertain. Whether it’s a void from being gone, their mannerisms, personality, any aspect of them can influence who their daughter falls for. This was a factor I held dear to me while reading this.

Quick thoughts: Unfortunately, I found this book to be slightly underwhelming. I didn’t feel connected and invested in the characters and their stories, even though I felt I would love Jessie after reading the summary. There was something missing from the overall telling of the story, I got the main points of what she did and the people of the time but I didn’t feel connected to the characters and I didn’t feel myself rooting for them or otherwise.
This story is based on Jessie Redmon Fauset who moves to NYC to become the literary editor of The Crisis a well-known black magazine in the early 1900’s. The magazine is spearheaded by W.E.B DuBois, well known civil rights activist of the time. DuBois creates the role at the crisis for Jessie because of her talent for writing but also because they are having an affair.
Unfortunately, because the book only tells the story of her life during her time at The Crisis with DuBois, I feel like her life is minimized to this one point in her life when she was having an affair with a married man. I didn’t get to see her character evolve beyond her entanglement with DuBois and I didn’t get to see it beforehand either. The timing of the book felt centered around this theme of “will she or won’t she stay” regarding the affair. The scenes got repetitive and somewhat tedious after a while. There were numerous scenes of her family expressing their disapproval of her relationship with him and then multiple scenes of her wrestling with either leaving or defending her decision. I know the book spans five years, but it felt like Jessie was stagnant, I didn’t get a lot of growth until the last few chapters.
One of the big reasons Jessie was content with being a mistress and not having a husband of her own is because she felt like the responsibilities of being a wife would take away from her literary ambitions. But at the same time, it felt like so much of her time was consumed by DuBois and his ambitions and their relationship which seemed contradictory to me. Whereas her accomplishments felt like they were splashed in here and there with the chapters. She spent so much time on the Brownie Book magazine and even found a way to cut costs, but we never saw her mention the cost cut again or see her fight for the Brownie Book. Then at some point Jessie realizes her ambition is to have DuBois step down and her become editor of The Crisis. In multiple chapters she speaks to close friends and family about it and she even concocts a plan to schmooze the NAACP board to have them warm up to the idea. But then, she never follows through with the plan and eventually tells DuBois she must leave. I understand her resignation at the end as it does make the most sense, but she took so many steps only to give up and not try? That’s how I felt about much of the conflict in the book, something would seem to me like a buildup to some big point of contention only for it to end in a very underwhelming way. I do understand that since most of these characters were real people it was important to not tarnish their reputations all for the sake of entertainment, but even with that understanding something was missing from the story. During my reading and after my reading I felt very indifferent to what was happening in the story.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley for the opportunity to read this book!
Based on the description, going in I was excited about the premise of this book and the re-introduction of historical figures who just do not get enough attention and become hidden figures. However, I really struggled with the focus on the affair. That might just be a personal issue, but I didn't enjoy that aspect.
Overall, for lovers of the Harlem Renaissance, this was a joy to see the figures we learned about come to life on the page.

This was the last book I read in 2024 and it made my favorite reads list!

I loved almost everything in this book. It’s about Jessie Redmon Fauset, who many of us may not have heard of before. I love learning about real people who were overshadowed or forgotten over time.

Jessie Fauset was the literary editor of The Crisis magazine and the Brownie’s Book published by the NAACP in the early 20th century and she played a significant role in the Harlem Renaissance. She mentored many prominent writers of the era and was an author herself. She worked closely with W.E.B. Du Bois, with whom she also had a lengthy love affair, despite him being much older and married.

The highlight for me was learning about Fauset’s life, education, work, and achievements. She was extraordinary, and if you don’t read this book, you should at least look her up on Wikipedia.

Although the affair with Du Bois was essential to the story, it was my least favorite part due to his constant undervaluing and disrespect of Fauset. I appreciated that the author depicted Du Bois honestly, showcasing his pioneering contributions to civil rights and racial equality, as well as his philandering and his misogynistic and elitist views. The author stated in her end notes that writing Du Bois’ character was challenging for her and that (I’m paraphrasing) our heroes in history had complicated lives and were a composite of their flaws and virtues.

I’d love to list all of Fauset’s accomplishments here, but there are too many to list. I highly recommend reading this book to learn her story.

Thank you @netgalley and Berkley for an eARC of this book, which I have read and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Thank you Netgalley and Berkeley Pub for the ARC 🫶🏾 this is hands down one of the best historical fiction books I’ve ever read.

Talk about Black literary tea!!! This was such a layered and mesmerizing read. Incredible writing, subtle shade, juicy historical affairs and beefs, Harlem Renaissance vibes, all of that. Before this book, I had never heard of Ms. Jessie Redmon Fauset but after reading, I went into a deeeeep rabbit hole about her life. Sis was THAT GIRL. Editor, poet, novelist, educator, mentor, scholar!!! And she’s from North Philly? Bye!

I loved how this story gave life to Jessie Fauset as an under explored heroine of the Harlem Renaissance. We got to see a lot of her struggles as the first Black woman literary editor at The Crisis, her mentoring of some of the greatest poets and writers we know, and… her *alleged* affair with W.E.B. Dubois lol. It read like a family link up ft. some of the best Black authors/writers of the time. I definitely devoured this story, but I do kind of wish the affair played more of a background role in the depiction of her life. I know this affair is central to be the book (it’s obvi in the synopsis), but at times it felt overwhelming with Dubois and his voice/goals/motivations taking over the page, and I wanted to learn more about Jessie and who she was outside of him. But at the same time, I can see how her struggles with him played a huge role in her understanding of self/love/career. I was rooting for her to choose herself and also begging her to STAND UP!!! 😭 Even now, I would love a second book that focuses on her career change and mentorship.

As a researcher, I absolutely loved the authors note and historical note. I learned so much and I’m on Google still looking things up as we speak! Def recommend.

Author: Victoria Christopher Murray
Started: January 2, 2025
Finished: January 3, 2025
Publication Date: February 4, 2025
Format: Digital
Genre: Historical Fiction

In Washington DC, Jessie Redman Faust takes on the job of literary editor for The Crisis, a magazine headed by Dr. W.E.B. DuBois. During her tenure there, she must deal with her relationship with W.E.B, her mother's disapproval, and writing her own novel. As literary editor, Faust helps discover some of the premier Black writers of the Harlem Renaissance.

Once again, I was introduced to a woman who was important to the history of America through reading. I had never heard of Jessie Redman Faust or the way she changed the landscape of literature. She introduced the world to Langston Hughes, amongst other wonderful writers. This story did not paint Dr. DuBois in a positive light for me. He seemed egotistical and hurtful, especially when it came to Jessie's feelings. This book was well-written, and enjoyable, and tells the story of the Harlem Renaissance and the woman who started it.

This was my first read from Victoria Christopher Murray and I really enjoyed it! I really loved learning about the unsung hero of the Harlem Renaissance, Jessie Redmon Fauset. This story is about Fauset's role as the first literary editor of The Crisis and her alleged love affair with Dr. W.E.B. Dubois. The story of her relationship with Du Bois and the impact on her work was interesting and, although at times I felt we were placing too much focus on the relationship rather than her endeavors (I wanted to learn more about her), I understood why for the purpose of the story that these decisions were made. The relationship had a major impact in the grand scheme of things.

Jessie Redmon Fauset was such a force even in this fictional portrayal of her. She was also very human! I was not familiar with her prior to this book and her legacy, but I'm hopeful that stories like this one encourages people to learn more about her. I'm actually really excited to read her novels and do my own research.

I also really appreciated the authors note included at the end. I'm always interested in why the story is told and what research went in for it. I was actually very curious since this was historical fiction novel with very real people at the center of the story, which was new for me! I'm used to the main characters being very fictional with mentions of real people on the side, lol. I would describe this as a mixture of both non-fiction and fiction. I appreciate the clarification of creativity liberties that were taken for this story.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for the free book and the digital ARC! #Berkley #BerkleyPartner

This. Was. A. Masterpiece.

Learning about the midwife of the Harlem Renaissance was a ride. A history lesson. A joy to read. My favorite thing about historical fiction is it keeps me on the Internet going down rabbit holes to learn more. This Is Confusion is waiting to be picked up by me at the library 😀

I will say, Jessie being Du Bios’s mistress annoyed me sooooo bad. I feel like the affair took away from so much of who she was. BUT at the same time it humanized her.

But that Du Bios had the AUDACITY.

This is easily a 5 star read and will be my go to historical fiction recommendation for 2025 and beyond.

Shame on us for letting Jessie Redmon Fauset's name and accomplishments fade into obscurity. And bless Victoria Christopher Murray for breathing life into her and giving us a chance to know a little bit more about her. Jessie was a published author in her own right, as well as being the person behind The Crisis, the NAACP's publication that helped shine a light on some of the foremost Black writers of her time, including ones still well known today, like Langston Hughes. While I had heard of some of the writers in this story, I had never heard her name, and she was a very smart and accomplished person. Yes, person. Not woman. Not Black person. Not Black woman. She is all those things too, but despite her pride in her accomplishments as a Black woman in this story, these are amazing accomplishments for any person. The name just about any person reading this book would be familiar with is W.E.B. DuBois. I was aware of his fight to elevate Black people, but knew little of his personal life and quite frankly that element of it is rather disappointing. This is historical fiction so Murray is writing him as historical details are available, so every word he says here is likely not one he uttered. But even then, the picture Murray paints of his behavior and treatment of people based on historical details is unflattering. He is having an affair with Jessie and creates the position at The Crisis (his baby!) to have her close. He is also having affairs with multiple other women because "he has different needs". He never elevates Jessie to the role heading the magazine even though she is doing all of the work because it is "his baby". He castigates her when she makes a decision he doesn't agree with or does something according to his instructions but it doesn't turn out well. He's critical of every other Black person whose idea of elevating their race doesn't align perfectly with his own, and refuses to support them. He regards every other person doing something similar to him as competition instead of a compatriot that can help raise Black people up. It is hard to read that a person as strong as Jessie in every other way is in thrall to this man, and despite the way he continues to treat her, has trouble sticking to her decision not to have a romantic relationship with him. People like Jessie are who we should raise up as heroes, not DuBois. Harlem during the Roaring Twenties is a fascinating setting for a book, and I love feeling like I get a peek into the lives of people like Langston Hughes before they were well-established writers. What a wonderful, unique piece of historical fiction! A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was such a beautiful book! This will be one of the best books of 2025! I could not put this book down. I had never heard of Jessie Redmon Fauset and she accomplished so much and everyone should know her name. Read this book!

First, I want to thank Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. Having read The Personal Librarian I was very much looking forward to this read. Unfortunately the book did not deliver what I was hoping for. Yes, I learned about Jessie and her impact and I appreciated that. But, the book was more romance than the history I was hoping for. I have read about W.E.B. and while he accomplished a great deal, his description of his needs and his wife's acceptance bothered me and I am far from prudish. The book is well written, characters well developed and I look forward to more books by this author.

This historical fiction novel humanizes not only Jessie Redmon Fauset but other Harlem Renaissance figures. If you enjoyed the Personal Librarian or authors like Marie Benedict and Denny S. Bryce (Wild Women and the Blues). The pacing and characters were lively!

While I did enjoy this book, I think affair took away from the book being set in the Harlem Renaissance which is such a rich setting. Also the aspect of the main character mentoring of Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen was also lost under the affair, that part could definitely could have been elaborated on more. I think going forward the description should mention more of the affair so readers know what they are getting into. I'd still recommend this book to people because like I mention before I did enjoy it. I'm interested in reading the author's other works to see how they compare just so I can get a better feel for her writing style, which in this book was solid.

Jessie Redmon Fauset may not be a familiar name but the literary icons she championed during the Harlem Renaissance certainly are. This fictionalized account of this very real woman's life starts in 1919 when Fauset arrives in New York City to serve as the literary editor for The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, which was founded by her mentor, W.E.B. Du Bois. In this role, Fauset promoted young Black writers and cultivated the talents of Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen. Her affair with the married Du Bois was risky, endangering her career, and delayed the writing of her first novel, which turned out to be ground-breaking. 

Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray pays a well-deserved tribute to a remarkable figure of the Harlem Renaissance, now celebrating its 100th anniversary. While reading this thoroughly researched historical novel, you'll find it hard not to pause and look up the people and events of the period. Fauset, though ambitious, stayed in the background until her own novel was published. She's an inspiring figure, much like Belle da Costa Greene, the subject of The Personal Librarian, her first historical fiction book co-authored with Marie Benedict, known for fictionalized biographies of real-life women who have been overlooked in history, often overshadowed by the more famous men in their lives. Fortunately, talented writers like Murray are restoring their rightful place in history. 

Rated 4.25 stars.