Emma Lou Brown's dark complexion is a source of sorrow and humilation--not only to herself, but to her lighter-skinned family and friends and to the white community of Boise, Idaho, her hometom. As a young woman, Emma travels to New York's Harlem, hoping to find a safe haven in the Black Mecca of the 1920's. Wallace Thurman re-creates this legendary time and place in rich detail, describing emma's visits to nightclubs and dance halls and house-rent parties, her sex life and her catastrophic love affairs, her dreams and disillusions--and the momentous decision she makes in order to survive.
