Tambourines to Glory

Two middle-aged African-American women in 1950s Harlem see an opportunity to move from poverty to prosperity by creating their own street-corner church. As their enterprise becomes successful, a host of ne'er-do-wells enters the tabernacle of these two less-than-holy women to get a piece of their Bible-thumping pie. Myra Lucretia Taylor is nothing short of superb as narrator. Hughes, a preeminent member of the Harlem Renaissance, has populated this story with a wonderfully expressive cast of characters. Taylor not only brings them to life, she imbues them with spirit and verve. Using timbre, accents, and sheer attitude, Taylor fills to bursting this joyously exuberant example of mid-twentieth-century African-American literature. P.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

June 1, 2007
Hughes, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance, wrote two novels in addition to his poems and plays.Tambourines to Glory (1958), the second of these books, follows a musical play version that opened in 1956. The story features Essie Belle Johnson and Laura Reed, Depression-era women who team up to found a church, beginning on a street corner and progressing to an abandoned theater. Essie has a beautiful singing voice and wants to use it to bring people to God and to make enough money for her daughter, Marietta, to come north to live with her. Laura, interested only in money and men, attracts Buddy, a well-connected no-goodnik whose lucrative schemes include selling tap water as being from the River Jordan. The money pours in as church attendance grows, enabling Marietta to move in and Laura to buy Buddy a red convertible and herself a mink coat. But money doesn't lead to happiness, and eventually tragedy strikes. This story works especially well as an audiobook. Myra Lucretia Taylor's rich voice expresses the spoken and sung voices of the African American community. Although this simple morality tale is a little thin, the music and appealing scoundrels make it enjoyable. Recommended for large collections.Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.