Dorothy West's Paradise: A Biography of Class and Color

by Cherene Sherrard-Johnson

"Dorothy West's Paradise" captures the scope of the author's long life and career, reading it alongside the unique cultural geography of Oak Bluffs and its history as an elite African American enclave--a place that West envisioned both as a separatist refuge and as a space for interracial contact. An essential book for both fans of West's fiction and students of race, class, and American women's lives, "Dorothy West's Paradise" offers an intimate biography of an important author and a privileged glimpse into the society that shaped her work.

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 30, 2011

Reviews

[Dera · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a scholarly approach to race and class surrounding Ms. West's life and writings. Oak Bluffs on Martha Vineyard was a haven for the well-to, the elite blacks going back to the 1940s. Dorothy West's family had a home there. She grew up in a well-to- family. She was plagued by feelings of low-self worth because she took her physical characteristics after her dark father rather than her light-skinned mother. Colorism was and is still an issue among blacks no matter how much we deny it.

This book examines those issues in a memoir context. The author didn't want to write a straight biography; I was born in --- and this and that happened. She wanted to frame the work around how race, class, and status was an integral part of West's life and how that defined her. West was also a prolific writer. She wrote for the Crisis, the NAACP magazine and published a number of stories with a central theme of a beautiful people, their marriages and relationships and how it was played out in upper-class black life.

The author made brief mention of Ms. West's sexuality. Was she or was she not a lesbian? Whether she was or not in no way informs her work or the validity of it. Even while the privileged blacks Kept up an appearance that isolated them from a lot of the racism everyday folk had, they were only allowed a certain part of Martha Vineyards palatial conclave. Oak Bluffs was the only area they could buy property and associate. As I said the book was very academic and this was obviously the author's doctoral thesis. She had written a previous book about women writers of the Harlem Renaissance and had left out West and realized she should have been included. She more then makes up it in portraying a talented woman. This is a 3.5 for me.

[Cheri Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers excellent scholarly research about Dorothy West which really helped in my thesis work. My study is about "Borders, Spaces and Liminality" in a literary work of West's and a companion piece of Rudolf Fisher's. Sherrard-Johnson offers a well-researched examination of West's background, life and literary achievements along with some analysis of West's inner struggles. She also illuminates Boston's black upper-class structure. Sherrard-Johnson has written a few other articles about West along with one other book on the Harlem Renaissance which proved really helpful in my study as well.