Lorraine Hansberry: The Life Behind a Raisin in the Sun
Charles J Shields
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Lorraine Hansberry: The Life Behind a Raisin in the Sun
Charles J Shields
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
... sparkling.
... an evenhanded and informative study that reveals truths about a woman whose complexities were largely erased from the public portrait she and her heirs fashioned.
Shields follows the young playwright on her many journeys, from Chicago to Madison to Harlem to Greenwich Village and the Broadway stage. He convincingly argues that if Hansberry had not died at 34 in 1965 of pancreatic cancer, she would have been an 'elder spokesperson' in the LGBTQ and Black Lives Matter movements. He situates Hansberry among her contemporaries and traces her development as an artist and as a person, drawing on her private correspondence, her personal notes, and drafts of unpublished works. He also offers a rich chronicle of life on the South Side of Chicago, including background to the 1940 legal case, Hansberry v. Lee, that inspired her famous play, and describes her relationships with fellow artists. All who admire or are curious about Hansberry will cherish this bracing and fascinating analysis of a life cut short..
... an excellent account of Hansberry’s life.
... offers general readers a well-researched account of Hansberry’s life and conscientious summaries of her literary and political work.
Drawing on meticulously researched sources, including previously unpublished interviews and private correspondence, Shields offers an illuminating portrait of Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) and her tragically brief but formidable career. Shields, author of biographies of Kurt Vonnegut and Harper Lee, deftly sets the particularities of Hansberry’s life against a backdrop of relevant themes.
... well-researched if knotty.