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    Angel of Harlem
    Angel of Harlem
    Angel of Harlem
    Audiobook10 hours

    Angel of Harlem

    Written by Kuwana Haulsey

    Narrated by Brenda Pressley

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Inspired by the extraordinary events of Dr. May Chinn's life, Angel of Harlem is a deeply affecting story of love and transcendence. Weaving seamlessly scenes from the battlefields of the Civil War, during which her father escaped from slavery, to the Harlem living rooms and kitchen tables where May is sometimes forced to operate on her patients, this fascinating novel lays bare the heart of a woman who changed the face of medicine. A gifted, beautiful young woman in the 1920s, May Edward Chinn dreams only of music. For years she accompanies the famed singer Paul Robeson. However, a racist professor ends her hopes of becoming a concert pianist. But from one dashed dream blooms another: May would become a doctor instead--the first black female physician in all of New York. Giddy with the wonder of the Harlem Renaissance and fueled by firebrand friends like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, May doggedly pursues her ambitions while striving to overcome the pains of her past: the death of a fiancE, a lost child, and a distant father ravished by the legacy of slavery. With every grief she encounters, a resilient piece of herself locks into place. At times risking her life-attending to men stabbed in their homes and women left to die in filthy alleys-May struggles to carve out a place for herself within a medical world that still teaches that a "Negro" brain is not anatomically wired for higher thinking. Yet against the odds, she achieves her goal, starts her own practice, and becomes one of the first cancer specialists in the city. Alive with the pulse of black unrest in 1920s New York, this beautifullytextured novel moves with fearlessness and grace through a history that is by turns ugly and sublime. With Angel of Harlem, critically acclaimed author Kuwana Haulsey gives poetic voice to the story of a remarkable woman who had the courage to dream and live beyond her era's limitations.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateApr 29, 2011
    ISBN9781456122720
    Angel of Harlem

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    Reviews for Angel of Harlem

    4.5/5

    7 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This is an amazing book. Haulsey's decision to tell Dr. Chinn's story in first person as a novel rather than as a traditional biography was brilliant. It enables us to get to know May Chinn as a person, and understand better the various pressures she was under. For a young black woman in New York of the early 20th century, life could never be even mainly about education and profesional life. Her close frendship with Paul Robeson was particularly interesting.
    • 4/5
      May Edward Chinn was not only the first black female physician in Harlem, but the very first black female intern to work in Harlem Hospital and the first black female to graduate from New York University Medical School. And she accomplished all that in the tremulous 1920s when race riots were breaking out all over the country and hostilities ran high. Did I mention she was the first woman in New York to ride around in the ambulance? That was "man's work" back then. Unfortunately, only a quarter of the novel really addresses her medical life and accomplishments. The first part is about her dad (an awful man) and his surviving the Civil War. The second part is a young May and the tensions between her and her father and between her mother and father. Why they stayed with him and beared his ill treatment all those years is beyond me. I never figured it out and a lot of the book (too much) focuses on May's relationship or lack of one with him. As she goes thru medical school, there are few romances turned sour, a brief singing career, a lot of famous friends that are muscians and poets, and my favorite part of all: her meeting with the Black Flying Eagle, a famous pilot. I really would've liked more about her medical education and less about her friends. They didn't interest me. Her trials in medical school and how she overcame discrimination and placed third out of 303 people... that interests me. Thus, it fails to hit the four star mark for me, but I do recommend it. Except for cowering around her father (even at age 26 or so.. never understood that), she was a remarkable woman and it makes a remarkable read