Romance in Marseille by Claude McKay

New York : Penguin, 2020

Begun in 1929 and significantly expanded by 1932, Romance in Marseille failed to find a publisher. It has existed as two versions in manuscript form in two different archival collections until the 2020 publication as part of the Penguin Classics series.

The story centers around Lafala, a West African sailor who stows away on a ship out of Marseille headed for New York. Having been caught by the crew and held in an unheated area of the ship, he must have his lower legs amputated due to frostbite upon landing in New York. A lawyer helps him sue the shipping company for his loss of limbs due to his treatment and confinement onboard. After winning his case, he returns to Marseille a much richer man. 

Although Lafala's fortunes have changed, he returns to his life among the sailors, dockworkers, prostitutes and pimps of the Quayside in Marseille. Although now a celebrity of sorts, his newfound wealth means many are trying to separate him from it. The remainder of the book sees everyone take a side and numerous plots and counterplots work themselves out.

McKay's dislike of the N.A.A.C.P.'s negative reviews of his 'shocking' work is hilariously highlighted when he includes a reference to a fictitious organization that is an obvious stand-in: The Christian Unity of Negro Tribes, or C.U.N.T. 

The extended text of 1932, sees the addition of two white characters, Big Blonde and Petit Frère. Big Blonde is a sailor who is known to prefer boys to girls and Petit Frère is his little friend, probably a teenage boy who works the ships. Among the inhabitants of Quayside, this is considered a normal relationship variation and is paid little attention. It was not uncommon for teenage boys to work ships and be coupled with sailors or act as prostitutes for the men onboard. The novel, Boy (1931), by James Hanley describes this exact situation in startling detail.