In 2022, Kyra Davis Lurie was inspired by a story she heard on KCRW’s “Curbed Los Angeles” about the residents of South L.A.’s West Adams Heights, also known as Sugar Hill, after the affluent Black community in Harlem.
This prompted Lurie to dive into a rich and often overlooked Black history, epitomized by the glamorous soirees hosted by Academy Award-winning actor Hattie McDaniel at her Sugar Hill mansion.
Through her research, Lurie realized that there was a compelling narrative waiting to be told in the historical novel she ultimately titled “The Great Mann.”
Her journey to create this enthralling work is intertwined with her own experiences of reinvention, mirroring elements of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” a seminal critique of the American dream and a key influence on her writing.
At 52, Lurie grew up in Santa Cruz, far removed from the vibrant cultural backdrop of Sugar Hill, where iconic figures like McDaniel, Louise Beavers, and Ethel Waters once lived.
Though she frequently visited family in Los Angeles, Lurie remained in northern California, where she previously authored the light-hearted mystery novel “Sex, Murder and a Double Latte” in 2005.
Following that success, she published two more mysteries before deciding to pursue her aspirations of working in a TV writers’ room in L.A. However, the 2007 writers’ strike shifted her focus, leading her to write three erotic novels, which she describes as “critiques of capitalism wrapped in a romance novel.”
When she discovered the rich history of Sugar Hill and its celebrated residents, Lurie felt ready to tackle a more profound challenge.
However, many literary agents were less enthusiastic about her genre shift.
“It was as if Marlon James had gone from writing comic books to ‘A [Brief] History of Seven Killings,’” she remarked, recognizing the high expectations placed on authors who venture into new territories.
Despite the initial pushback, Lurie’s determination to tell the story of Sugar Hill only intensified as she dug deeper into its history.
While she admired Fitzgerald, one line in “The Great Gatsby” always troubled her.
Referring to a scene where Nick Carraway notes “two bucks and a girl” while observing wealthy Black people in a limousine, Lurie found Fitzgerald’s language demeaning in the context of a time marked by racial violence, such as the Red Summer of 1919 and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.
This understanding led Lurie to question whether it was subversive to use Fitzgerald’s narrative framework for her story of a dynamic Black community whose prosperity could rival that of Jay Gatsby and his contemporaries.
“Through a Black reimagining of ‘The Great Gatsby,’ I tried to marry a family’s story with a little-known part of L.A. history,” she stated.
The narrative of “The Great Mann” unfolds through the experiences of Charlie Trammell III, a World War II veteran grappling with emotional scars from his wartime experiences and the racism he faced in Jim Crow Virginia.
Charlie arrives in L.A. seeking a fresh start and a reconnection with his cousin Margie, who now identifies as Marguerite and has embraced a new life married to Terrance Lewis, a vice president at Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Co.
The Lewises reside in Sugar Hill alongside McDaniel, Beavers, and Norman O. Houston, a significant historical figure who was co-founder and president of Golden State Mutual.
As Charlie becomes immersed in the affluent world of L.A.’s Black elite, he encounters real historical figures, including pioneering Black dentists John and Vada Somerville and the trailblazing entertainers Waters and Lena Horne, alongside fictional characters such as James Mann.
Mann, a mysterious Black businessman new to Sugar Hill, captivates Charlie’s interest as he throws opulent parties that leave Charlie in awe of their extravagance.
Mann becomes a mentor to Charlie, introducing him to the finer things in life, but his ultimate aim is to reconnect with Marguerite, a love he has cherished since their youth in the South.
Lurie’s narrative also mirrors Fitzgerald’s thematic juxtaposition of new money versus old.
She portrays the tension between figures like Mann and entertainers versus established businesspeople like Houston and the Somervilles, while striving to maintain her historical figures’ integrity through extensive research.
“The Great Mann” delves into the complexities of identity and reinvention, exploring how Black actors often found themselves in roles that portrayed a stereotype, despite the reality of their rich personal lives.
The complexity of their existence is addressed through the character of Delilah Johnson, a subservient maid depicted by Beavers in the 1934 film “Imitation of Life.”
The debate surrounding such roles is reflected in Lurie’s narrative when Marguerite and Terrance inform Charlie that Beavers’s home, which is more lavish than theirs, was purchased “with Black shame.”
Touchy subjects such as colorism are also tackled in “The Great Mann,” as Lurie addresses the disparities in opportunities offered to lighter-skinned actors like Horne at the expense of darker-skinned colleagues like McDaniel and Beavers.
At its core, the plot of “The Great Mann” is driven by the struggle Black creatives and business owners faced in maintaining ownership of their properties during a time of systemic racism.
A 1902 housing covenant marked many L.A. property deeds, prohibiting sales to anyone “other than the white or Caucasian race.”
Despite the odds, white sellers took risks by selling properties to Black buyers, leaving them to battle white factions like the West Adams Heights Improvement Association to secure their rights.
As for how the residents of Sugar Hill navigated their legal battles, that revelation is part of Lurie’s captivating narrative, which has ushered her into a new phase of her writing career in historical fiction.
While she has another project brewing, Lurie now feels a profound sense of belonging in her niche.
Reflecting on the winding path of her writing journey, she states, “It’s been a journey, but writing about historical Black lives feels like home to me, what I was meant to do.”
In “The Great Mann,” Lurie successfully illuminates an important era of Black history, one that resonates deeply today.
image source from：https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2025-06-06/the-great-gatsby-reimagining-black-la-the-great-mann-kyra-davis-lurie
