Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s: The Killer Inside Me / The Talented Mr. Ripley / Pick-up / Down There / The Real Cool Killers (Library of America)

Amazon.com

The best American crime novels deserve their place in the pantheon of American literature, but they hold special interest for cinema enthusiasts, who can both compare them to the movies they became and can roll imaginary films of the stories in their minds. Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s is the second of Library of America's two-volume anthology of underground U.S. fiction. The first anthology featured works from the 1930s and '40s that had been made into classic films noir. This volume focuses on fiction written after the crime genre had acquired conventions that younger writers toyed with and sometimes broke. The movies made from such stories were equally radical.

Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley is the source for René Clément's bristling Purple Noon, a movie that features Alain Delon's quintessential performance. David Goodis's Down There inspired François Truffaut's neo-noir masterpiece Shoot the Piano Player. Jim Thompson, the brilliant author who scripted The Killing and Paths of Glory for Stanley Kubrick, wrote several novels that have been turned into movies, including The Grifters and The Getaway. He is represented here by one of his most uncompromising works, The Killer Inside Me, which was filmed by Burt Kennedy in 1976. Charles Willeford's Pick-Up and Chester Himes's The Real Cool Killers have not yet been made into movies, but the blistering prose and nihilistic worlds of these authors, and of all the writers represented in this volume, is astonishingly cinematic. This lovely hardcover edition contains biographical, textual, and explanatory notes.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent compilation.......2007-01-07

The other reviewers misunderstand "Pick Up", (****warning -- spoiler****) which is a fascinating novel because the narrator is mentally disturbed and completely unreliable. This fact explains the "twist" ending, a number of apparent editing errors and the unlikely events that occur throughout.

The Final Volume on the "Crime Novels" Series.......2005-11-03

"Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950's" is the second and last volume of the hardboiled anthology published by the Library of America starting with the volume devoted to the genre in the 30's and 40's. This follow-up continues the saga of run-down characters hardened by experience and tough luck. The familiar cast of roguish males, femme fatales, and temperamental and violent detectives set the stage for a diverse and entertaining ride into the depths of the underworld.

"The Killer Inside Me" - Jim Thompson's most popular work is a memorable tale of a Texas law enforcer with a sinister past whose dark and psychotic nature is cunningly veiled behind a genial facade that barely contains "the sickness" which the main character has successfully concealed. A sudden turn of events unleashes the beast inside leading to a tragic odyssey of disillusion, violence, and murder. Pioneering in it's time for revealing the inner mind of the serial killer, the bracing prose and chilling character development makes this work one of the best in the genre.

"The Talented Mr. Ripley" - Tom Ripley is a con artist successfully making ends meet through one of the most reprehensible professions in New York City. A drifter and social outcast, one night in a bar he comes across a parent of an old acquaintance he barely recalls and is asked to do a favor. When he consents, his true nature unfolds in this story of murder, sexuality, and identity. Made into film in 1999 starring Matt Damon in the leading role, this cosmopolitan travelogue with a Decadent touch in the end introduced the world to one of the most oddly sympathetic and diabolical characters in Literature.

"Pick-Up" - Charles Willeford's winning style successfully conveys the sad and tragic tale of two lost alcoholics in the skid row section of San Francisco in the 1950's. Scene by depressing scene the author chronicles the faith, hope, and disillusionment of a couple whose time revolve around the contents of a bottle. The engrossing prose is marred unfortunately with an unbelievable twist and dissapointing ending.

"Down There" - The best selection of the entire series, "Down There" is an unforgettable account of a barroom piano man whose days of glory were ended by tragedy. Rendered indifferent to life by his soul-breaking experiences, he meets an equally lost soul and together they encounter adversity supporting each other as only similarly dark-fated individuals can. The heartbreaking ending still haunts me whenever I think about it.

"The Real Cool Killers" - Blaxploitation on speed! The talented Chester Himes vividly conjures this adrenaline yarn of two black detectives taking on the streets of Harlem in no holds barred action. Race, violence, and loathsome scenemakers feverishly grapple in this heat-inducing neon nocturne of urban society. Black humor at one of it's very finest.

Flawed but highly readable, these long forgotten and out of print works have been handsomely restored and given ample tribute by the laudable Library of America. Wanting to familiarize myself with the enduring genre, reading the two vols. of the "Crime Novels" series has been a pleasant introduction and reading experience to me.

More Noir.......2002-01-15

This book is the second volume in the Library of America set on American crime noir. I enjoyed the first volume so much that I decided to read the second one during Christmas break. Once again, the LOA has done a nice job of collecting a fine series of stories. These stories were written during the 1950's and 1960's. The book is nice to look at too; it's covered in red cloth with a cloth bookmark.

The first story is from the demented mind of Jim Thompson. This story, called The Killer Inside Me, is much better than The Grifters, a book by Thompson that I read some time ago. The Grifters seemed to be pretty one-dimensional with respect to its characters. This story is the exact opposite. A deputy sheriff in a Texas city has a terrible secret. He plays dumb on the outside, but inside he is a cunning sociopath. A long simmering resentment leads to a terrible revenge. Bodies quickly stack up as a result. This seems to be the story that Thompson is best known for and it's no surprise why. This is a dark, twisted tale with a grim ending.

Patricia Highsmith wrote a whole series of stories concerning Tom Ripley. The one included here is The Talented Mr. Ripley, probably better known due to the recent film with Matt Damon. This tale isn't as noir as I would have liked, but it still has enough twists and turns to keep anybody in suspense. Ripley is a low class conniver who ingratiates himself into a wealthy family who wants him to go to Italy and bring back their son. Ripley sees the potential for bucks and meets up with the kid and his lady friend. Of course, things take a turn for the worse and the bodies start stacking up. This story was probably my least favorite out of the entire collection.

The next story, Pick-Up, by Charles Willeford, is a depressing tale about two alcoholics who go bump in the night. The story follows the adventures of this alcoholic couple as they attempt suicide, check themselves into a mental hospital, and drink themselves into a stupor. After the female half of the couple dies in another suicide pact, the story switches to a prison tale. The end is somewhat of a twist, but really doesn't impact the story that much, in my opinion. Again, not really noir as noir can be, but still a fine story that can stand by itself.

Down There, by David Goodis, is a wild ride of a tale. Full of suspense and death, this is a great story that deserves to be included here. A family of ne'er-do-wells drags their talented piano-playing brother into their personal problems. The background information on Eddie, the piano player, is phenomenal. The tragedy that has struck him once is bound to repeat itself again. This story has great bit characters that really liven up the background.

The final story, by Chester Himes, is The Real Cool Killers. This is noir on acid: pornographic violence, massive doses of grim reality, and characters you're glad to see get killed. The story is set in Harlem and involves two tough cops named Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. Someone kills a white guy in Harlem and the cops try and track them down. This story contains one of the funniest descriptions of a person falling off a balcony that I've ever read (and I've read a few, disturbingly enough). The writing has enough similes and metaphors to give Raymond Chandler an apoplectic fit. A cool story that certainly deserves a place in this book.

If you like noir, read these two LOA novels. They are long (together they're almost 2000 pages) but it is definitely worth the effort. These kinds of stories are just a great way to while away some free time and relieve stress.

This is a Great Collection.......2001-05-09

I usually don't like genre fiction, but this book is a great collection of "Noir" novels. Film buffs will be particularly interested in reading the novel on which "Shoot the Piano Player" was based, as well as the first "Mr. Ripley" novel (much nastier and darker than the recent film). Most highly recommended.

Great Collection, Attractively Packaged.......2000-07-08

This is a fine collection of crime novels in a durable, easy to read format. It starts off great with "The Killer Inside Me", the all time best trip through a killer's mind. The selections by Highsmith and Goodis, while not as intense as "Killer", are just as good in their own quieter ways. The only novel I would have left out is "Pickup"; while I like Willeford I think this is one of his more leaden performances. I also have a quibble with the volume's title, as the word "noir" has been beaten to death and doesn't tell us much about most of these books. "The Talented Mr. Ripley" owes more to Henry James than to Raymond Chandler, and "Killer" doesn't feature any dark city streets. Quibbles aside, however, the book is well worth buying.

If He Hollers Let Him Go: A Novel (Himes, Chester)

Average customer rating:

Great Author !! 10 Stars
A great American and African American Novel
A very fascinating novel
The Fight Against Racism Is A Long Hard Battle
A POWERFUL TALE

If He Hollers Let Him Go: A Novel (Himes, Chester)
Chester Himes
Manufacturer: Thunder's Mouth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail
The Street
The Day of the Locust (Signet Classic)
The Quality of Hurt: The Early Years, the Autobiography of Chester Himes
Play It As It Lays, Second Edition: A Novel

ASIN: 1560254459

Amazon.com

In the decades just prior to the eruption of the American civil rights movement in the late '50s, Chester Himes was one of the most significant African American authors--although today he is less well known than several of his contemporaries. He wrote numerous novels, short stories, essays, and a powerful, searing autobiography, and he did so with an economy of language, a graceful eloquence, and a painful yet unflinching directness.

If He Hollers Let Him Go places Himes in the pantheon of 20th-century novelists. It is an intense and muscular story, with an assembly of characters drawn from virtually every social and economic class present in Southern California in the '40s. The novel takes place over four days in the life of Bob Jones, the only black foreman in a shipyard during World War II. Jones lives in a society literally drenched in race consciousness--every conversation in a bar, every personal relationship, every instruction given on a job site, every casual glance on a sidewalk, every interaction of any kind, no matter how trivial, is imbued with a painful and dangerous meaning. A slight mistake, an unwitting rebellion, an unintentional expression of rage or desire can spell disaster for a black man--a beating over a game of craps, or an arrest, or termination from a job, or an accusation of rape. Jones awakes each day in fear, and lives steeped in fear:

It came along with consciousness. It came into my head first, somewhere back of my closed eyes, moved slowly underneath my skull to the base of my brain, cold and hollow. It seeped down my spine, into my arms, spread through my groin with an almost sexual torture, settled in my stomach like butterfly wings. For a moment I felt torn all loose inside, shriveled, paralyzed, as if after awhile I'd have to get up and die.

For Jones, there is no escape from the constant drumbeat of race and racism. It invades his dreams, his tiniest aspirations, and his deepest passions. Every attempt to retaliate or defend himself leads only to further trouble, loss, or humiliation. He can never forget who he is or what he is prevented from being. At the same time, he comes across as an actor, a subject, a doer, and not as a hapless, helpless victim. For all that he is confronted with, he never stops planning and acting and moving, and in the end, he survives, though his escape is incomplete and bittersweet.

The very idea that Jones can escape, however, marks a revolution in American literature. Thwarted at nearly every turn, he is nonetheless a powerful, intelligent, complicated agent of his own destiny. This 1945 novel is a compelling read, and Chester Himes deserves to be remembered for far more than Cotton Comes to Harlem and the raft of hard-bitten detective novels with which he made his living. --Andrew Himes

Book Description

This story of a man living every day in fear of his life for simply being black is as powerful today as it was when it was first published in 1947. The novel takes place in the space of four days in the life of Bob Jones, a black man who is constantly plagued by the effects of racism. Living in a society that is drenched in race consciousness has no doubt taken a toll on the way Jones behaves, thinks, and feels, especially when, at the end of his story, he is accused of a brutal crime he did not commit. “One of the most important American writers of the twentieth century ... [a] quirky American genius...”—Walter Mosley, author of Bad Boy Brawly Brown, Devil in a Blue Dress “If He Hollers is an austere and concentrated study of black experience, set in southern California in the early forties.”—Independent Publisher

Customer Reviews:

Great Author !! 10 Stars.......2007-09-08

This emotionally charged novel, written by Chester Himes, tells the true locked up feelings of an african american character, that we to this day somewhat, feel the same. Take a journey with Himes thru this novel going thru the likings/dislikes of everyday life. Himes in so many words said things alot of us still feel to this day. He writes from his soul leaving the reader emotionally drained. I love Chester Himes novels, he thinks and writes what most is scared to say or write. I could now see in his time the world was not ready for Chester Himes, but still true today these feelings and thoughts still exist. Chester Himes May U Rest In Peace !!

A great American and African American Novel.......2006-05-12

This is a great novel of this country and its life, and of African American literature. What it does is take its hero and make him the center of so much evil and so much force, that a fault line is exposed through the rotten heart of American society, particularly as it was during the Second World War when the story is written.

Jones starts out as a fairly "OK" figure, a Black worker who has succeeded in a war time shipyard playing the game square with possessions and an upwardly mobile future and deferment from the War as an essential war worker. Then every force gets set after him, a trashy white woman coworker who flirts and cries rape, the union bureaucrats who are supposed to be defending his rights as a worker but will do anything to keep peace for the war (a depiction in this and other novels that got Himes's the blackball by Communist party supporters in the literary world), of course, the police, the Black middle class represented by his girl friend, and his own fear and self doubt. He seems to be colliding with the whole world unified around "the war effort" and peace at home.

As such, the novel can grip the reader, not just due to its social or historical impact, but because it does the real ideal work of a novel, one character, seeming an average person, set against big forces, struggling for life. It does that well. I will not say any more lest I spoil the experience of this novel for those who need to read it.

Himes has good grit and good realism. Much is said about his association with crime fiction, although when this book was written he had no idea that years latter, he would be so disgusted with the lack of respect he got as an artist and with political black balling he got for writing honestly about the corruption and political sellout of the Black struggle by the Communist party, that Himes would flee the country, end up in Europe and then live by writing mysteries.

I have always thought that this novel and in some of his other literary work as well as the detective novels, Himes showed a superior sense of fundamental accuracy of details and an ability to convey a real world with real details without flooding the reader with description. I am not a big fan of any kind of dectective novels, by Himes work always brings me back to what it was like to be in New York, especially Harlem, in the 1950s. They are remarkable in that they were written by a writer who had not visited the US, let alone Harlem in years.

This is a great novel, a great read, a page turner, and a mind satisfyer. It is sad that it is not more known and appreciated.

You appreciate by getting it and reading it!

A very fascinating novel.......2005-04-09

The white folks had sure brought their white to work with them that morning.
-Robert Jones, If He Hollers...
As near as I can tell, the only thing that separates this novel from Native Son and Invisible Man is that Chester Himes's later success with the Coffin Ed Johnson/Grave Digger Jones police procedurals got him pigeonholed as a genre writer, and not a particularly reputable genre at that : pulp fiction. Himes developed an interest in hard-boiled prose by reading Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler while he was serving time in the Ohio State Penitentiary. He brings a noir sensibility and a direct and punchy writing style to this protest novel, which serve the story well.

The anti-hero of the book is Robert Jones, a black shipyard worker, who has prospered thanks to the shortage of white workers during WWII. He's the leader of his own work gang, drives a new Buick Roadster, has an upper middle class girlfriend, and because of the importance of his job has a draft deferment. But even with white America dependent on blacks (and women) to supply the armaments to fight the War, one false move can still bring the weight of the system crashing down around a black man's head, and Bob is sufficiently proud and sensitive to guarantee that such a confrontation will surely come. In this instance, everything hits the fan when a sluttish white coworker--with whom he as had several near violent, aggressively sexualized disputes--accuses Bob of rape.

Like the crime novels that influenced it, this book is briskly paced and very much driven by dialogue. But like the novels of Ellison and Wright it burns with a righteous indignation at the treatment of blacks in America. The combination is powerful and lively and the book deserves a much wider audience and a greater reputation.

The Fight Against Racism Is A Long Hard Battle.......2003-11-28

It's 1942 and the country is pulling together in a bid to aid the war effort. Bob Jones is a well-educated black man who has left university to work as a leaderman in a shipbuilding factory. He has a steady girlfriend who comes from an upper middleclass family, a brand new car and good prospects. But he is fighting a daily rage that is being stoked by the constant racism and segregation that was common for the day.

When Bob is demoted after a run-in with a white woman at work he is barely able to control his emotions, imagining all sorts of reprisals. The shame and humiliation mixed with outrage are strong but they are tempered with the fear of consequences should he try to do anything about it.

Chester Himes' first novel is an extremely compelling tale of injustice as Bob's world inevitably falls apart. The helplessness is vividly portrayed as Bob's dreams are continually beaten down for no other reason than the colour of his skin and the urge to fight back is so strong it's palpable.

A POWERFUL TALE.......2002-05-29

The rage is justified and the story needed to be told. Like a volcano, Himes had to let it out or go nuts. He was as good as Hemingway (or any of those white cats at the time) and simply was not given the respect because of his skin color.
It's a damn shame. And I'm saying this as a white guy who happens to be color-blind, as they say. Himes did end up moving to Europe where he was better treated.
Lastly, all I can say is once I started reading If He Hollers...
I could not put it down and finished it in two days--my eyes aching and all. If you're looking for the real thing, this is it.
Tough writing is not easy to find these days, writing that's from the gut and is about something... This book has it. Long live Chester Himes.

The Collected Stories of Chester Himes (Himes, Chester)

Average customer rating:

A MUST BUY!

The Collected Stories of Chester Himes (Himes, Chester)
Chester Himes
Manufacturer: Thunder's Mouth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Cotton Comes to Harlem
A Rage in Harlem
The Heat's On
If He Hollers Let Him Go: A Novel (Himes, Chester)
The Real Cool Killers

ASIN: 1560252685

Book Description

Spanning 40 years and including Himes's first work, written during his imprisonment in the 1940s, this collection uncovers the internal struggles of black individuals caught between resignation and rage, probing the heart of the African-American experience with wit, indignation, and ruthless honesty.

Customer Reviews:

A MUST BUY!.......2003-03-13

Chester Himes is a master storyteller. He reveals the plight of black people in America. The stories are revealing as well as insightful.Truly being able to capture the sounds of the street is one of Himes' gifts, but he doesn't limit his themes to inner city life. Many writers have greater acclaim, but here is a true artist. Read his biography, and you will really appreciate how good a writer he was.

Average customer rating:

A busy night in Harlem.
Harlem Noir
Chester's Best
It don't get mo' better than this
Brilliant, gritty crime fiction

The Real Cool Killers
Chester Himes
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

A Rage in Harlem
Cotton Comes to Harlem
The Heat's On
The Crazy Kill
The Collected Stories of Chester Himes (Himes, Chester)

ASIN: 0679720391
Release Date: 1988-11-28

Amazon.com

To detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, it looked like an open and shut case. After all, Sonny Pickens was still standing over the body of Ulysses Galen, smoking gun hanging from his hand. Only one problem: Sonny's gun was loaded with blanks. There were plenty of people who wanted Galen dead, but who was responsible? Sonny? A jealous husband? Or one of the street toughs from a gang calling themselves the Real Cool Moslems? Coffin Ed and Grave Digger pound the mean streets of 1950s Harlem in search of the Real Cool Killer.

Book Description

Many people had reasons for killing Galen, a big Greek with too much money and too great a liking for young black girls. But there are complications--like a drug addict, a disappearing suspect, and the fact that Coffin Ed's daughter is up to her neck in the whole explosive business.

Customer Reviews:

A busy night in Harlem........2006-08-07

The Real Cool Killers, a novel by an African-American about African-Americans, is a remarkably well written example of pulp fiction. It features NYPD detective Grave Digger Jones who is called upon to solve the murder of a white man shot to death while running from pursuers on a busy Harlem street.
Author Chester Himes succeeds in grabbing the reader's attention with a superbly composed first chapter. It's a chapter that plays out like a masterfully choreographed ballet. A violent and bloody ballet but a ballet nonetheless.
After that the reader is treated to a fast paced, interesting narrative that expertly touches upon the many social ills that plague those forced by racism to live in urban slums. The many characters are vividly drawn and the plentiful dialogue is remarkably authentic. As one reads the lines of dialogue, it's quite easy to "hear" the inflections and other nuances in the voices of the various characters.
True to the conventions of pulp fiction, Himes has crafted a work that is violent, cruel and unapologetically downbeat in its depiction of the lives lived by the characters. I think it would be fair to say that Himes pulled very few punches in describing the dysfunctional aspects of 1950s Harlem.
With a narrative that unfolds over the course of just a few hours, The Real Cool Killers, is also notable for its well structured plot, its effective use of humor despite the seriousness of the subject matter and its overall respect for the intelligence of the reader.
An outstanding novel. Highly recommended.

Harlem Noir.......2004-07-08

These mid-century crime novels are a favorite genre of mine, but I didn't know much about Chester Himes before picking this one up. The mystery itself is interesting but secondary in importance to the setting of Harlem and the many characters that live there. Himes has a great style and he uses dialect just enough to give us a sense of setting.

Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Johnson have names that sound like a couple of cops that don't mind putting the occasional criminal under the grass -- and they do. They're introduced shortly after the opening murder and they prove themselves immediately tough and competent.

Gravedigger and Coffin learn that the mystery goes deeper than one shooting. (It usually does in these kinds of novels). What's interesting is the way the people of Harlem respects these black cops, but still don't trust them. Their ability is even respected by the white cops that don't mind uttering the frequent racial slur towards the casual citizenry. Gravedigger and Coffin are in a world between the white establishment and the everyday people of Harlem. The conflict creates the same kind of tension that Marlowe and Spade have with the regular police.

You can also give Himes credit for not stereotyping any of the characters black or white. The white cops aren't all corrupt and the blacks aren't all angels. The book made for a quick and interesting getaway.

Chester's Best.......2003-09-29

Chester Himes stands a bit apart- and perhaps a bit above- most of the mid-century crime and suspense novelists that this re-issue series collects. The action and the energy level are the equal of any writer in the genre, and for pure readability he's one of the most entertaining. But there is clearly some valid literary intent here as well, and as a result bookstores have never been quite sure where to place the few novels he wrote about Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones.

Himes' background as a black ex-convict (and eventual expatriate) add to his interesting perspective as he tries to capture- or, more accurately, caricature- the violence and the "comic chaos" (his phrase) of the Harlem Renaissance. Coffin Ed and Gravedigger are two ruthless detectives caught between their own people and the white law that employs them; they really don't fit into any group other than themselves. They are outsiders who believe strongly in order and in the guns they carry, but are often conflicted, and occasionally even divided.

This is probably the best and the tightest of Himes' stories with these characters; it is a fabulous read and one I will return to often over the years. The world Himes conjures is savage and disturbing, and the characters are eccentric to the point of being circus freaks, but are always believable and compelling. This is the kind of book that will leave you trying to describe scenes to your friends.

Coffin Ed and Gravedigger may be the greatest individual creations of a very rich genre. I'd say start here.

It don't get mo' better than this.......2001-07-19

This is the proverbial "it". The characters, the action, the dialogue, everything is here and it all works perfectly. A true classic. Like jazzed-up Chandler or Moseley with a sense of humor.

Brilliant, gritty crime fiction.......2000-06-13

Based on this book (the only one of his that I have read so far), Himes is an excellent stylist. The prose is tough and muscular, rough-hewn and perfectly suited to the subject matter. In its own way, it equals the prose of Jim Thompson. Himes' view of a morally-decrepit urban setting is the standard stuff of noir, but seen through a kind of angry be-bop lens. Excellent symbolism is present as well, particularly in the character of the old grandmother, who haunts me still.

Average customer rating:

Not his best
Dirty Business
A wonderful book by a neglected master!
Two rough and ready cops stop crime in Harlem

Blind Man with a Pistol
Chester Himes
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Police Procedurals | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Heat's On
Cotton Comes to Harlem
The Real Cool Killers
A Rage in Harlem
Run Man Run (Himes, Chester)

ASIN: 0394759982
Release Date: 1989-12-17

Book Description

New York is sweltering in the summer heat, and Harlem is dose to the boiling point. To Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, at times it seems as if the whole world has gone mad. Trying, as always, to keep some kind of peace-their legendary nickel-plated Colts very much in evidence-Coffin Ed and Grave Digger find themselves pursuing two completely different cases through a maze of knifings, beatings, and riots that threaten to tear Harlem apart.

"The word is out on the street, and the hopheads and whores and flimflam artists are running scared: Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones are back in print."-- Newsweek

Customer Reviews:

Not his best.......2004-08-11

I have read almost everything else by Chester Himes and ate up each and everything I've read, especially his detective series. This book, while I was engaged and enjoyed reading it, I often found tedious. Unlike the other novels in this series which are slickly written with a flowing prose, "Blind Man" is jumbled and often difficult to follow because of the clunky prose. The lack of central story line also made it difficult to read. However after saying that, one must keep in mind that the novel's real focus is the random NYC crime and the misery surrounding it, so the style, while difficult to follow, absolutely captures this chaos. Unfortunately, it does not make for an enjoyable read. It is by far the most violent work of his that I've read. I really get the feeling that Himes was just fed up with the whole situation when he wrote this book, as if he really wasn't capable of making it humorous anymore.

Dirty Business.......2001-10-18

This a book by a Black author about Harlem in the 60's. It is not a story, but a series of incidents leading the protagonist, one of a team of Black cops, to conclude "It don't make no sense." It portrays every negative aspect of the community: crime; vice; brutality; ignorance; mindless, purposeless plunging forward.The title character symbolizes the whole enterprise. Is this picture fair or accurate? It overflows with violence. It is not dull, but neither is it pleasant to read.

A wonderful book by a neglected master!.......1999-07-24

Chester Himes spent years analyzing the race question and nobody recognized the fact. The reason was, he disguised his probes into the mysteries of racism in his series of Harlem domestic novels. However, in "Blind Man with a Pistol," he lays all the dark, evil workings of racism out there for us. He renders his two star detectives virtually powerless in a mad riot between three major factions. Like most riots, there are numerous underlying events and themes involved in Himes' riot in this novel. The book is expertly paced and has its moments of humor in the midst of the madness. A wonderful book by a neglected master!

Two rough and ready cops stop crime in Harlem.......1999-06-17

The difference between the cops and the crooks is the cops keep looking for justice however they come by it while the crooks look for gain. Very well written although dark. An eye openers for those of us who don't know anything about Harlem in the 60's.

Average customer rating:

Read "rage" First
More Hard Boiled than the movie, a ripping read!
As gritty as Ellroy and as clever as Parker
It's thems, the nasty 'licemens!
Chester Himes at His Best

Cotton Comes to Harlem
Chester Himes
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

A Rage in Harlem
The Real Cool Killers
The Heat's On
The Collected Stories of Chester Himes (Himes, Chester)
The Crazy Kill

ASIN: 0394759990
Release Date: 1988-11-28

Book Description

Black flim-flam man Deke O'Hara is no sooner out of Atlanta's state penitentiary than he's back on the streets working the scam of a lifetime. As sponsor of the Back-to-Africa movement he's counting on the big Harlem rally to produce a big collection--for his own private charity. But the take ($87,000) is hijacked by white gunmen and hidden in a bale of cotton that suddenly everyone wants to get his hands on. With Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones on everyone's trail and piecing together the complexity of the scheme, Cotton Comes to Harlem is one of Himes's hardest-hitting and most entertaining thrillers.

Customer Reviews:

Read "rage" First.......2004-04-14

This novel has some of the same characters as Himes' Rage in Harlem. This is not a sequel and it is not imperitve that you read "Rage" first, but I think that you will like this book more if you have read about Coffin Ed and Gravedigger Jones in the early novel.

More Hard Boiled than the movie, a ripping read!.......2002-05-12

Chester B. Himes wrote a series of "Hard Boiled" detective novels set in Harlem during the the 1950's and 60's. His two main protagonists were "Coffin Ed" Johnson and "Grave Digger" Jones, a couple of black police detectives operating in the seedy underworld of Harlem and New York City. Himes himself had served time for armed robbery in Ohio. While in prison he first read the works of Dashiell Hammet("The Maltese Falcon","The Thin Man",etc.)and decided that he could write similar fiction set in Harlem's vibrant African-American culture. He moved to France after his prison release and then began to write (in French!) his own brand of mysteries set in the New York City section that had become world famous for it's culture, nightlife and intellectual renaissance. The first of these mysteries was "A Rage in Harlem"(first published in French as "For Love of Imabelle" in 1959). Coffin Ed and Grave Digger were only minor characters in this first novel, but by the time of the 5th novel "Cotton Comes to Harlem" they were the stars of the series.

In "Cotton..." a ex con named Deke O'Hara scams $87,000 from a group of families who want to go to Africa to start a new life free from segregation and prejudice. Before O'Hara can abscond with the money a group of white gunmen steal it in the middle of the "Back to Africa" rally O'Hara is hosting and then escape. All this takes place in the first few pages, and the action only steps up the pace from that point on. Cotton Ed and Grave Digger are assigned to the case, and their brand of brutal, violent police work may not be always legal, but they have their own code of honor, which demands that they do all in their power to see to it that the families get their money back, as in most of the cases it amounts to their life savings. Through a maze of deceit and treachery filled with white supremacists, voluptuous women, scam artists, underworld informants, and real to life street people the two cops thread their way with both violence and guile. I won't spoil the ending, but suffice it to say that Himes delivers.

The book was made into a movie in 1970 which played up the humorous aspects of the book. While there is much mordant and cynical humor in Himes' writing, the book is much more than that, and deserves a place in the "Hard Boiled Detective" Hall of Fame. If you like this one I would recommend Himes' other works, especially "The Real Cool Killers".

A definite 5 stars.

As gritty as Ellroy and as clever as Parker.......2002-03-30

... The book doesn't concern Bible Flowers. It's about the efforts of two black detectives, "Grave Digger" Jones and "Coffin Ed" Johnson, to recover $87,000 in money stolen from a con-man/storefront preacher in 1960s Harlem. Along the way, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed encounter a few murders, a southern colonel, and a 50-pound bale of cotton.

Raymond Chandler wrote that detectives must walk the mean streets, but they must not themselves be mean. Well, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed walk the mean streets just fine, but the "not being mean" part gives them trouble; they doubt the feasibility of solving a case without, say, slapping around a few witnesses or firing a few shots into a crowd. Despite the detectives' unhesitating brutality, this novel compares well to the best of Raymond Chandler and Robert B. Parker. This is due not only to the spot-on dialogue and the stark, vivid character depictions, but also the detectives' uncompromising determination to bring justice to Harlem. The plot is better, i.e., less predictable, than any of Parker's, and Himes's depiction of 1960s Harlem is so bizarre, yet compelling, that it invites comparison to Carl Hiassen's Florida rather than Chandler's LA. Add to this Himes's unique, excruciatingly honest depiction of race relations in the 1960s, and you have one of the best detective novels I have read in years.

...

It's thems, the nasty 'licemens!.......2001-08-15

The dialogue, the action, the characters, it's Harlem world and it's all here! What else do you want?

Chester Himes at His Best.......2001-08-13

As a mystery writer with my debut novel in its initial release, I genuinely admire the works of Chester Himes. I consider COTTON COMES TO HARLEM his finest work. Deke O'Hara is a recently freed con man, and his con of a lifetime has gone bad. His take has been highjacked, and our tough urban cops Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones are on his tail (as well as the tail of everyone else involved in the con and the highjacking of the small fortune). Himes writes terrific dialog, and he captures his setting perfectly. His characters are vivdly drawn, and his plot is a fastmoving steameroller taking many unexpected twists and turns. COTTON COMES TO HARLEM is THE BOOK by Chester Himes that every mystery reader ought to read.

Average customer rating:

Run for life
Tough look at racism
A suspense-filled chase through 1950's Harlem.

Run Man Run (Himes, Chester)
Himes
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Heat's On
A Rage in Harlem
The Crazy Kill
Cotton Comes to Harlem
The Real Cool Killers

ASIN: 0786702095

Customer Reviews:

Run for life.......2005-07-26

Chester Himes's hard-hitting thriller is all about racism.
'Fat Sam had never realized that the thought of Negroes could send a white man out his head ... this sight of violence unleashed because of race.'
'I'm not supposed to talk about it because he's white and it might prejudice the civil rights movement.'

The main theme of this novel is also an affair of discrimination: 'He's a white detective and I'm just a poor colored porter'; and, ' "the true administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government" being a legend'.

Chester Himes portraits New York as a scary city for non-whites: 'a few black and brown faces everywhere ... wondered how many of them were scared too.'
'This was a violent city, these were violent people.' The City is 'not for thinkers, it's for stinkers'.

But the survivor of a shooting raid will not shut his mouth, 'not as long as I am black.'

The novel begins with viciously scary scenes, but from the middle on, it becomes rather mainstream with its (not very probable) sex scenes and unsurprising interrogations. It ends on a rather disappointing soft note.

A worth-while read.

Tough look at racism.......2002-05-08

Here's a tough crime novel by Chester Himes without Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones that takes an uncompromising look at American racism in New York City. Though published in 1966, it has a strong '50s feel that comes through in the language and the cultural references both.

Himes' dialogue and language can be occasionally stilted, but there are chase scenes here that will make you sit up and take notice, and the focus on black-white relations is especially good. It's the story of a white cop who accidentally on purpose shoots to death two black 'porters' (workers who unload trucks for a restaurant) and then goes after a third, Jimmy, who manages to survive the cop's onslaught.

The depiction of the cop as sometimes conflicted by his actions is well done and his liaison with Jimmy's black girlfriend is strong stuff indeed. There's a somewhat uneasy mix here, though, of academic and street thinking. Jimmy is studying at Columbia University and shows it in his speech, but when other characters speak, it sometimes sounds like they're struggling to catch up to Jimmy's psychology and often it doesn't feel right.

Nevertheless, what makes this compelling is, as mentioned, the focus on race relations and racism, the chase scenes, and the cop's wacked psychology.

An interesting read.

A suspense-filled chase through 1950's Harlem........1997-05-10

A murderous racist cop trying to cover up his drunken mistakes and a black truck driver who's the only surviving witness have a suspense-filled chase through Harlem. Not always believable, but always thrilling. A good introduction to the hard- boiled fiction of Chester Himes, and a piercing look into the sources of racism.

The End of a Primitive (Old School Books)

Average customer rating:

Race and Gender Analysis Beyond the Mainstream Discourse
Disappointing
An Interracial "Lost Weekend"

The End of a Primitive (Old School Books)
Chester Himes
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Pinktoes
Run Man Run (Himes, Chester)
The Heat's On
A Rage in Harlem
My Life of Absurdity: The Autobiography of Chester Himes (My Life of Absurdity, Vol 2)

ASIN: 0393315401

Amazon.com

Chester Himes aficionados who've followed detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones from one grisly Harlem crime scene to the next will find a meaner, harsher reality in The End of a Primitive. In this early work, Himes paints an angry, doomed sexual relationship between a tough-guy black writer down on his luck and a wayward white party girl on a slippery slide toward addiction and abuse. Tough stuff, especially for 1955, when the novel first appeared in a bowdlerized version, and it still carries a tragic punch today, down to its classic pulp diction. Himes, a black writer who did crimes and hard time in his youth, and whose personal quest for a measure of peace finally led him to leave the United States altogether, gives the sure sense of knowing the rough turf and hopeless lives he describes.

Customer Reviews:

Race and Gender Analysis Beyond the Mainstream Discourse.......2001-11-27

I'll say what the other reviewers have failed to: Jesse Robinson is a black male, a writer with no commercial successes, who reluctantly bailed on the Communist Party in the Stalinist consolidation after WWII, and, true to Wright's paradigm, is wholly emasculated by white supremacy.

Kriss Cummings is an ethnic white female, petty bourgeois, working for an overseas finance institution that embodies the spirit of liberal imperialism. Due to her gender, her German ancestry and working class origins she's reached the "glass ceiling" for her particular type. She is also branded as unmarriable, due to a lengthy history of sexual looseness (which, ironically, she accrued by pleasing the same males who now brand her.)

End of a Primitive is a deeply complex book that merits hundreds of pages of analysis. For now let's delve only this far: Both Jesse and Kriss are under the rule of the archetypal "white male," which some might assume would predispose them (the "white woman" and the "black man") to some sense of solidarity. Yet in Himes' discourse this is not the case. "Hog will eat hog," forms the base premise upon which the book is built upon.

Kriss ridicules, degrades, and humiliates Jesse to feel "white." Jesse asserts his masculinity through beatings and various other forms of abuse. In this way the two compete for dominance, finally culminating in the "End of a Primitive, the beginning of a human being."

The old censored edition, by the way, was altered in such a way as to make the book friendlier to white liberals (the publishers' target audience) who identified with Kriss. Thus the basis of her character (as a white woman who validates her whiteness through domination of blacks) was stripped away.

Himes also allowed for a considerable amount of his trademark humor. Upon hearing Kriss rationalize her sexual indiscretions through a heap of pseudo-feminist rhetoric, Jesse informs her that if they were living in the 18th Century, she'd be "making history, not just sociology like you're making now."

End of a Primitive explores American race relations in a manner so thorough and fearless it becomes threatening to those who avoid these issues. Thus, the book never enjoyed much success in retail or academia. Yet there are many, myself included, who believe it deserves a spot in the American canon right next to Ellison.

Disappointing.......2001-07-05

The End of a Primitive is a dark novel. The plot, if it can be called such, is centered around two depressed alcoholics, one a down on his luck African American, the other an outwardly successful but lonely, depressed white woman. She is a sexually frustrated party girl, while he is more outwardly melancholy. They both drown their misery and self-pity in alcohol. The setting --1950's New York, with racism and cultural taboos firmly in background. They meet and have a weekend of substance abuse and sexual frenzy. The ending is good for neither.

The point of the novel is the banality of our two protagonists. Unfortunately, the novel lacks depth and becomes banal itself -- coming across as more petulant than thoughtful. That does not make for a great novel -- and this one, called a classic by some, is overrated.

An Interracial "Lost Weekend".......2000-02-17

Himes' French publishers called this book "sadism and buffoonery", but it's much more than that, a meditation on the manners, mores, and racism of '50's America. The Old School editors have once again done a bang-up job, restoring the text to Himes' original, not the whitewashed version published as "The Primitive" in 1955. Check it out!

Average customer rating:

Prophetic Visionary

Plan B: A Novel
Michel Fabre , and Robert E. Skinner
Manufacturer: Univ Pr of Mississippi (Txt)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

The Big Gold Dream
A Rage in Harlem
The Heat's On
Run Man Run (Himes, Chester)
The Crazy Kill

ASIN: 087805751X

Customer Reviews:

Prophetic Visionary.......2002-11-27

This work is a testiment to Chester Himes' brilliant insight and characterstic of the schitzophrenic relationship most extremely talented black artists have had with America. Much praised for his urban crime series, his more politically charged work was often ignored. This book and the truths it reveals about America's ability and inclination to create entire groups of people with nothing to lose speaks volumes about today's society as it did when written by the author. Many who read this will be afraid, as well they should. You will be entertained none-the-less, and hopefully inspired to think. The ending leaves something to be desired, I suspect that is because Mr. Himes was not alive to complete it himself.

Average customer rating:

Like no other

Lonely Crusade
Chester B. Himes
Manufacturer: Thunder's Mouth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

The End of a Primitive
A Case of Rape
Plan B
Run Man Run (Himes, Chester)
The Third Generation (Classic Reprint Series)

ASIN: 1560251425

Customer Reviews:

Like no other.......2006-05-15

No one ever wrote a novel like this. Himes' literary novels had an ability to reasonably place his heros up against powerful social forces and powerful personal conflict. In such powerful circumstances, the basic human instinct to preserve character, belief and integrity become enough to produce heroism, say big things, and still not leave a believable if uncomfortable reality. In the Lonely Crusade, the target is the war time complicity of the Communist Party with the government and employers in stopping war time struggles for Black rights and struggles by workers in the war industries. This is hinted at in Himes's other novel of the Second World War, _If He Hollers Let Him Go_ which is a far superior novel to _The Lonely Crusade_, although less politically specific.

Lee Gordon, the character in this novel faces a savage frame up. His acquisition of a "Negro-first" union post as a stepping stone to management or middle class upward mobility leads him to a struggle where he must battle both the union official dom and the CP. Finally, the CPers whom he meets in the union and who at first champion him and who try to lure him with chances of advancement and sexual opportunities, turn into his enemies because Gordon will not back down from the struggle. He is left with one person who sympathetizes, a long-time union activist who is in the party, but realizes Gordon is right and the CP is wrong, but this man can do nothing but hear Gordon's story, be afraid for him, and do nothing.

This novel led to Himes being Black Balled by literary critics associated with the CP who were numerous in the mid and late 1940s. Along with the hostility of the rest of the critics to Himes's wholesale denunciation of racism, particularly in the literary community, and the approaching witch hunt, this rejection was one of the reasons Chester Himes fled the US for Europe where he began writing his famous dectective novels which draw exact pictures of life in Harlem in the late 40s and early 1950s, even though their author never had enough resources to visit his native country in those years.

Himes' literary novels have been republished. They are great reading regardless of their literary or political significance. They're important novels because they voice sentiment and feeling absent from other pages. They're also important because most of them are strong reads, strong stories.

Himes was a unique individual, a prisoner who began writing in prison, a self-made intellectual, but a man who never lived separately from the lives of working class African Americans, until he felt he had to go into exile to continue writing.

In some ways his views sound more cynical or ironic than Wright or Langston Hughes, two who went before him. Yet, to my mind this was often because Himes reflected the real feelings, the sweat and the grit, of day-to-day working class African Americans and reflected our point of view, rather than analyzed it from above.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books