RARA-AVIS: chester himes
MARK SULLIVAN (ANONYMEINC@webtv.net)
Tue, 2 Jun 1998 20:08:40 -0400 (EDT)
I'm new here, so I went back and read some of the past messages
in order
to get a feel for the list. Anyway, I never saw a response to
Tom
Collins's query about Chester Himes. I am currently going
through the
Coffin Ed and Gravedigger Jones series, in between numerous
other books,
of course, and can whole-heartedly endorse all those I have
read so far
(the first 6). They are extremely well written, containing
numerous
memorable characters. They are outright hilarious, but with
an
underlying seriousness. They can be enjoyed as straight
blaxploitation,
but Himes gets increasingly political as the series goes on,
making very
serious points, through high satire, about his former country's
racial
inequities (Himes wrote them in Paris). Himes employs and
undercuts
numerous stereotypes along the way. (UK's Payback Press has
collected
the series in 3 volumes of 3 books each, calling it The Harlem
Cycle; I
found them in the US at Tower Books. They are also available
direct at
www.canongate.co.uk) I haven't read any of his non-series work,
but I
intend to after I've finished these.
Also, James Sallis (author of the great Long-Legged Fly and
its less
great sequels) has written a short book called Difficult
Lives: Jim
Thompson, David Goodis, Chester Himes, which collects essays
on each of
those authors (published by Griffin Books).
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