Jordan wrote: Long-time lurker here. I just read Jerry
Bryant's "'Born in a Mighty Bad Land': The Violent Man in
African American Folklore and Fiction". It is an excellent
book, but it gave me a hankering to pick up the rest of
Donald Goines' books that I don't have. Any suggestions on
the cheapest way to go
(I only have 4 of the 16). I will also buy the 2 Iceberg Slim
books I don't have.
Bryant's book has a chaper entitled "Toast Novels", which
discusses Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim. He also has a
chapter on Chester Himes (I have his entire Harlem cycle
courtesy of Payback Press).
********* Bryant's book sounds interesting. I have looked at
American folklore for its impact on the hardboiled and noir
genres. The desire to root a lot of folklore in fact is
common. Most of it is questionable, but the search for the
real John Henry looked pretty interesting. I was disappointed
to find the characters I remember from childhood, like Paul
Bunyan and Pecos Pete, demoted into mere tall tales by a lot
of folklore experts.
I didn't care for Iceberg Slim's PIMP, but I've got Goines's
WHORESON on the shelf waiting on me and I have higher hopes
for it. Charles Willeford writes about Chester Himes in his
New Forms of Ugly, spending as much time discussing THE
PRIMITIVE as any other book in the essay.
If you have the time and inclination, write some more about
the Bryant book. Who are some of the characters he writes
about? Does he have some "big picture" theory? Are some of
the folk tales imported from Africa? Also, can you recommend
any good books on American (United States) folklore in
general?
Thanks, miker
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