No comments on his style, so with all the authority of
exactly 60 pages
read, let me rush to judgement...to say that he's got this
reader. The
smoothest job of slipping into a main plot that I've seen in
some time--the
protagonist so far is so dumb that I expected him to be
wasted by the
second chapter, in the course of which the real protagonist
would step in.
You keep reading, in part, to see how far he will get. And
how the two
exotic cops will enter in.
The other strength that's evident right off is the sense of
locale that
Himes develops, street by street--that's places fully
peopled. Like the
Braddock Bar scene, especially, done with nice knowing humor.
Himes is not
far behind Ellison in the Harlem location descriptions. And
Himes
obviously knows more about the con games, the dodges and
angles that people
use.
Reading him reminds me of a private theory I've had for
awhile: that
mystery or crime fiction, especially hard-boiled fiction, and
some thriller
fiction, has picked up an element that early attracted
readers to the
novel--the novel was the news, the details, about how people
behaved in
interesting locations. A simple pleasure, but one often
overlooked by
psychological or experimental novelists. Dunno how accurate
he is, but for
now, Himes has created a Harlem for me.
Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>
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