Well... yeah. In my defense, I didn't add Himes because of
the color of his skin, but because of the world he described
(and embellished), the black experience in Harlem.
No, fair enough, and apologies for the snippiness
of my tone, Himes does write about life on the street - as
does Nelson Algren, say. It's just that the bracketing of
Himes - or Algren come to that - with Donald Goines - or Jack
Henry Abbott - kind of annoys me, because it tends to imply
that all that matters if you write about 'the street' is
'authenticity' (too often rendered simply as skin colour)
rather than the ability to say something about the human
condition. The two are not mutually exclusive, of course, but
there's no automatic equivalence either.
Mr T - if you're going to read some Himes, can I
recommend The End Of A Primitive (most definitely a novel of
the human condition rather than the street)or If He Hollers
Let Him Go - these seem to me to be the real substance of the
work, excellent though the Harlem domestic series are in
their own way.
John
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