Monday, January 17, 2011

Chester Himes

Reading If He Hollers Let Him Go and wondering why they didn't add this to the books I read in high school.

I've probably said it before but I love Chester Himes' writing, especially in his Harlem detective novels (though I've only managed to read three). I can't stand scenes that are overdone; details ought to count. Himes usually nails it.

The broken concrete paving was strewn with broken glass bottles, rags and diverse objects thrown from the back windows: a rusty bed spring, a cotton mattress with a big hole burnt in the middle, several worn-out automobile tires, the half-dried carcass of a black cat with its left foot missing and its eyes eaten out by rats.
- The Real Cool Killers

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