Chester Himes – Carol's Notebook

Author: Chester Himes

Chester Bomar Himes (July 29, 1909 – November 12, 1984) was an African American writer. He began writing in the early 1930s while serving a prison sentence for armed robbery. From there, he produced short stories for periodicals such as Esquire and Abbott’s Monthly. When released, he focussed on semi-autobiographical protest novels.

In 1953, Himes emigrated to France, where he was approached by Marcel Duhamel of Gallimard to write a detective series for Série Noire, which had published works from the likes of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Jim Thompson. Himes would be the first black author included in the series. The resulting Harlem Cycle gained him celebrity when he won France’s Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for La Reine des Pommes (now known in English as A Rage in Harlem) in 1958. Three of these novels have been adapted into movies: Cotton Comes to Harlem, directed by Ossie Davis in 1970; Come Back, Charleston Blue (based on The Heat’s On) in 1972; and A Rage in Harlem, starring Gregory Hines and Danny Glover in 1991.

In 1968, Himes moved to Spain where he made his home until his death.

A Rage in Harlem is full of crime, violence, memorable characters, and a dark sense of humor. The descriptions are vivid and Himes brings to life a Harlem that is both realistic and unbelievable, in that way that places are so different from my own experiences. The main character is novel is about an undertaker's assistant, Jackson, a naive church-going man, not too bright, who is in love with a faithless, light-skinned young lady, who borrows (without permission) cash from his boss in order to take advantage of a get-rich-quick scheme. Of course, the scheme blows up in his face and his girlfriend Immabelle, takes off, worried the cops will catch them, at least that's the reason Jackson attributes to her disappearance. You have to give it to Imabelle, she is probably tougher and more cunning than the rest of them put together. The rest of the book follows Jackson's adventures trying to get back his money and his...