This month’s classics read was Chester Himes’ A Rage in Harlem, a crime fiction/noir taking place in, yes, Harlem! The book won France’s Grand Prix de Litterature Policiére for des Pommes ( A Rage in Harlem) in 1958.
As usual, I won’t give too much away other than what someone might read on the back of the book or something…but the story takes place in Harlem and follows a square, Jackson. The story takes us from when he and his girlfriend, Imabelle, needed to “raise” $10 bills into $100 and all the trouble that ends up causing.
This book also introduces two characters that also make an appearance in many of Himes’ other books, the deadly duo – Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed, black detectives on the Harlem police force.
Violence, murder, crime, and some dark comedy are sprinkled throughout the book and I’m here for it! Himes does a fantastic job of taking the reader deep in the underbelly of 1950’s Harlem. Himes’ ability to capture the culture and atmosphere of Harlem at the time offers the reader a real lens into what it was really like. Himes’ descriptions of the streets, the characters, the atmosphere are beautifully captured through his social and descriptive commentary of certain characters, scenes, dialect and style.
Overall, if you are into crime fiction or Noir, I’m sure you have read this classic, otherwise, please do! Wonderfully done book and vivid imagery of walking around the dark streets of Harlem.