”Looking eastward from the towers of Riverside Church, perched among the university buildings on the high banks of the Hudson River, in a valley far below, waves of gray rooftops distort the perspective like the surface of a sea. Below the surface, in the murky waters of fetid tenements, a city of black people who are convulsed in desperate living, like the voracious churning of millions of hungry cannibal fish. Blind mouths eating their own guts. Stick in a hand and draw back a nub.That is Harlem.” For Love of Imabelle paperback first editionThis book was originally published in a paperback original under the title For Love of Imabelle which if you read this book you will understand how apt that title really is. In the 1980s an English publisher named Allison & Busby decided to reprint the Harlem Cycle in hardcover. They used the artwork of Edward Burra for the covers and for a collector like me, despite the fact that they used cheap paper with acid which is turning the pages brown, I will of course have to own a set. Savoy Ballroom by Edward BurraChester Himes is an interesting fellow. He was born in Jefferson City, Missouri in a middle class family. Both of his parents were teachers. He was accepted and expelled from Ohio State University. In 1928 he was sent to prison for armed robbery and instead of sitting around staring at four walls worrying about his next trip to the showers he started writing short stories. He sent them out for publication and they were published. For those struggling writers out there, a stint in prison seems to lend focus to your work and publisher’s still love writers with a checkered past. Not that I’m advocating prison, but maybe a monastic stint would be worthwhile to try and heat up your keyboard. Himes was originally given 25 years for his crime, but was released early in 1936 into the custody of his mother. ”There were pictures of three colored men wanted in Mississippi for murder. That meant they had killed a white man because killing a colored man wasn’t considered murder in Mississippi". Chester HimesIn the 1950s Himes moved to Paris and adjusted well to a Bohemian lifestyle. This was a productive period for him; in fact, this book was part of that era with a publication date of 1957. His circle of friends in Paris included: Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Malcolm X, Carl Van Vechten, Picasso, Jean Miotte, Ollie Harrington, Nikki Giovanni and Ishmael Reed. When the group decided to move on to Spain Himes went with them where he died from Parkinson’s Disease in 1984. I can only imagine how inspiring it was to be around such talent, creativity, and also to be with people who wouldn’t judge him for having a white wife. ”Imabelle was Jackson’s woman. She was a cushioned-lipped, hot-bodied, banana-skin chick with the speckled-brown eyes of a teaser and the high-arched, ball-bearing hips of a natural-born amante. Jackson was as crazy about her as moose for doe.” In the movie version from 1987 Forest Whitaker plays Jackson and Robin Givens plays Imabelle.Jackson was a short, stumpy, round man with limited intelligence, and for him to get time with a high yella woman like Imabelle was like being in heaven on earth. The problem is having a woman like that makes a man ambitious and make him worry about how much money he makes. Jackson was a prime candidate for a sting. He is introduced to a man, an acquaintance of Imabelle, who has this special paper that when baked with a ten dollar bill in an oven will turn that ten dollar bill into a hundred dollar bill. Before you get excited and start looking for this magical paper...it didn’t work. If you think it is crazy to even think that a scheme like that would work that is simply because you haven’t met Imabelle. Goldy made the cover of a later edition.One of the more fascinating characters in the book is Jackson’s twin brother Goldy who makes his living masquerading as a nun under the moniker Sister Gabriel. He walks the streets selling “tokens to heaven” and keeping his eye peeled for any business that might be going on that could prove to be profitable for a Sister of Mercy.”There were more bars on his itinerary than on any other comparable distance on earth. In every one the jukeboxes blared, honeysuckle-blues voices dripped stickily through jungle cries of wailing saxophones, screaming trumpets, and buckdancing piano-notes; someone was either fighting, or had just stopped fighting, or was just starting to fight, or drinking ruckus-juice and talking about fighting.”Goldy has another problem that keeps him NEEDING money. Jackson on the run from schemers and cops comes to his brother for help.”Goldy there’s something I want to ask you.I got to feed my money first.Jackson looked about for the monkey.He’s on my back, Goldy explained.Jackson watched him with silent disgust as Goldy took an alcohol lamp, teaspoon and a hypodermic needle from the table drawer. Goldy shook two small papers of crystal cocaine and morphine into the spoon and cooked a C and M speedball over the flame. He groaned as he banged himself in the arm while the mixture was still warm. It’s the same stuff as Saint John the Divine used, Goldy explained.”Now mixed up in all of this trying to make heads or tails out of what exactly is going on are two cops who are the focus of the Harlem Cycle, although in this book they are only in a few key scenes. ”Grave Digger and Coffin Ed weren’t crooked detectives, but they were tough. They had to be tough to work for Harlem. Colored folks didn’t respect colored cops. But they respected big shiny pistols and sudden death. It was said in Harlem that Coffin Ed’s pistol would kill a rock and that Grave Digger’s would bury it.”And when they have suspects lined up under their guns they always offer them some really down home advice. ”Don’t make graves.” The Scarlet WomanJackson gets separated from Imabelle and spends most of the novel trying to find her, never once doubting her motives. She has had a bit of a rough time herself hanging around with those scheming criminals, trying to avoid church going men wanting to solicit her charms, and keeping out of the hands of the police. ”Jackson had just time to see that she was dressed in a red dress and a black coat before she fell into his arms. She smelled like burnt hair-grease, hot-bodied woman, and dime-store perfume. Jackson embraced her, holding the iron pipe clutched against her spine. She wriggled against the curve of his fat stomach and welded her rouge-greasy mouth against his dry, puckered lips.”I think I need a shower after just reading about that hug. Do you suppose that scarlet dress has any significance? hmmm I can guarantee you significant or not Jackson doesn’t care. This book really surprised me. I thought it was going to be one thing and turned into something different. The plot is so convoluted you might need to draw a chart with colored arrows and overlapping circles. Don’t let that worry you. Himes will bring it all together for you with a nice bow. I laughed out loud several times and these days a writer really has to sneak up on me to do that. The descriptions as you can see from the few bits I shared are purple; and yet, shaded with so much originality they are a pleasure to go back and read several times. The drug use and a transvestite nun had to make this book a bit of a controversy in 1957. When I talked about it with a buddy of mine on the phone, who had read it as well, I could hear the grin on his face and there was an equally wide smile on my face as well.
A Rage in Harlem is a novel that should NOT be read just for plot. Let's face it -- the plot in this story is kind of a comical farce that combines humor with violence, a scam that backfires and leads to all sorts of mayhem (complete with requisite crazy chase scene throughout Harlem), a naive central character named Jackson and his brother who tries to protect him from some very bad people who are completely out of his league. Sadly, I'm discovering that few people who read this book care about what's going on outside of the plot, and in my opinion, this is a freakin' travesty. In all honesty, the plot is just so-so; the focus should really be on Harlem of the 1950s, the people in this place, and above all, race. I think reading it as a photograph of Harlem of the time is more of what Chester Himes had on his mind, although I realize I'm not a medium who can speak to the dead and pick his brain. All anyone would have to do is to google "Chester Himes" and find even the briefest biographical reference and come up with something like this:"Chester Himes was born on this date in 1909 in Jefferson City, Missouri. He was an African American writer whose novels and autobiographies explore the absurdity of racism,"absurdity as in daily life played out in streets of Harlem as the "theatre of the absurd" -- as he notes: "realism and absurdity are so similar in the lives of American blacks one cannot tell the difference.”But no. Reviews from a large number of readers come back to "a must for Chandler enthusiasts," or parroting the back blurb by John Edgar Wideman re "surreal, grotesque, comic, hip," etc. I can't begin to count the number of reviews I've read that use the word "surreal" without any explanation as why the reader thought so, or how Himes is like Chandler. Again, another cover blurb parroted, this time from Newsweek. Then there are the readers who bring up the movie as if the book was an afterthought, or those who can't find anything original to say so they just stuff a bunch of quotations into a review.People, you are missing the boat big time here.This is Himes' Harlem:P.93:"Looking eastward from the towers of Riverside Church, perched among the university buildings on the high banks of the Hudson River, in a valley far below, waves of gray rooftops distort the perspective like the surface of a sea. Below the surface, in the murky waters of fetid tenements, a city of black people who are convulsed in desperate living, like the voracious churning of millions of hungry cannibal fish. Blind mouths eating their own guts. Stick in a hand and draw back a nub.That is Harlem."That is Harlem. So why are readers not talking about Himes' cynical approach to Harlem? About writing about Harlem from the point of view as an exile in Paris? About the borders between the white world and the black world and about how the few (exemplified in the character of Goldy's wife, who we never see) who cross the border on a regular basis do so only as domestic servants to wealthy white people? About the violence, the scamming, the people feeding like sharks on each other -- preying especially on the more naive folks like Jackson or the more religious-minded people who buy fake "tickets to Heaven" for their deceased relatives or themselves? About the alcoholism, the drug use, about a reality that in itself is something, as even Himes notes, "stranger than fiction?" About how some of these people lived in places virtually unfit for habitation? Where are the mentions of police violence being okay when directed at African-Americans? And above all, what about a brief mention concerning the message running throughout the entire novel that things are not what they seem to be on the surface in this little slice of the city? How a 5-star review can include absolutely NONE of these elements is just beyond my scope of comprehension. A Rage in Harlem is an incredibly important novel of its time but no one seems to care -- and that is just a shame. A genuine shame.
Do You like book A Rage In Harlem (1989)?
Read on the plane from Budapest to LondonAfter finishing both of my books for this trip to Budapest on the flight out thanks to terrible service from Easyjet it became imperitive that I find the English language bookshop. A room with two bookcases it was actually the best collection of secondhand fiction I've ever found. The kind of place that speaks of broken promises and facing up to the stark realism of what a holidaying person is prepared to actually read. Row upon row of highbrow literature and not a single piece of chicklit. It was secondhand fiction heaven. I found some brilliant stuff in immaculate condition at very cheap prices. Included was this first Harlem Cycle novel from Chester Himes.I didn't even realise it wasn't social commentary type stuff, I'd assumed Himes was always high brow but this was a fabulous blend of social commentary with a zany blaxploitation plot of unbelievably convoluted proportions. Incredibly it all works perfectly and Himes demonstrates an undeniable skill at recalling the sights, sounds and smells of late 1950s Harlem. Great stuff.
—Tfitoby
A Rage in HarlemChester HimesMajor Characters:Jackson - patsyImabelle – Jackson’s womanHank - CrookJodie -CrookBilly - Crook Goldy – Jackson’s brother (Sister Gabriel)H. Exodus Clay – Funeral Director (Jackson’s boss)Coffin Ed Johnson - DetectiveGrave Digger Jones – DetectiveHimes did a great job in describing Harlem and the characters in the book. For example, Jackson is described as “a short, black, fat man with purple-red gums and pearly white teeth…” Imabelle is “a cushioned-lipped, hot-bodied, banana-skin chick with speckled-brown eyes of a teaser and high arched, ball-bearing hips of a natural-born amante.” Himes summarizes all the characters in the same fashion.The period of the story was probably early 1950s and starts out with Jackson, Imabelle, Hank, and Jodie in Jackson’s apartment. The confidence team which includes Imabelle has convinced Jackson that Hank can turn Jackson’s one-hundred and fifty (150) ten dollar bills into hundreds. Out of the fifteen thousand (15,000) dollars to be raised, Hank will get ten (10) percent for producing the bills, with his special paper, and Jodie will get five (5) percent for putting the deal together. Jackson has seen them perform this trick before and has scraped together all his money for this deal. Well, they put the tens in a tube a put the tube in the oven to accomplish the change. You guessed it, the oven explodes and everyone scatters. In the mean time a U.S. Marshall appear and the only one left in the apartment is Jackson who he puts under arrest. Jackson bribes the Marshall with two-hundred (200) dollars which he does not have and has to steal from his boss in order to pay him. So Jackson has now been fleeced out of seventeen-hundred (1,700) dollars. He actually steals five-hundred (500) dollars and tries to use the other three hundred (300) dollars to gamble and get his money back. He has no idea that he has been conned and that Imabelle was part of the con. He stays true to her throughout the story.The rest of the story centers on Jackson trying to get his money and his woman back. He enlists his brother Goldy who has his/her own confidence game to help him with both these goals. Many twists and turns take place; however, Jackson remains the patsy throughout.I recommended to all fans of detective, crime, and mystery fiction. The book has a considerable amount of violence. The story also is humorous.
—Ij
This was the first book I read by Chester Himes and I loved it! It was exciting, well-written, darkly comic, and unexpectedly absurd while still being noir to its core. Because of his love for his sexy lady-friend: the loose, conniving, high-yellow Imabelle ( “She smelled of burnt hair-grease, hot-bodied woman, and dime-store perfume.”), simple and square working man Jackson loses all of his money to some con men, setting off a chain reaction that leads to a funeral home robbery, acid throwing, a runaway hearse, and a plot involving a trunk full of 18-karat gold ore. In order to navigate this dangerous terrain, Jackson gets the help of his resourceful twin brother Goldy, who makes his living impersonating a Sister of Mercy nun, soliciting bogus charity donations and selling tickets to heaven on the streets of Harlem. Sounds awesome doesn't it? It gets even better.Here's a sample: "She held him at arms’ length, looked at the pipe still gripped in his hand, then looked at his face and read him like a book. She ran the tip of her red tongue slowly across her full cushiony, sensuous lips, making them wet-red and looked him straight in the eyes with her own glassy, speckled bedroom eyes.The man drowned.When he came up, he stared back, passion cocked, his whole black being on a live-wire edge. Ready! Solid ready to cut throats, crack skulls, dodge police, steal hearses, drink muddy water, live in a hollow log, and take any rape-fiend chance to be once more in the arms of his high-yellow heart.” As you can see, this book is a blast to read, with writing like none other, and should be considered a noir classic.And how crazy is the cover of this early edition? A sex and soul novel...awesome!
—Richard Vialet
