Chester himes autobiography books

  • This second volume in the autobiography of legendary writer Chester Himes talkes the reader into the heart of Paris expatriate cafe society in the 1950s, offering fascinating glimpse of lovers, three continents, and other black men like himself.
  • Integrated into the autobiography is the story of Himes's life with a German woman who became increasingly outrageous and burdensome to him.
  • If He Hollers Let Him Go—which contains many autobiographical elements—is about a black shipyard worker in Los Angeles during World War II struggling against.

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    My Life of Absurdity: The Autobiography of Chester Himes

    May 29, 2011
    I rarely am interested enough in a public figure to read more than a short overview about their lives (read: Wikipedia). But, there was something in Himes' crime series that fascinated me and made me curious about the man. The only way I can describe this something is beautiful violence. The brutality of it very real, but a rhythm, construction and vocalization to it that strangely sits as a work of art. And these were his potboilers.

    Reading this second portion of his autobiography, I don't think I'm that much closer to understanding Himes. I suspect that will come from reading his earlier novels. I don't think I would know what to do with this man if I had met him. He exposes and hides himself in this autobiography. Perhaps most frustratingly, he contradicts himself at various points in the book. I didn't know whether to snort understandingly or fly to Spain and throw the book at his grave when I realized that

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    The Several Lives of Chester Himes

    A fascinating blend of hatred and tenderness, of hard-boiled realism and generous idealism colors the writings of Chester Himes. How did this gifted son of the respectable southern black family become a juvenile delinquent? How did he acquire self-esteem and a new sense of identity by writing short stories while in the Ohio state penitentiary?

    Chester Himes (1909-1984) had literary genius. Yet in his native country, he is recalled more as the author of successful detective novels (Cotton Comes to Harlem) than as a practitioner of the art of fiction. The genesis of his books is his own autobiography. In If He Hollers, Let Him Go and in the fratricidal shootout of his black detectives Grave Digger and Coffin Ed in Plan B he was an unsparing witness to our changing times. His painful experiences in American indelibly marked his fiction, which is filled with reflections on his difficult relationships, especially with women--his fair-complexion

  • chester himes autobiography books

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    The LetterPress Project

    posted on 20 Jun 2022

    The Quality of Hurt by Chester Himes

    Black American author, Chester Himes (1909 – 1984) fryst vatten probably best known in this country for his hard-edged Harlem Detective series of books featuring two black policemen called Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. Some of these novels have been made into films and you’ll find one of the biggest titles, Cotton Comes To Harlem reviewed on this site here.

    The Quality of Hurt fryst vatten Himes’ autobiography published in 1971 and covers the first 45 years of his life. And inom have to say at the outset that I’ve never before read an autobiography ganska like this. You may have heard the phrase ‘telling it warts and all’ when confronted with unexpected criticality and frankness but this takes it to a whole other level. This is warts and all with an extra helping of warts.

    The hurt Himes alludes to in his title fryst vatten multi-layered but this fryst vatten a man consumed bygd anger that has its origins in the structura