Himes, Chester (Vol. 4) - Himes, Chester 1909–
Himes, Chester 1909–
Himes is a Black American novelist and detective story writer now living in Spain. He is best known for the nine Harlem crime novels in which the so-called "tough-guy" detective novel was adapted to explore Black experience in America. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 25-28).
Chester Himes, in his two psychological novels, Lonely Crusade and If He Hollers Let Him Go, bears the imprint of Richard Wright's psychological probing. But Himes lacks Wright's intensity….
[He also] shows the influence of … James Cain … who … wrote Past All Dishonor and The Postman Always Rings Twice…. [Like Cain in Butterfly, Himes] describes industrial conditions. There is a similarity as to style and the psychological presentation of characters….
Lonely Crusade … [develops] … a thesis similar to that of If He Hollers Let Him Go. Himes exhibits, nevertheless, a...
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