Tommy (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Edgar Wideman
- First Published: 1981
- Type of Plot: Psychological
- Time of Work: The mid-1970's, not long after the Vietnam War
- Setting: Homewood, a decaying black neighborhood in the urban Northeast
- Principal Characters: Tommy Lawson, Ruchell, Indovina, Chubby, John Lawson
- Genres: Psychological fiction, Short fiction
- Subjects: African Americans, Freedom, Poverty or poor people, Inner cities or inner-city life
- Locales: Pittsburgh, PA
The Story
Tommy Lawson is strolling through the deserted streets of Homewood, a once populous black community now demarcated by boarded-up buildings and cracked sidewalks. Both he and the city streets share a legacy of tough, charismatic individuals: from Tommy's grandfather John French, who jived and jitterbugged until he “got too old and got saved,” to the ice-ball vendor Mr. Strayhorn, who in his youth garnered such a reputation that no one yet will shake him down for money. However, now neither the young man nor the blocks where he bebopped have bright futures. Homewood...
[The entire page is 1450 words long]
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