A Walk in the Night (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Alex La Guma
- First Published: 1962
- Type of Work: Social naturalism
- Time of Work: One night c. 1960
- Setting: District Six, a slum in Cape Town, South Africa
- Principal Characters: Michael Adonis, Willieboy, Constable Raalt, Uncle Doughty, Joe, Franky Lorenzo, John Abrahams
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Naturalistic literature
- Subjects: 1960’s, Racism, Blacks, Crime or criminals, Poverty or poor people, Death or dying, Lifestyles, South Africa or South Africans, Apartheid
- Locales: South Africa, Cape Town, South Africa, District Six, Cape Town, South Africa
The Novel
As A Walk in the Night begins, Michael Adonis jumps down from a truck into the chaos of traffic occasioned by workers returning home at the end of the day. He nurses a growing anger, having been fired from his job at a sheet-metal factory for swearing at a white foreman who accused him of being lazy when he requested permission to go to the bathroom. Moving through a ghetto world of prostitutes, gangsters, and thugs, Michael stops at a Portuguese cafe, where he meets Willieboy, an acquaintance, and shares with him resentful anger at having lost his job. As...
[The entire page is 2370 words long]
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