[In the following essay, Turner comments on the mixture of violence and humor in Himes's detective fiction.]

Often mystery novels allow the reader vicarious confrontation with violence that has outcomes that are far more empowering than those available in “real life.” Himes was masterful in manipulating violence in his novels. He exploited warring elements in his existence, while appreciating that expatriation permitted him a new type of creativity and artistry. In an interview in 1970, when asked about the strange mixture of bitterness and comedy in his writing, Himes have the following response, “I see things as a writer, and I write about crimes in a black ghetto. I'm a kind of reporter who offers solutions to the problems in a ghetto where crime just happens to play a pat. The humor in my stories is the dark humor of the ghetto. I did not invent it, because it was there already, I used it.” (Fabre and Skinner, 1995).

Himes chose Harlem (mid-1950 to late 1960), as the setting for his entire mystery series. His fictional Harlem captured the experience of black like in most urban American cities. Himes reported that he first came in contact with ghetto life in Cleveland, Ohio, one of the most violent cities he had ever seen. When he came to Harlem, he did not see anything that he was not used to. It was more picturesque, and there were distinct social classes among the people there. Himes considered his fictional Harlem “The black capital of the world”; a black universe, isolated in the center of a major metropolis, with incredible poverty on the one hand, and large mounts of cash on the other. In Himes' first mystery novel, For the Love of Imabelle, he did not introduce the infamous detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones until the eighth chapter, taking great care to describe the intricacies of the conditions and inhabitants of his Harlem (Muller, 1989).

In their mission to solve crimes, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed were prone to relentlessly pursue their suspects with no regard for the safety of others, capture their suspects with maximal force, preside over them as judge and jury, and carry out sentencing on the spot. Their extreme and unconventional behavior exemplified some aspect of every major social psychological theory of violence, from the Frustration Aggression hypothesis to the Identification with the Aggressor theory. Himes' detectives were portrayed with ridiculous excitement, foolishness and laughable exaggeration that defied social reason. Himes had fun with his Harlem, leaving no aspect unscathed by his critical appraisal, yet with such an ability to make humorous the most grotesque and often violent absurd encounters.

The use of humor as a coping and survival mechanism in the face of oppression is not new to black life in the United States. It no doubt goes back to the survival strategies used by blacks during slavery. Yet, Himes took humor to new heights. In his mystery novels, he made us laugh at the transparent manipulations of the charismatic Afro-centric minister's attempts to rob and exploit his flock (Himes, 1965). Fun was made of the seductive powers that black women used to control men, both black and white, husbands and lovers (Himes, 1957). We were forced to laugh irreverently at the elder Christians, “busy bodies” and nuns, as well as, the ingenuous ways in which the community “out smarted” the white police establishment (Himes, 1957, 1965 & 1976). We sometimes dared to laugh at the debacles of Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones. Our last laughs often came at the end of the mystery; the unexpected twists of chance, fate or luck that often brought great delight or triumph to the most insignificant inhabitant of his black universe.

We can only imagine what Himes would write of the mysteries and absurd events of today. He would no doubt observe that the American experiment of democracy had not ended in wars between the races as he predicted in Plan B, published a year before his death in 1983. Himes would not be surprised by the deconstruction of affirmative action and the resurgence of racial and sexual oppression of the late 1990s. The ebonics controversy would surely amuse him. And perhaps, Himes would expand his black universe to Northern California and address the absurd attempts to commit the great armored truck heist, in another mystery novel.

References

Fabre, Michel and Skinner, Robert E., Conversations with Chester Himes, (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1995).

Himes, Chester, If He Hollers Let Him Go, (New York: Doubleday, 1945).

———. Lonely Crusade, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947).

———. Cast the First Stone, (New York: Coward-McCann, 1952).

———. The Third Generation, (Cleveland: World Publishers, 1954).

———. The Primitive, (New York: New American Library Signet Books, 1956)

———. For the Love of Imabelle, (Greenwich, CT: Fawcett World Library, Gold Medal Book, 1957).

———. Cotton Comes to Harlem, (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1965).

———. The Quality of Hurt: The Autobiography of Chester Himes, Vol. 1, (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972).

———. My Life of Absurdity: The Autobiography of Chester Himes, Vol. 2, (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976).

Muller, Gilbert, Chester Himes, (Boston: Twayne Publishers G. K. Hall & Company, 1989).