Jerry Con Con থেকে Agia Kyriaki 504 00, Greece
At this point I've read quite a few novels by Chester Himes, but all of them have been from his series of crime novels starring Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, two tough, no-nonsense cops who have to navigate the insane Harlem Himes creates while simultaneously dealing with institutional racism. If He Hollers Let Him Go, however, is not set in a surreal world but instead in the reality of war time Los Angeles. The main character, Bob Johnson, is a "leaderman" at a shipyard and dating Alice, a social worker and the daughter of a prominent family. Unfortunately for Bob, however, he is black, and the world won't let him forget that. He loses his job early in the novel when he snaps at a co-worker, Madge, and from that point on his situation deteriorates. The book is very interesting and depicts the world of wartime Los Angeles and war work as well as the racist system of the time. Definitely worth a look for Himes fans who want to see his serious work-it's also interesting to compare it to his genre novels. Both feature an escalation of tension that ends in a mad crescendo-here, however, absolutely nothing is resolved in a way that the protagonist would want, despite the fact that he is in the right.