Review by New York Times Review
NO APPARENT DISTRESS: A Doctor's Coming-of-Age on the Front Lines of American Medicine, by Rachel Pearson. (Norton, $26.95.) In this med-school memoir that is also a probing moral inquiry, Pearson describes her struggles trying to treat patients left out of the American health care system. WILD THINGS: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult, by Bruce Handy. (Simon & Schuster, $26.) The premise of Handy's eccentric essay is that we should take children's literature seriously. The book succeeds wonderfully, not so much as an argument but as an emanation of spirit. LITTLE SOLDIERS: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve, by Lenora Chu. (Harper, $27.99.) Chu vividly sketches the differences between the education structures of China and the United States in terms that will make readers ponder what they think about rote memorization and parents question their preferences for their own children. A BOY IN WINTER, by Rachel Seiffert. (Pantheon, $25.95.) Set over three days in November 1941, Seiffert's novel probes the bonds and betrayals in a Ukrainian town as it succumbs to Hitler's armies. Whether farmers or engineers, German or Ukrainian or Jewish, all must make wrenching choices. THE LOCALS, by Jonathan Dee. (Random House, $28.) Dee's latest novel, set in the years after 9/11 in the fictional Berkshires town of Howland, Mass., offers an engrossing panorama of cops, nurses, carpenters, organic farmers and one relocated hedge fund titan. CHESTER B. HIMES: A Biography, by Lawrence P. Jackson. (Norton, $35.) This comprehensively researched biography offers a bracing journey through the life of the uncompromising Himes, whose hard-boiled detective series mirrored his shrewd cynicism about racial progress in America. Jackson refuses to romanticize Himes's life or his motivation for becoming an artist. ALL'S FAIRE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL, written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson. (Dial, $12.99; ages 9 to 12.) This second graphic novel from the creator of "Roller Girl" offers a nuanced look at Imogene, a home-schooled girl who's grown up at a Renaissance faire. THE LITTLE RED CAT WHO RAN AWAY AND LEARNED HIS ABC'S (THE HARD WAY). Written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell. (Little, Brown, $17.99; ages 4 to 8.) In this delightful alphabet book by the creator of the comic strip Mutts, readers must use the one letter on each page to figure out the plot. PATINA, by Jason Reynolds. (Atheneum, $16.99; ages 10 and up.) This second book in Reynolds's Track series focuses on Patina Jones, the fastest girl on the track team, who has to master passing the baton while navigating a rough road at home. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [September 10, 2017]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Himes' life, eventful enough for several writers, is both blessing and curse to a biographer: Is it possible to have too much material? Fortunately, Jackson is more than up to the task, producing a cradle-to-grave account as meticulously detailed as it is psychologically insightful. Born in 1909 and sentenced to hard time after committing armed robbery at the age of 19, Himes honed his craft in prison and went on to tackle race relations in raw and unflinching books such as If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945) and Lonely Crusade (1947). Disagreements with publishers and disgust at American racism led to self-imposed exile in France; a chance effort writing crime fiction for publisher Gallimard's Série Noire line led to desperately needed financial stability and, indirectly, to late-life lionization by a younger generation energized by Malcolm X (whom Himes admired). For all his literary gifts and uncompromising, often prescient vision, Himes was complicated and not always sympathetic: alcoholic, insecure, and sexist, he could be petty and even violent with the women he pursued. Jackson treats it all evenhandedly, offering a perceptive portrait of a complex man and bringing richly to life his volatile relationships with other prominent black writers of the era: Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and many more. While two other Himes biographies exist (most notably James Sallis' fine Chester Himes, 2001), Jackson succeeds in his bid to offer a definitive life treatment.--Graff, Keir Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In Jackson's thorough biography of author Chester Himes (1909-1984), the times come alive more than the subject, who shines through mostly in his own words rather than in Jackson's interpretation. Himes was the third child and third son born to his Missouri professor parents. Their tumultuous marriage had a destabilizing effect on Himes, who, though quite smart, ended his formal education after an embarrassing encounter with a prostitute and committed a series of crimes that landed him in prison. There, Himes started writing short fiction, echoing O. Henry, who became famous after serving a sentence in the same prison. Jackson tackles the milestones of Himes's career: the publications of his first stories in the 1930s; the publication of and response to the provocative 1945 novel If He Hollers Let Him Go; his interactions with literary figures such as James Baldwin, Jo Sinclair, and Richard Wright; and his complicated relationships with his various publishers. One of the most illuminating sections concerns Himes's response to the WWII internment of Japanese-Americans, which he strongly opposed. The biography is exhaustive, covering both Himes's life and the times he lived in, but unfortunately it flattens both. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
There are already two serviceable biographies of American novelist Chester B. Himes (1909-84): Edward Margolies and Michel Fabre's The Several Lives of Chester Himes, and James Sallis's Chester Himes: A Life. This new volume by Jackson (Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of English and History, Johns Hopkins Univ.; My Father's Name), however, is likely to be the definitive take. Himes is best known for his detective series set in Harlem, NY, including Cotton Comes to Harlem, featuring NYPD detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones. Jackson's portrait of Himes's hardscrabble life is riveting, if disturbing at times. From the eight years Himes spent in prison on charges of armed robbery through his fame as an author and complicated relationships with well-known personalities Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, and Malcolm X, Jackson meticulously documents the writer's early years, especially his troubled relationship with his mother, which would extend to his relationships with women. Himes led a peripatetic life, constantly on the move throughout the United States and Europe. Keeping track of where he is at any given moment, which woman he is living with, and what novel he is working on (often listed under different titles at various stages of development) can be dizzying, yet Jackson is a steady guide. VERDICT Recommended for all literature collections.-L.J. Parascandola, Long Island Univ., Brooklyn © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Jackson (English and History/Johns Hopkins Univ.; My Father's Name: A Black Virginia Family After the Civil War, 2012, etc.) takes a confusing, twisted tale of a writer and lays it out in a readable, straightforward biography.Chester B. Himes (1909-1984) was the child of teachers, and his mother home-schooled her children as they moved among Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri. She impressed upon her children, especially fair-skinned Chester, that they all had fine white blood. With middle-class black pretensions his lifelong scapegoat, Himes rebelled against his mother's racist attitude to the darker of her own race. After a chemistry experiment blinded his brother, he lost his best companion and competition. In 1926, Himes fell down an elevator shaft, breaking his back, an accident that produced a small income from worker's compensation. With acceptance to Ohio State, his anger at racism manifested itself, and his time was spent gambling, drinking, and taking drugs. Back in Cleveland, he was arrested for robbery and sentenced to 20 years in prison. There, he taught himself short story writing and wrote with his rare perspective on black life from American society's margins. His prison stories were published widely, but he was still learning. Paroled in 1936, he married and moved to Los Angeles, polishing his ability to reproduce speech and identify black divisiveness. Fighting with publishers and paranoid about royalties that never came, he took his book advance and moved to France. While publishers in Paris were even tighter with royalties, Himes found life easier, cheaper, and less racist. Still, as Jackson clearly demonstrates, he couldn't sell his books in the 1940s because of his politics nor in the '50s because of their sexual content. Eventually, he developed his most profitable work in the Harlem detective stories about Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. He was able to discover his answer to racism in humor mingled with violence. A tumultuous life rendered in never-dull, enlightening fashion. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by New York Times Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
