The Hippodrome

by Cyrus Colter

Set in a Chicago seething with physical and psychological violence, Cyrus Colter's The Hippodrome is an examination of power and exploitation and their entanglement with sexuality. The central character, Yeager, has murdered his wife and her white lover. Fleeing the police, he is both offered refuge and held captive in the Hippodrome, a ghetto house where a troupe of blacks stage sexual theater for white audiences. The murderer becomes a victim, the fugitive is caught in the spotlight. Colter's subtle treatment of sensational subject matter, and his careful delineation of his characters' conflicting motives, make The Hippodrome a classic of modern fiction.

213 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Nate D · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's clear this is going to get dark less than 10 page in when the protagonist unwraps the human head he's been carrying around with him. And then it does, but not in the expected way, with a balance of suspense and unease. Colter, a former Chicago lawyer with a seeming intimacy with gritty streetlife, fuels his pulp-lit narrative with anticipation of lurid detail kept just out of sight, instead shifting to focus on pathos, internal struggle, and a kind of Faulknerian sense inevitable tragedy. Ultimately it's the bitter insights on the socioeconomic structures of race at the edge of the Civil Rights era that makes this memorable.

[Imad Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, because it was my first time reading a book under the suspense genre. I thought it was just fiction, but I realized it was suspense when I literally couldn't put the book down after completing each chapter. The way Cyrus Colter has you on edge and so damn eager to figure out what the hell is going on is crazy. Loved reading this man, I flew through this book like no other book that I've ever read.

[Courtney Ferriter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was disappointed that I did not like this book more, since I enjoyed Colter's collection The Beach Umbrella. The concept is very Black Arts Movement-esque and reminded me of Amiri Baraka, but I did not find the characters compelling or fully realized.

[Cisco Jae]

This book has stayed in my conscious for the last 15 which says something.