What do you think?
Rate this book
Hue and Cry: Stories
The classic debut collection from Pulitzer Prize winner James Alan McPherson
Hue and Cry is the remarkably mature and agile debut story collection from James Alan McPherson, one of America’s most venerated and most original writers. McPherson’s characters -- gritty, authentic, and pristinely rendered -- give voice to unheard struggles along the dividing lines of race and poverty in subtle, fluid prose that bears no trace of sentimentality, agenda, or apology.
First published in 1968, this collection includes the Atlantic Prize-winning story “Gold Coast” (selected by John Updike for the collection Best American Short Stories of the Century). Now with a new preface by Edward P. Jones, Hue and Cry introduced America to McPherson’s unforgettable, enduring vision, and distinctive artistry.
Hue and Cry is the remarkably mature and agile debut story collection from James Alan McPherson, one of America’s most venerated and most original writers. McPherson’s characters -- gritty, authentic, and pristinely rendered -- give voice to unheard struggles along the dividing lines of race and poverty in subtle, fluid prose that bears no trace of sentimentality, agenda, or apology.
First published in 1968, this collection includes the Atlantic Prize-winning story “Gold Coast” (selected by John Updike for the collection Best American Short Stories of the Century). Now with a new preface by Edward P. Jones, Hue and Cry introduced America to McPherson’s unforgettable, enduring vision, and distinctive artistry.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
106 people are currently reading
1227 people want to read
About the author
James Alan McPherson
32 books96 followersJames Alan McPherson was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American short story writer and essayist. He spent his early career writing short stories and essays, almost without exception, for The Atlantic. At the age of 35, McPherson received a Pulitzer Prize for his collection of stories, Elbow Room (1978). He is also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (1973) and the MacArthur Foundation Award (the so-called "Genius Award"; 1981) and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1995. He is perhaps most often quoted for propounding this philosophy of American citizenship: "I believe that if one can experience diversity, touch a variety of its people, laugh at its craziness, distill wisdom from its tragedies, and attempt to synthesize all this inside oneself without going crazy, one will have earned the right to call oneself 'citizen of the United States.'"
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
August 14, 2022
James Alan McPherson is a sneaky writer. His prose is disarming - no highfaluting vocabulary (ahem, Lauren Groff), just a very genuine, realistic and often conversational tone of voice to welcome you into the stories in this collection. But don't be fooled, there's a complexity and depth here that you may not at first perceive.
He also gives the impression that the story is going one way, and then it goes the other, and that's another way he's sneaky.
The first African American to win the Pulitzer for fiction, I'm mystified as to how this man has earned a somewhat obscure place in American literature. His ability to write honestly about his experience as a black person born in 1943 is something more people should know about.
Of all the stories, I found these at the top of the heap: 'Gold Coast' (and John Updike agrees, choosing it for his collection Best American Short Stories of the Century), and 'All the Lonely People'. All the stories are worth reading, though, in my opinion. The title story is the longest and last of the collection, and left me wishing he'd written novels.
The one thing that did bother me in many of the stories is the depiction of women. The male characters view women with undisguised misogyny - referring to them as "bitches" or "pieces". One of the characters actually declares: "I hate women". The women are mainly prostitutes or sexual conquests, and it alienates me as a female reader, to a certain degree (and I don't want to be! I love McPherson's writing and I am IN, baby...). I do understand he writes gritty, realistic prose, and is capturing a time and place, but it does definitely feel searing at times.
I usually like to keep the author separate from the work, but I do find McPherson, the person, fascinating. He was born in poverty in Savannah, but through his hard work and remarkable intellect, managed to get a scholarship to Harvard Law. He also got an MFA at the Iowa Writer's Workshop (where he was taught by the great Richard Yates). In 1972 he received the Guggenheim Fellowship, and he donated the entire substantial award to the Black College Fund. I have the sense that he would have been a singular person to know. He's certainly a singular writer.
He also gives the impression that the story is going one way, and then it goes the other, and that's another way he's sneaky.
The first African American to win the Pulitzer for fiction, I'm mystified as to how this man has earned a somewhat obscure place in American literature. His ability to write honestly about his experience as a black person born in 1943 is something more people should know about.
Of all the stories, I found these at the top of the heap: 'Gold Coast' (and John Updike agrees, choosing it for his collection Best American Short Stories of the Century), and 'All the Lonely People'. All the stories are worth reading, though, in my opinion. The title story is the longest and last of the collection, and left me wishing he'd written novels.
The one thing that did bother me in many of the stories is the depiction of women. The male characters view women with undisguised misogyny - referring to them as "bitches" or "pieces". One of the characters actually declares: "I hate women". The women are mainly prostitutes or sexual conquests, and it alienates me as a female reader, to a certain degree (and I don't want to be! I love McPherson's writing and I am IN, baby...). I do understand he writes gritty, realistic prose, and is capturing a time and place, but it does definitely feel searing at times.
I usually like to keep the author separate from the work, but I do find McPherson, the person, fascinating. He was born in poverty in Savannah, but through his hard work and remarkable intellect, managed to get a scholarship to Harvard Law. He also got an MFA at the Iowa Writer's Workshop (where he was taught by the great Richard Yates). In 1972 he received the Guggenheim Fellowship, and he donated the entire substantial award to the Black College Fund. I have the sense that he would have been a singular person to know. He's certainly a singular writer.
September 27, 2024
James Alan McPherson was an interesting man. He wrote two works of fiction, both short-story collections. His second, Elbow Room, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1978; he was the first black to win a Pulitzer for fiction (that is difficult to comprehend). I read Elbow Room in December 2021 and halfway through it I bought a copy of Hue and Cry, his first. He also wrote a memoir, Crabcakes, and two collections of essays. McPherson was born to a poor family in Savannah, Georgia but earned a scholarship to Harvard Law. He went from graduating from Harvard to the Iowa’s Writers Workshop, where he received his MFA. Ultimately, McPherson was a teacher and editor. Apparently, to get McPherson’s entire life trajectory, and why we only have two collections of short stories from him, you need to read the memoir Crabcakes.
Years ago I came across the recommendation to read a book for what it is, not for what you want it to be. This made a deep impression on me. I had struggled previously when I read comments from other readers who felt that an author accurately described time and place but didn’t like how the characters were portrayed or treated. I decided I wanted accuracy, not comfort. Hue and Cry pushed me to the limit of this belief. Women in these stories are treated as chattel or servants when they are not treated worse. The focus of a story is rarely on a woman or from a woman’s point-of-view, until you get to Hue and Cry, the title story and longest in the collection, Hue and Cry. Overall, though, these are stories of a black man’s world in America in the 1950’s and 60’s.
McPherson’s prose flows so easily you will find yourself consuming these stories quickly. Then you are left to ponder: “what was that story about? I know there is something there that I am just not grasping, just can’t wrap my brain around.” McPherson’s legal training comes through in some of the stories. His love of trains and the way many black men spent their lives working on trains is prominent in On Trains and in one of my favorites, A Solo Song: for Doc.
These stories will likely make you uncomfortable; they made me uncomfortable. They made me wonder: is this how the author sees the world or is this the world the author sees. I settled on the second. If you read these stories and are struggling to come to your own conclusion, consider McPherson’s description of being an American: “I believe that if one can experience diversity, touch a variety of its people, laugh at its craziness, distill wisdom from its tragedies, and attempt to synthesize all this inside oneself without going crazy, one will have earned the right to call oneself ‘citizen of the United States.”
Years ago I came across the recommendation to read a book for what it is, not for what you want it to be. This made a deep impression on me. I had struggled previously when I read comments from other readers who felt that an author accurately described time and place but didn’t like how the characters were portrayed or treated. I decided I wanted accuracy, not comfort. Hue and Cry pushed me to the limit of this belief. Women in these stories are treated as chattel or servants when they are not treated worse. The focus of a story is rarely on a woman or from a woman’s point-of-view, until you get to Hue and Cry, the title story and longest in the collection, Hue and Cry. Overall, though, these are stories of a black man’s world in America in the 1950’s and 60’s.
McPherson’s prose flows so easily you will find yourself consuming these stories quickly. Then you are left to ponder: “what was that story about? I know there is something there that I am just not grasping, just can’t wrap my brain around.” McPherson’s legal training comes through in some of the stories. His love of trains and the way many black men spent their lives working on trains is prominent in On Trains and in one of my favorites, A Solo Song: for Doc.
These stories will likely make you uncomfortable; they made me uncomfortable. They made me wonder: is this how the author sees the world or is this the world the author sees. I settled on the second. If you read these stories and are struggling to come to your own conclusion, consider McPherson’s description of being an American: “I believe that if one can experience diversity, touch a variety of its people, laugh at its craziness, distill wisdom from its tragedies, and attempt to synthesize all this inside oneself without going crazy, one will have earned the right to call oneself ‘citizen of the United States.”
July 15, 2015
This book (the 1970 Fawcett Crest paperback edition) sat on my shelf for at least 30 years, something I always meant to "get around to." Would that I had read it much sooner. These stories are beautifully and artfully crafted and would be a tribute to an author much older than McPherson's 26 years when this was published. Over and over I found myself asking, "How it the heck did he do that?
July 30, 2016
Not all of the stories were equal, but the best of them ("Gold Coast" and "Hue and Cry") were so good that it made up for any lack in the others. I read "Hue and Cry" about two weeks ago and I haven't stopped thinking about it. So complicated and so sad.
June 12, 2019
McPherson is a writer whose name you see here and there - in a story stuffed in the middle of one anthology or another, or in a foreword, or in a grateful dedication from an ex-student. This was his first book. McPherson writes excellent prose: you could tap every word in each sentence with a tuning fork and enjoy the noise. He has a low-key, convincing way with dialogue, especially with working-class characters, black and white.
The stories themselves are a mixed bag. The opener, about a child raised by a religious fundamentalist, starts strong but fizzles out after eight pages. The same is true most of the others. They are islands of incident linked by the thinnest of causeways, leading nowhere, and with a lot of pondering along the way. You rather see what Breece Pancake meant when he said that McPherson could sit for hours pondering the meaning of McDonalds in human existence.
The best stories are 'A Solo Song for Doc' and 'Gold Coast.' The former conquers the ear as well as the mind - it's a story that actually sounds like it's being spoken directly to you. Although overlong and meandering, it's intimate, involving. 'Gold Coast', tucked in the middle of the book, was McPherson's first publication in a national magazine; one he would later join as a contributing editor. Read it and see why.
The stories themselves are a mixed bag. The opener, about a child raised by a religious fundamentalist, starts strong but fizzles out after eight pages. The same is true most of the others. They are islands of incident linked by the thinnest of causeways, leading nowhere, and with a lot of pondering along the way. You rather see what Breece Pancake meant when he said that McPherson could sit for hours pondering the meaning of McDonalds in human existence.
The best stories are 'A Solo Song for Doc' and 'Gold Coast.' The former conquers the ear as well as the mind - it's a story that actually sounds like it's being spoken directly to you. Although overlong and meandering, it's intimate, involving. 'Gold Coast', tucked in the middle of the book, was McPherson's first publication in a national magazine; one he would later join as a contributing editor. Read it and see why.
May 23, 2020
SIX WORD REVIEW: Black canon, don't forget this man.
August 28, 2019
The experience of a variety of black people (mainly men) in 50s/60s USA: janitors, railway men, prostitutes, musicians, academics, writers. Clear vision, seeing through hypocrisies, close detail and comedy. Very 60s - women are 'pieces', lots of joints smoked, vinyl played (jazz, but later rock). A couple of great stories (Gold Coast, the experiences of a janitor as he works towards getting out of his trapped existence and A Solo Song: for Doc, about being a waiter for many years on a train) and all good. Well worth seeking out.
March 8, 2020
While I found these short stories impressive while reading, my favorite was the final and title story.
August 9, 2024
rtc
4 Stars
Read on kindle
4 Stars
Read on kindle
November 8, 2021
well written short stories by the African American writer James Alan McPherson. Considered a master of the form by Francine Prose. Several of the stories take place in Boston in the 1960s and 70s.
September 4, 2018
James Alan McPherson was an excellent African American writer whose work I discovered recently when a friend lent me this book. Everyone should know McPherson's writing.
This book is a collection of short stories first published in 1968. McPherson clearly didn't worry overly whether everyone would like his work. He's true to his own perception. The title story, "Hue and Cry" is the moving story of Margot, a highly intelligent African American woman who is irritated by people with lazy thinking. She falls in love with an a young white intellectual man. He also loves her, but his mother is almost in tears when she meets Margot. Eric is still willing to marry Margot, but she can tell that he's willing, no longer eager. They drift apart. Margot tries to settle for an African American man who doesn't match up to her cutting intelligence, but she's never happy again.
Many of McPherson's characters are dissatisfied because they are more intelligent or insightful than the people around them. Some of them let themselves be led by those who are less intelligent. Some are potentially gay men ill at ease with their sexuality.
Two of McPherson's stories are about men who worked as Pullman porters or waiters. He evokes their world in bold, honest strokes. They make fun of white passengers and bosses while giving them excellent service. They fall in love with trains and don't want a more settled life. They spend their wages on drinking and women in the towns that the trains pass through. I was particularly moved by his story "A Solo Song for Doc" about a man who is a perfect waiter. When he's in his sixties, he wants to keep working though the company keeps offering him a pension and trying to press him to retire. When that fails, he's pushed out in an insane way over an unbelievably minor mistake. That's the story of many workers in many places, and I wish more people would write about it.
McPherson's stories are well worth reading. Do look for this book.
This book is a collection of short stories first published in 1968. McPherson clearly didn't worry overly whether everyone would like his work. He's true to his own perception. The title story, "Hue and Cry" is the moving story of Margot, a highly intelligent African American woman who is irritated by people with lazy thinking. She falls in love with an a young white intellectual man. He also loves her, but his mother is almost in tears when she meets Margot. Eric is still willing to marry Margot, but she can tell that he's willing, no longer eager. They drift apart. Margot tries to settle for an African American man who doesn't match up to her cutting intelligence, but she's never happy again.
Many of McPherson's characters are dissatisfied because they are more intelligent or insightful than the people around them. Some of them let themselves be led by those who are less intelligent. Some are potentially gay men ill at ease with their sexuality.
Two of McPherson's stories are about men who worked as Pullman porters or waiters. He evokes their world in bold, honest strokes. They make fun of white passengers and bosses while giving them excellent service. They fall in love with trains and don't want a more settled life. They spend their wages on drinking and women in the towns that the trains pass through. I was particularly moved by his story "A Solo Song for Doc" about a man who is a perfect waiter. When he's in his sixties, he wants to keep working though the company keeps offering him a pension and trying to press him to retire. When that fails, he's pushed out in an insane way over an unbelievably minor mistake. That's the story of many workers in many places, and I wish more people would write about it.
McPherson's stories are well worth reading. Do look for this book.
February 3, 2021
A wonderful collection of short stories. One of my favorite things about many of them is they weren't so much about a resolution to a conflict or event, but rather a journey through moments in time towards a realization. And the reader is left at the end of some of these pondering where that realization might take the POV character afterwards.
One of the highlights of this collection, A Solo Song: For Doc, is narrated in such an alive style, an old hand on the trains trying to tell a "youngblood" what real life working the trains was like in its heyday, you can't help but see it all playing out in your mind, vivid as a film. Besides the pleasure of being carried along by the dialogue towards its inexorable ending, one of the thoughts I took from it was "This is what Stephen King is aspiring to do when he writes." McPherson is a masterful writer and storyteller. While his style may leave some wanting, in that he seemed far more interested in those spaces between breaths than in neatly wrapped packages, I savored every moment through each of these stories, and will revisit them again.
One of the highlights of this collection, A Solo Song: For Doc, is narrated in such an alive style, an old hand on the trains trying to tell a "youngblood" what real life working the trains was like in its heyday, you can't help but see it all playing out in your mind, vivid as a film. Besides the pleasure of being carried along by the dialogue towards its inexorable ending, one of the thoughts I took from it was "This is what Stephen King is aspiring to do when he writes." McPherson is a masterful writer and storyteller. While his style may leave some wanting, in that he seemed far more interested in those spaces between breaths than in neatly wrapped packages, I savored every moment through each of these stories, and will revisit them again.
March 14, 2014
This book felt like a throwback to the Harlem Renaissance era and my all time favorite book of short stories. The stories are poignant and heartfelt. Loved it.
April 4, 2019
A Solo Song: For Doc — a wonder to read and I’ll always carry it with me
March 31, 2021
Powerful writing, but troublingly of its time with misogyny, homo- and fat-phobias.
March 1, 2021
In the star-system, Hue and Cry crosses a whole spectrum, and I considered both two- as well as four-star landings before settling on this compromise, that perhaps fails to get at the mixed feelings I had reading.
The best things in the book are "A Matter of Vocabulary," "A Solo Song: For Doc," and "Gold Coast," along with certainly the ambition, if not the achievement, of the title-novella. "On Trains" is also an anecdote of micro-aggression that has special resonance in our moment. That's half the stories in the collection; in other stories, McPherson works through the peregrinations of his sexual idenfications, and we must admit it's a toxic rap. For McPherson there can be no DuBoisian double-ness with regard to black America seeing itself through White eyes without the compounding doubleness of the violently homosocial (women are "bitches" and "pieces"; gays are "fags"), cut as it is by feminism and their embedding social radicalisms -- housing policy, polyamory, the pill, the counter-culture. McPherson represents, through an astonishing "technique," which, okay, Ralph Ellison was more impressed by than was Chester Himes, the homosocial, but the utter refusal to identify with group-goals, of women in the workplace (how much does Margot, in the title story, get paid at the fair-housing office, when she admits she loves Charles Wright because he makes a cool $12K a year?), or of the homosexual in society (like Toni Morrison in The Bluest Eye, to be homosexual in Hue and Cry is to commit oneself, without consideration of empathy, to the most radical anomie) but he has no way to contextualize it -- that violence just is, nor, if they're smart, need women or gays complain. This gives, then, the double-ness a sadomasochistic edge.
Look, the technique here is quite extraordinary, especially in a writer so young (26, when the book was published, the author of these stories may have been in college, as well). In the title story, for example, the switching of points of view, across race and gender lines, sweeps a whole lot of craft platitudes before it. Ellison, it turns out, was 10 years from turning his back on McPherson, because McPherson had the temerity to leave his marriage and his tenured position at The University of Virginia (where Ellison also was), but how could the older writer not have seen that restlessness already here?
The best things in the book are "A Matter of Vocabulary," "A Solo Song: For Doc," and "Gold Coast," along with certainly the ambition, if not the achievement, of the title-novella. "On Trains" is also an anecdote of micro-aggression that has special resonance in our moment. That's half the stories in the collection; in other stories, McPherson works through the peregrinations of his sexual idenfications, and we must admit it's a toxic rap. For McPherson there can be no DuBoisian double-ness with regard to black America seeing itself through White eyes without the compounding doubleness of the violently homosocial (women are "bitches" and "pieces"; gays are "fags"), cut as it is by feminism and their embedding social radicalisms -- housing policy, polyamory, the pill, the counter-culture. McPherson represents, through an astonishing "technique," which, okay, Ralph Ellison was more impressed by than was Chester Himes, the homosocial, but the utter refusal to identify with group-goals, of women in the workplace (how much does Margot, in the title story, get paid at the fair-housing office, when she admits she loves Charles Wright because he makes a cool $12K a year?), or of the homosexual in society (like Toni Morrison in The Bluest Eye, to be homosexual in Hue and Cry is to commit oneself, without consideration of empathy, to the most radical anomie) but he has no way to contextualize it -- that violence just is, nor, if they're smart, need women or gays complain. This gives, then, the double-ness a sadomasochistic edge.
Look, the technique here is quite extraordinary, especially in a writer so young (26, when the book was published, the author of these stories may have been in college, as well). In the title story, for example, the switching of points of view, across race and gender lines, sweeps a whole lot of craft platitudes before it. Ellison, it turns out, was 10 years from turning his back on McPherson, because McPherson had the temerity to leave his marriage and his tenured position at The University of Virginia (where Ellison also was), but how could the older writer not have seen that restlessness already here?
May 2, 2020
Master storyteller
I was unfamiliar with this short story collection by renowned author James McPherson. One story in the book was in an anthology I read years ago, and was my introduction to his work. All of this encouraged my reading Hue and Cry. This was a joy ride on so many levels.
The stories are situated in complex interracial interactions and relationships of the 1950s and 60s. The language, tone and dynamics capture the era. This is a valuable prompt for discussion and reflection.
A MacArthur genius awardee, celebrated writer and professor at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, McPherson seems to often be off the radar, perhaps due to his tendency to humbly go about his life. Yet, his writing brings to mind that of the arguably more celebrated scribes of African American experiences such as Baldwin, Hurston and Wright.
With his relatively recent passing in 2016, it was heartening to see this collection was reprinted with a foreword written by the excellent contemporary author Edward Jones in 2019. It instilled hope that McPherson’s work will continue to inform and entertain on a broad level; that his stories continue to be recognized for their brilliance.
I was unfamiliar with this short story collection by renowned author James McPherson. One story in the book was in an anthology I read years ago, and was my introduction to his work. All of this encouraged my reading Hue and Cry. This was a joy ride on so many levels.
The stories are situated in complex interracial interactions and relationships of the 1950s and 60s. The language, tone and dynamics capture the era. This is a valuable prompt for discussion and reflection.
A MacArthur genius awardee, celebrated writer and professor at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, McPherson seems to often be off the radar, perhaps due to his tendency to humbly go about his life. Yet, his writing brings to mind that of the arguably more celebrated scribes of African American experiences such as Baldwin, Hurston and Wright.
With his relatively recent passing in 2016, it was heartening to see this collection was reprinted with a foreword written by the excellent contemporary author Edward Jones in 2019. It instilled hope that McPherson’s work will continue to inform and entertain on a broad level; that his stories continue to be recognized for their brilliance.
December 11, 2019
Hue and Cry
I loved this collection- I truly wish we had read this in high school or college - it resonates with a lot of feelings I had as an adolescent and think it may resonate with others. It also touches on racism in ways I haven’t seen before especially from this time period.
I loved this collection- I truly wish we had read this in high school or college - it resonates with a lot of feelings I had as an adolescent and think it may resonate with others. It also touches on racism in ways I haven’t seen before especially from this time period.
March 25, 2020
“Gold Coast” and “A Matter of Vocabulary” are among the finest short stories I have ever read.
Loved the syntax and characterization of these stories. The use of second person in the Doc Craft story is stellar.
Loved the syntax and characterization of these stories. The use of second person in the Doc Craft story is stellar.
July 4, 2008
A beautiful book of unforgettable short stories.
April 3, 2015
"Gold Coast" is wonderful.
December 31, 2017
a few good stories in here but nothing extraordinary. Some of the stories featured some pretty loose prose, which surprised me. I've read some of his nonfiction and was expecting more.
November 17, 2019
Good, well written but not my cup of tea.
September 2, 2021
Published in the late 60's, I loved the story about the two brother's working at the grocery store. A few of the others felt misogynistic and I couldn't stick with them.
May 1, 2023
This is a book where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I did not especially like the stories, and did not see any single one as outstanding. However, the book as a whole presents a compelling sense of race relations in the US fifty years ago. That is what makes this collection worth reading.
McPherson shows the interconnection and lack of it between Black and white characters. I respected the fact that this is done in human terms rather than political ones. I also respected that characters of both races are portrayed with equal care and without judgment.
But despite the above, this is a somewhat depressing read. No story has an upbeat ending (though these results are not attributed to racism and prejudice.). I don't remember any effective connection between two characters, though there is a lot of their trying to achieve this. The stories, in a sense, seem to be about the sadness of being human, regardless of one's race.
Things of consequence do happen here and there, but for the most part the stories are slice of life. Rather than characters who act on the world around them, it is more common that they listen and notice. There is, of course, nothing wrong with this in a literary sense, but I would have preferred more variety. There is an odd sameness to the characters, even though they vary in age and race. Until the last (and much longer) story, almost all the characters of consequence are male, and as other have noticed, where female characters appear, they are usually demeaned (aside from Margot Payne in that final story).
The upside is a gentle and healing voice about everyone mattering, and characters searching to define their identity. I like and respect the man who wrote these stories; I just wish I liked the stories more.
McPherson shows the interconnection and lack of it between Black and white characters. I respected the fact that this is done in human terms rather than political ones. I also respected that characters of both races are portrayed with equal care and without judgment.
But despite the above, this is a somewhat depressing read. No story has an upbeat ending (though these results are not attributed to racism and prejudice.). I don't remember any effective connection between two characters, though there is a lot of their trying to achieve this. The stories, in a sense, seem to be about the sadness of being human, regardless of one's race.
Things of consequence do happen here and there, but for the most part the stories are slice of life. Rather than characters who act on the world around them, it is more common that they listen and notice. There is, of course, nothing wrong with this in a literary sense, but I would have preferred more variety. There is an odd sameness to the characters, even though they vary in age and race. Until the last (and much longer) story, almost all the characters of consequence are male, and as other have noticed, where female characters appear, they are usually demeaned (aside from Margot Payne in that final story).
The upside is a gentle and healing voice about everyone mattering, and characters searching to define their identity. I like and respect the man who wrote these stories; I just wish I liked the stories more.
August 14, 2019
This collection of short stories is a mixed bag. The first half of the book is a series of tales about black life. They are amusing, penetrating and insightful. McPherson is a writer who happens to be black, not a "black writer." How did one get to be a Pullman Porter in the old days, when that was about the highest a black man could hope to go? What were the rules of the game? How did it come to an end?
The stories pull no punches, but they also describe how these men gamed the system and managed to beat the rules that were intended to beat them down. Sometimes, of course, they lost.
The second half of the book is a series of longer stories, almost novellas in some cases, that are (mostly) about blacks -- men and women -- but with some exceptions the characters could as well be white. The stories are more universal, focused on feelings and relationships. Again, they are sympathetic but not sentimental. One woman's tale was particularly touching, going from wallflower to confident master of her own fate, and back. I've never read a story like it.
McPherson won the Pulitzer for a later collection of stories called Elbow Room. I plan to go there before long. He also won a MacArthur "genius" award and taught for most of his professional life at the Iowa Writers Workshop.
The stories pull no punches, but they also describe how these men gamed the system and managed to beat the rules that were intended to beat them down. Sometimes, of course, they lost.
The second half of the book is a series of longer stories, almost novellas in some cases, that are (mostly) about blacks -- men and women -- but with some exceptions the characters could as well be white. The stories are more universal, focused on feelings and relationships. Again, they are sympathetic but not sentimental. One woman's tale was particularly touching, going from wallflower to confident master of her own fate, and back. I've never read a story like it.
McPherson won the Pulitzer for a later collection of stories called Elbow Room. I plan to go there before long. He also won a MacArthur "genius" award and taught for most of his professional life at the Iowa Writers Workshop.
September 18, 2021
Unfortunately, I don't have a ton of detailed thoughts on this collection because school was hectic this week, but I can say that I came away from it feeling very impressed. McPherson's stories remind me of plays in prose; I get a similar feeling of identification with the way the stories are simple and yet touch on such profound human feelings. Themes include male homosexuality (makes me think of Giovanni's Room in how well done it felt), interracial relationships, the pain of the passage of time, and the difficulties of being devoted to a cause. With the exception of the title story, all the short stories in this collection are brief snapshots into the life of a pretty boring character. I say boring not as a bad thing, but to denote that McPherson is able to craft an engaging story around a protagonist whose life is not traditionally 'exciting'. There are no action heroes here, only everymen. In this way, though, McPherson's stories contain a unique relatability that is not easily achieved. His characters are thoughtful and force us to be thoughtful as well. Overall, I really enjoyed these stories, and certainly need to revisit when I'm less busy to give it a more thorough review.
July 14, 2020
"Everyone was restless for change, for August is the month when undone summer things must be finished or regretted all through the winter."
McPherson is excellent at conveying the passage of time and the general cultural feel of different times and periods. He also beautifully investigates race and "revolutionary ideas"--it is one thing to be radical and have ideas, and another to be Black. "A Matter of Vocabulary" was an excellent story about race and boyhood. "A Solo Song for Doc" is such a great tall tale of character amidst a changing America. "Gold Coast" is the story the book is famous for and it captures so well the feeling of leaving certain people behind.
But in my opinion the best story (by far) is the title story. Never before in anything I've read has sex and its contradictions been described so eloquently. The story chronicles change in its characters so well. The structure of the story is excellent. The end scene had me feeling so many things. It was a proper end to an excellent collection.
McPherson is excellent at conveying the passage of time and the general cultural feel of different times and periods. He also beautifully investigates race and "revolutionary ideas"--it is one thing to be radical and have ideas, and another to be Black. "A Matter of Vocabulary" was an excellent story about race and boyhood. "A Solo Song for Doc" is such a great tall tale of character amidst a changing America. "Gold Coast" is the story the book is famous for and it captures so well the feeling of leaving certain people behind.
But in my opinion the best story (by far) is the title story. Never before in anything I've read has sex and its contradictions been described so eloquently. The story chronicles change in its characters so well. The structure of the story is excellent. The end scene had me feeling so many things. It was a proper end to an excellent collection.
February 21, 2021
One of those rare books that you will never forget. It’s themes will forever bubble to the surface of your mind every time you see or think about something which touches on them.
These stories all in some way touch of the black experience in America. A young black boy looks out through a stockroom window at a world which in which he is almost invisible. A train porter sees the injustice of racial prejudice as it unfolds before his eyes. A janitor is the ‘fly on the wall’ of the apartment where he works, not because he must but because he chooses to. A black woman and white man struggle struggle to understand whether can be true, unconditional love between a black women and white men.
The writing is beautiful - quiet and wise but always eloquent.
I often struggle to enjoy short story collections. Not these.
These stories all in some way touch of the black experience in America. A young black boy looks out through a stockroom window at a world which in which he is almost invisible. A train porter sees the injustice of racial prejudice as it unfolds before his eyes. A janitor is the ‘fly on the wall’ of the apartment where he works, not because he must but because he chooses to. A black woman and white man struggle struggle to understand whether can be true, unconditional love between a black women and white men.
The writing is beautiful - quiet and wise but always eloquent.
I often struggle to enjoy short story collections. Not these.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews