If We Must Die

by Junius Edwards, Mel Watkins (Introduction)

If We Must Die (Howard University Press library of contemporary literature)

146 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 5 out of 5]

The lone novel from Junius Edwards, who went on to found an advertising agency and quit fiction writing, is a brief shocker of white supremacist violence in the Dark South (where else?), where a young black man attempts to register to vote, and is met with AmeriKKKa’s finest rootin-tootin’ pond scum, who escalate the matter to a predictable pitch of barbarism. The flat, matter-of-fact prose works well for the suckerpunch the novel delivers, and the last third of the novel foreshadows the black humour of Percival Everett at his angriest and sharpest heights.

[taylor :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is so good. very lucky used bookstore find.

[Zadignose]

A well-constructed and disturbing narrative, with the best moments of the book coming in the end; a powerful illustration of the cruel ignorance and barbarity that fuels race-hate; but also a book that is marred by shallow characterization, a reluctance to use strong language when it's called for, and a confusion in its intersection of realism, parable, and farce. So, in summation, it found the right tone in the end, I wish it had found it earlier, but either way, it will leave a lasting impression.

[NJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book received a lot of criticisms that it didn’t explore the seriousness of the concepts of the time in enough detail. ~of course those were criticisms written in the 60s and 70s where expectations of Black literature were more…heavy.~

What this book didn’t say, was felt. The desire to be seen as a real human, the hope of being actualized as an American citizen, the rebellion of speaking back to unfair authority, the curtailing of the tongue to make your oppressor feel better about themselves, the hope of a better future, wanting to make your mother proud, wanting to die rather than lose one’s masculinity, the fear….Felt it all.

There were a few scenes that stood out to me the first is when Will stood in the voter registration office to apply for his registration and was being grilled by the office worker. He had to work twice as hard to receive nothing. Will knew all of the information and more to be registered to vote and they disqualified him on a technicality. The whole time he had to dumb himself down to make the white man feel better about himself. (also notice how the book never mentioned White as a race and lower case the word Black wherever it was spelled).

That speaks to my next point that when Luke (White brutish character who beat Will up) was fighting for his so-called identity/race he didn’t even understand the importance of the vote. All to say the desire to be American was so heavily pursued by those who were seen as other.

Powerful short story that didn’t need to say it all. We understood.