A Case of Rape

by Chester Himes, James Sallis (Introduction)

Four Black American men living in Paris are charged with the rape of a white woman

Genres: Fiction, Noir, Mystery

105 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Chester Bomar Himes began writing in the early 1930s while serving a prison sentence for armed robbery. From there, he produced short stories for periodicals such as Esquire and Abbott's Monthly. When released, he focussed on semi-autobiographical protest novels.

In 1953, Himes emigrated to France, where he was approached by Marcel Duhamel of Gallimard to write a detective series for Série Noire, which had published works from the likes of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Jim Thompson. Himes would be the first black author included in the series. The resulting Harlem Cycle gained him celebrity when he won France's Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for La Reine des Pommes (now known in English as A Rage in Harlem) in 1958. Three of these novels have been adapted into movies: Cotton Comes to Harlem, directed by Ossie Davis in 1970; Come Back, Charleston Blue (based on The Heat's On) in 1972; and A Rage in Harlem, starring Gregory Hines and Danny Glover in 1991.

In 1968, Himes moved to Spain where he made his home until his death.

Reviews

[C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Case of Rape exposed the dilemmas of fair trials when witnesses have a view, juries have predispositions, spectators stay silent, and defendants hold back needed information. When I chose this book, I, too, had an assumption. A subjective view immediately after seeing the description.

This case illustrates that we all believe we know something based on experience, media, and instinct. There is no violence, gore, or repulsive dialogue. This is like a journalist's view of a highly charged case that was tried in the media long before the actual trial. --- Very interesting indeed

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

Halfway through I thought "my god this book is about to become incredible." But it turns out I was far more than halfway through and the book ended abruptly.

[Juan Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es una narración que aunque de modo diferente a las de la serie Harlem no abandona el tema característico de Himes que no es otro que la denuncia de la segregación racial que en USA persiste a pesar de que el cuerpo legislativo del país establezca la igualdad de derechos entre todos sus nacionales. Lo que, en mi opinión, sí hace que "Violación" destaque por encima de otros relatos de Himes es la maestría con la que argumenta y contraargumenta sobre la persistencia de esta infamia y cómo la sociedad americana, tanto negros como blancos la tienen interiorizada y asumida como algo contra lo que de nada vale pelearse. Lo terrible, y aquí es donde la novela de Himes alcanza todo su valor y fuerza es que la hipocresía social es tal que resulta imposible encontrar pruebas o argumentos que den la vuelta a los valores asumidos por todos: hombres y mujeres, ya sean blancos o negros.


Como en toda su Obra, también en este relato hay mucho autobiografismo. Reposa fundamentalmente en el personaje de "Roger Garrison, escritor negro americano que residía en París desde el final de la guerra con su mujer, una blanca, y sus hijos emprendió una investigación personal sobre la vida de los cuatro acusados" (pág. 23). Todo coincide con la realidad: Chester Himes en 1950, siguiendo el ejemplo de otros escritores americanos, como Ernest Hemingway, comienza a pasar largas temporadas en Francia, en donde se había convertido en un escritor popular. Allí, en ese año, conoció a Lesley Packard, una irlandesa británica con la que contraerá matrimonio. A partir de 1956, cansado del racismo de su país, se instaló permanentemente en París, en donde coincidió con otros escritores afroamericanos como Richard Wright y James Baldwin.
(reseña completa en mi blog: http://bit.ly/2wGdisZ)

[rndgmoat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably the worst possible place to start with the legendary Chester Himes given that this is an obscurity within his catalogue, but I grabbed it off the shelf looking for slim reads to pad out my GR stats. (I am a terrible person).

The book is written in an intriguingly pseudo-journalistic fashion, very matter of fact about the underlying mystery while also containing a good deal of prescient commentary on race relations and sex. As other reviewers have noted, the treatment of the female victim is a little rough, but the book remains interesting given its daring subject matter and racial commentary (not to mention its possible attack on Richard Wright, who is harshly caricatured herein).

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chester Himes's depressed dossier of the deadlock of racism and race relations, centered around the seemingly open-and-shut case of four black men that are accused of raping and murdering a white woman in a Paris hotel. Himes maintains a remarkable, upsetting clarity about the emotional and sexual lives of these characters, as brutally honest now as it must have been in the 1950s. The dispassionate formal construction of this brief novel works ingeniously.

[Cesti Ola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Más que una novela es un tratado policial que retrata el racismo en que la sociedad blanca (de los años 50' en Paris) condena a cuatro afromericanos acusados injustamente de violar y drogar a una mujer blanca.
Sin estilo y fría como un expediente nos relata el proceso y sentencia sumaria de estos hombres comunes como cualquiera, pero sin suerte.

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

No logro aún formarme una opinión sobre esta lectura, y quizá por ello la dejo en tres estrellas.

El estilo narrativo es distinto y eso le da un toque especial, pero la historia que cuenta deja un mal sabor de boca. Lo peor es que fue la realidad de alguien, en algún lugar...

[Valorie Clark · Rating 2 out of 5]

This unfinished sketch of a fictional book that Chester Himes wanted to write is a complicated and tragic story of four African-American soldiers in Paris who are falsely charged with the rape and murder of a white American woman. The sketch sets out to criticize the way American racism leads to automatically condemning African-American men of crimes they didn't commit, simply on the basis of color. A case is heard but hardly investigated, and the men are all found guilty. It is a real problem African-Americans faced, and Himes wasn't the only writer raising his voice in protest against this particular result of racism.

I was somewhat disturbed by the way the murdered woman is largely written off as crazy, and how her specific case of mental health problems is sort of blamed for the false conviction of the four men. While the men are innocent of rape, two are guilty of manslaughter (at the very least), but Himes focuses only on the injustice the men are faced with, rather than the fact that this woman was, in the end, murdered because of racism.