Status Updates From Cotton Comes to Harlem: Che...

Actually so riveting

The amount of subtle, smart, cynical racial commentary in this, in the small ways people interact, in the mundane ways we pass through our lives, differently, depending on the color of our skin… really brilliant.

A while ago, when Himes described Harlem as a city of 500,000 black people… idk man. Perspective is a hell of a thing. Loving this. Bought ALL SHOT UP today on the strength of this.

The code switching bit when Bud is talking to the cops is really well done. The way this whole thing is cohering, all the Great Migration themes coalescing, all the characters oscillating between gumshoe cartoons and flesh-thick, working class people… really special stuff.

Easy to write this off as just a detective novel, but there’s a lot of Big Ideas tucked away in the corners and the margins that elevates it

Himes sets up this scenario of ghettoized black communities in Northern cities being treated unfairly — prejudiced policing; inegalitarian resource sharing; opportunity hoarding — & seeing only 2 options before them: Back to Africa, or Back to the South. The obvious answer is just to Treat Black People as People, sth these cities refuse to do, but that Himes, in his smart prose, does doggedly, deliberately.