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tessaherrmann's review against another edition
2.0
I thought that this was a fun book. Himes definitely had a unique writing style that grew on me throughout the book.
emryal's review against another edition
4.0
https://emryal.wordpress.com/2017/12/06/cotton-comes-to-harlem/
leucocrystal's review against another edition
4.0
I couldve finished this slim little volume in a sitting or two, if my life weren't a total mess right now, but it is, so it ended up taking me way too long. Still a gripping little classic caper, though.
keithlafountaine's review against another edition
3.0
"Cotton Comes to Harlem" is interesting in many different respects. Its incredulous, quick paced story is overwhelming at times, and its incredibly short length can be a bit off-putting as plot points and scenes seem to whip by without much description or resolution. However, the novel itself is well written, and there are some great comments made about race relations during the time period the novel is set (which can be related to today's society).
chalicotherex's review against another edition
3.0
Inspired by Marcus Garvey, a fresh-out-of prison con artist poses as a minister to start a back-to-Africa scam to rip off poor Black families, to the tune of $87,000. But his money is stolen in broad daylight. Meanwhile there's a colonel from Alabama in Harlem up to no good, and it's up to Coffin Ed and Grave Digger Jones to get to the bottom of it all.
piccoline's review against another edition
3.0
Very hard boiled. Downright misanthropic. Like, you're reading it and thinking, wow, this is really misogynistic until you realize that it's not just the women that are portrayed as really venal and contemptible... but maybe they are, in the end a little more contemptible?
Look, it's an interesting caper, it's got some good moments, and it's certainly an interesting sketch of the sketchy side of Harlem of a certain time. And no doubt Himes gets some good shots in on the varieties of white supremacy and racism. But it's all a pretty nasty business.
Maybe the most fair thing to say is: I'm still processing this one.
Look, it's an interesting caper, it's got some good moments, and it's certainly an interesting sketch of the sketchy side of Harlem of a certain time. And no doubt Himes gets some good shots in on the varieties of white supremacy and racism. But it's all a pretty nasty business.
Maybe the most fair thing to say is: I'm still processing this one.
peebee's review against another edition
4.0
Just fine pulp detective novel, though it's really disorienting to read a book that's about an area that makes up about 100 square blocks that you spent eight years running long distance in. Probably not a block I didn't at least jog through, and I lived within about five blocks of probably 80% of the action in the book (across 5 apartments of the 7 I lived in in NYC, and two ex-girlfriend's places).
A very different place in the 20-teens than the late 80s, so a lot of what he's talking about is gone (missed the Lenox Lounge by months). Since most everything's gone I can't really gainsay the accuracy of it, but he gets the location of the Cotton Club insanely wrong, putting it like ten blocks north and four-five longblocks east (and yea, I know there were three, the one I know is the one that was there when the time the book was written and has been since). I think it's located in the book at the spot it was originally, which was shut down in like the 30s.
So being able to fact check and pick out a Harlem Mistake here and there like I'm an old timey street peddler biting a gold coin to see if it's real was fun.
A very different place in the 20-teens than the late 80s, so a lot of what he's talking about is gone (missed the Lenox Lounge by months). Since most everything's gone I can't really gainsay the accuracy of it, but he gets the location of the Cotton Club insanely wrong, putting it like ten blocks north and four-five longblocks east (and yea, I know there were three, the one I know is the one that was there when the time the book was written and has been since). I think it's located in the book at the spot it was originally, which was shut down in like the 30s.
So being able to fact check and pick out a Harlem Mistake here and there like I'm an old timey street peddler biting a gold coin to see if it's real was fun.
lnatal's review against another edition
3.0
From BBC radio 4 Extra:
Harlem, 1965: Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are the most notorious Detectives in the Harlem precinct. Their methods are unorthodox, and some people think they're trigger happy, but ask any law-abiding citizen of Harlem and they'll sing their praises. So when the Reverend Deke O'Malleys Back to Africa movement collects $87,000 from poor black families - only to have it stolen from under their noses - Jones and Johnson get put on the case.
Read by Hugh Quarshie.
Chester Himes' fantastically atmospheric novel is not just a great thriller it reveals the lives of black people in a white city at a time, three years before the death of Martin Luther King, when under Alabama law killing a Negro did not constitute murder. It was filmed in 1970 and has become a cult classic.
Chester Himes was born in 1909, and grew up in a middle class home in Missouri. His first real experience of racism was when a white hospital refused to treat his brother who had damaged his eyes in a schoolboy prank. He went to Ohio state University but was expelled. In 1928 he was arrested and sentenced to 25 years hard labour for armed robbery. He started writing in prison and sold stories to magazines including Esquire. He was released in 1936, lived in Los Angeles for a time - the basis of his novel If He Hollers Let Him Go, and moved to Paris in the 1950s where his Harlem precinct novels were first published. His novel For Love of Imabelle became very successful film A Rage in Harlem.
Hugh Quarshie is a TV regular in Holby City playing Ric Griffin. He has extensive film, tv and radio credits.
Abridged and produced by Chris Wallis.
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Autolycus Productions.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pbp6y
Harlem, 1965: Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are the most notorious Detectives in the Harlem precinct. Their methods are unorthodox, and some people think they're trigger happy, but ask any law-abiding citizen of Harlem and they'll sing their praises. So when the Reverend Deke O'Malleys Back to Africa movement collects $87,000 from poor black families - only to have it stolen from under their noses - Jones and Johnson get put on the case.
Read by Hugh Quarshie.
Chester Himes' fantastically atmospheric novel is not just a great thriller it reveals the lives of black people in a white city at a time, three years before the death of Martin Luther King, when under Alabama law killing a Negro did not constitute murder. It was filmed in 1970 and has become a cult classic.
Chester Himes was born in 1909, and grew up in a middle class home in Missouri. His first real experience of racism was when a white hospital refused to treat his brother who had damaged his eyes in a schoolboy prank. He went to Ohio state University but was expelled. In 1928 he was arrested and sentenced to 25 years hard labour for armed robbery. He started writing in prison and sold stories to magazines including Esquire. He was released in 1936, lived in Los Angeles for a time - the basis of his novel If He Hollers Let Him Go, and moved to Paris in the 1950s where his Harlem precinct novels were first published. His novel For Love of Imabelle became very successful film A Rage in Harlem.
Hugh Quarshie is a TV regular in Holby City playing Ric Griffin. He has extensive film, tv and radio credits.
Abridged and produced by Chris Wallis.
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Autolycus Productions.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pbp6y
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