Curt's Read-Bag: The Real Cool Killers
Title: The Real Cool Killers
By: Chester Himes (Random House, 145 pp., 1955)
Concerning: Harlem police detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones investigate a fatal shooting and discover a youth gang called “The Real Cool Moslems” and a fraught personal connection to Coffin Ed.
Quote: “Both of the two men rose with alacrity, picked up their glasses and vacated the stools, grinning at Grave Digger obsequiously.
‘Don’t show men your teeth,’ Grave Digger snarled. ‘I’m no dentist. I don’t fix teeth. I’m a cop. I’ll knock your teeth out.’
The men doused their grins and slunk away.
Grave Digger threw the bull whip on top of the bar and sat on the high bar stool.
‘Sit down,’ he ordered Ready who stood by hesitantly. ‘Sit down, goddamit.’
Ready sat down as through the stool were covered with cake icing.”
Verdict: Very good, but I thought I’d never finish it. I started it, then put it aside to read More Information Than You Require for my fun John Hodgman interview, then I picked up The Real Cool Killers again, then I put it aside again to read Nothing But Strings by NPR commentator Bailey White, also for work*, but picked it up once more and soldiered through. It’s another novel anthologized in the Modern Library’s Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s, and for some reason, I liked it much more than the other Chester Himes novel I read, A Rage in Harlem about 17 years ago. Maybe The Real Cool Killers has more narrative momentum - it primarily takes place in a single night - or maybe I just didn’t “get” Himes and the vibe of the Coffin Ed/Grave Digger series at first. I can’t say I found the chapters from the point of view of the miscreants that interesting, but I certainly liked the period atmosphere of 1950s Harlem, and the way the two heroes are such two-fisted, head-breaking hard cases, they’re almost funny. Plus, the mystery story conveys social racial inequities without needing to make long speeches about them.
* I find that if I review a book or interview an author for work, I'm not inclined to do a separate "read-bag" blog entry about it. Sorry.
By: Chester Himes (Random House, 145 pp., 1955)
Concerning: Harlem police detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones investigate a fatal shooting and discover a youth gang called “The Real Cool Moslems” and a fraught personal connection to Coffin Ed.
Quote: “Both of the two men rose with alacrity, picked up their glasses and vacated the stools, grinning at Grave Digger obsequiously.
‘Don’t show men your teeth,’ Grave Digger snarled. ‘I’m no dentist. I don’t fix teeth. I’m a cop. I’ll knock your teeth out.’
The men doused their grins and slunk away.
Grave Digger threw the bull whip on top of the bar and sat on the high bar stool.
‘Sit down,’ he ordered Ready who stood by hesitantly. ‘Sit down, goddamit.’
Ready sat down as through the stool were covered with cake icing.”
Verdict: Very good, but I thought I’d never finish it. I started it, then put it aside to read More Information Than You Require for my fun John Hodgman interview, then I picked up The Real Cool Killers again, then I put it aside again to read Nothing But Strings by NPR commentator Bailey White, also for work*, but picked it up once more and soldiered through. It’s another novel anthologized in the Modern Library’s Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s, and for some reason, I liked it much more than the other Chester Himes novel I read, A Rage in Harlem about 17 years ago. Maybe The Real Cool Killers has more narrative momentum - it primarily takes place in a single night - or maybe I just didn’t “get” Himes and the vibe of the Coffin Ed/Grave Digger series at first. I can’t say I found the chapters from the point of view of the miscreants that interesting, but I certainly liked the period atmosphere of 1950s Harlem, and the way the two heroes are such two-fisted, head-breaking hard cases, they’re almost funny. Plus, the mystery story conveys social racial inequities without needing to make long speeches about them.
* I find that if I review a book or interview an author for work, I'm not inclined to do a separate "read-bag" blog entry about it. Sorry.