Two lives spiral into a fatal pas de deux during a weekend of sex, alcohol and violence—from the acclaimed author of the Harlem Detectives series
Jesse Robinson and Kriss Cummings once shared a passionate weekend in Chicago, but it’s been years since they’ve seen each other. Jesse, a black writer, refuses to pen the inspirational novel his agent wants, and sits in his Harlem tenement as his career plummets accordingly. Kriss, a white divorcée, has found moderate success at her office job, but is disillusioned with life. Often sleeping with black men, she’s pilloried for “solving the Negro Problem in bed.” Each of them lonely and embittered by the racial tensions of McCarthy-era America, they reunite for a whiskey-soaked weekend in 1952, spiraling into a violent, malicious pas de deux that is fated to end in destruction.
Praise for Chester Himes's The End of a Primitive
“A key American novel.” —The Washington Post “Shockingly raw. . . . Powerful.” —The New York Times Book Review “[Himes] produced some of the most original novels we have in the American canon.” —NPR
Two lives spiral into a fatal pas de deux during a weekend of sex, alcohol and violence—from the acclaimed author of the Harlem Detectives series
Jesse Robinson and Kriss Cummings once shared a passionate weekend in Chicago, but it’s been years since they’ve seen each other. Jesse, a black writer, refuses to pen the inspirational novel his agent wants, and sits in his Harlem tenement as his career plummets accordingly. Kriss, a white divorcée, has found moderate success at her office job, but is disillusioned with life. Often sleeping with black men, she’s pilloried for “solving the Negro Problem in bed.” Each of them lonely and embittered by the racial tensions of McCarthy-era America, they reunite for a whiskey-soaked weekend in 1952, spiraling into a violent, malicious pas de deux that is fated to end in destruction.
Praise
Praise for Chester Himes's The End of a Primitive
“A key American novel.” —The Washington Post “Shockingly raw. . . . Powerful.” —The New York Times Book Review “[Himes] produced some of the most original novels we have in the American canon.” —NPR
