The Collected Stories of Chester Himes

In reading The Collected Stories Of Chester Himes I was reminded of another short story writer who made his name in the 1930s and 1940s as a social realist writer, and then made his mark writing pulpy novels toward the end of his career. That writer was Irwin Shaw, and while he was a superior short story teller to Himes, Himes is still a good writer, whose shorter fiction deserves a wider audience. The thing that keeps Himes from the heights Shaw reached is that his tales are not as diverse in theme nor character development. The two main tropes in this book of sixty tales are war stories and prison tales. While the latter trope is one that is still almost terra incognita for most writers, the former is very well represented in fiction. The prison tales, as a whole, suffer a bit from Himes' own formula. While no one else was writing such tales, there was not much variance within the tales. They often go on a bit too long for their one or two points to ring clarion with the reader, and then there will be some violence. The best of the tales mix in humor with these tropes, and the results can be excellent. The war tales, too, are a bit formulaic, although they are not an internal recipe of Himes', merely his toeing the genre line. Himes simply repeats himself too often, and this lack of breadth limits his ability to delve as deeply into the subject matter as needed. Another general problem with all the stories is that, unlike Shaw, Himes is not particularly good at ending his stories well nor memorably. Tales should always have something that grabs a reader, holds a reader, then leaves a reader wanting more, or thinking about what they just read. Too few of Himes' stories do that, as most just peter out, with an indifferent shrug as a reaction....No critics seem to mention that Himes is a great example of damning the old MFA workshop injunction against `telling' a story, rather than `showing' it. In a simpleminded way, this is just shorthand for trying to genericize writing and reduce it all to mere description, rather than firmly grasping the narrative and telling in a lucid, compelling, and poetic style. Of course, `showing,' when it entails good poesy, metaphor, and imagery, can work, as well, but the very notion that stating, say, that the cologne a male character wears has an erotic effect on women is less effective than letting it be known the character dapples cologne on and then taking two pages to describe how several women proposition him, is silly; especially if the effect the cologne has is not the main point of the tale. Something that just sets a scene need not usually be rhapsodized over unless it is important to the narrative, develops a character's traits, or somehow makes a contribution, aside from mere description to describe. Description itself is not arresting- it's the how and why, within a tale, that determines its success. Himes understood this, and fortunately, the majority of his stories take that approach, even if most o

This collection is an uneven ride, which is perhaps to be expected in stories written over a thirty year period. I had high hopes for the stories about prison (Himes himself was in jail for seven and a half years according to Wikipedia), but found these disappointing. Also disappointing were stories from later in his career, when the racial politics became more heavy-handed, much to the detriment of the literary value, in my view. A final criticism. Himes has no clue about women. His strongest female characters are amoral and conniving. The rest are considerably worse. That said, there's at least 100 pages of top flight stories that make the rest well worthwhile. Also, almost all the stories are quite short, and it's easy to get addicted to the bite size pieces. From here, I'm going back to Himes' detective stories, which I enjoyed even more. Still, I'm glad I read this side of this remarkable author.

Chester Himes is a master storyteller. He reveals the plight of black people in America. The stories are revealing as well as insightful.Truly being able to capture the sounds of the street is one of Himes' gifts, but he doesn't limit his themes to inner city life. Many writers have greater acclaim, but here is a true artist. Read his biography, and you will really appreciate how good a writer he was.