tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16749171.post1109489889329407421..comments2024-03-28T11:13:05.893-07:00Comments on The Rap Sheet: The Book You Have to Read: “Room to Swing,” by Ed LacyJ. Kingston Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17073921191624535912noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16749171.post-62223384608042814702009-09-25T13:01:18.527-07:002009-09-25T13:01:18.527-07:00Thanks so much for your comment. And I agree that ...Thanks so much for your comment. And I agree that Himes ultimately tackles the race issue in a much stronger way -- no doubt about it. Himes, of course, is writing his best work a few years later, and even those few years were enough to change the racial situation and American perspectives on race itself in tremendous ways , meaning that the world in which Lacy wrote this book was different than the world in which Himes penned, for example, Cotton Comes to Harlem. <br /><br />In that way, I do think that each of these books (to stick with that Himes title) gives its own window into its respective times in some way -- and, importantly, into the ways in which individuals react within those times. While Touie Moore here calls one character an "Uncle Tom," he might himself be accused (from later perspectives) of his own accommodationist tendencies -- tendencies that might have been more prevalent in the late 1950s but that seemed to have run their course by the mid-1960s.<br /><br />As for the question about Harlem versus the rural South.... I have to admit that I'm not sure why that makes a difference. The South was, of course, the primary battleground of the Civil Rights movement, so it seems like exploring some of the roots of Southern racism might actually be more insightful than limiting the perspective to New York City. If anything, I'd argue the other point: That Lacy hedges his bets by not going *further* south; the Ohio town in Room to Swing is just on the Kentucky border, calling itself not "quite" a southern town and therefore avoiding some of the really difficult topics and scenes that might have been brought up if Touie had needed to travel to, say, Mississippi.<br /><br />(And in that regard, it's worth noting that John Ball hedged his bets in a similar way, setting In The Heat of the Night in North Carolina. Only in the film version did they move the setting to Mississippi, upping the ante and the stakes tremendously (and reflecting here too a shift from the time that Ball was writing the book to the time the movie was being made).)<br /><br />Still, thanks so much for responding and for the other recommendations here. Hearing other perspectives is much appreciated! Always nice to have a conversation on these topics.<br />ArtAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16749171.post-89540772231985960542009-09-25T11:41:40.718-07:002009-09-25T11:41:40.718-07:00I disagree a little with you on this. Race and th...I disagree a little with you on this. Race and the social conflicts that race brought into American culture, I found very subdued and limited in the novel. Especially with the majority of the story taking place not in Harlem, but in a rural southern town. The race element is weak. Chester Himes was better penning this in his mystery novels and nothing like it is found here. And as for a detective mystery story, "Room to Swing" was average. It did with the Edgar, but that may have been because Lacy was white and a white author creating a black Private Eye was unheard of in the 50s. <br /><br />As for Ed Lacy, try "The Men from the Boys" or "Visa to Death" or even "Lead with Your Left." All three are excellent.<br /><br />Bill K.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com