Chester Himes is a truly remarkable and amazing writer who has largely been forgotten by the reading public. Along with 'The Quality of Hurt,' the first part of Himes' two volume memoir, no where in American letters has a writer so captured the life of an expatriate American artist then Mr. Himes. From his days serving prison time and learning to write, to his final days in Spain where finally he was able to live as the artist he wished to be, this story is as amazing and 'American' as any yet produced in some 300 odd years of our country's literature.On a personal note, I first read this book while living in New York City as a very poor young man myself. It made me laugh on cold nights, at, yes, the absurdity of it all, and I recommend it to anyone who has dared the Gods and tried to make a living by his pen or laptop.
