Seminal (pun intended) blaxploitation text from the 60's & the inevitable
bastard child of
Richard Wright's Native
Son (see Orrin's review). Dan Freeman
(get it) is hired as the CIA's token black; he is literally "the spook
who sat by the door". However, Freeman has his own agenda and while
the CIA is using him to alleviate pressure from white liberals, he's soaking
up as much knowledge as he can. When he leaves the CIA and goes back
to the 'hood, he brings an extensive background in the techniques and theories
of armed insurrection and he leads the revolt against whitey.
All of the familiar elements of blaxploitation abound: whitey's
stupid, the hero possesses some
hyper-magnetism which draws all women to him and earns the instant
respect of all men, the
two most hated groups are white liberals--who don't recognize the racism
inherent in their own
ideas and the black middle class--which has sold out.
Websites:
Book-related and General Links:
-African American
Mystery Page
-Can
You Dig It? The Original Black Eyes (Thrilling Detective)
-Can
You Dig The New Breed? The New Black Eyes (Thrilling Detective)
If you liked The Spook Who Sat by the Door, try:
Cleaver, Eldridge
-Soul
on Ice
Ellison Ralph (1914-1994)
-Invisible
Man (1952) (read
Orrin's review, Grade: C)
Gaines, Ernest J. (1933-)
-A
Lesson Before Dying (1993) (read
Orrin's review, Grade: A)
Goines, Donald (1937-1974)
Crime
Partners (1971) (read
Orrin's review, Grade: C+)
Haywood, Gar Anthony
-Fear of the Dark
-You Can Die Trying
-Not Long for this World
-It's
Not a Pretty Sight (1996)
-When
Last Seen Alive: An Aaron Gunner Mystery (1997)
(Read
Orrin's review, Grade: C)
Himes, Chester (1909-84)
-If
He Hollers Let Him Go
(Coffin Ed Johnson & Gravedigger Jones Mysteries)
-Cotton
Comes to Harlem
-The
Real Cool Killers
-The
Heat's On
-The
Crazy Kill (1959) (Read
Orrin's review, Grade: B)
Jackson, George
-Soledad
Brother : The Prison Letters of George Jackson
Mosley, Walter (1952-)
(Easy Rawlins Mysteries)
-Devil
in a Blue Dress
-A
Red Death
-White
Butterfly
-Black
Betty
-A
Little Yellow Dog
-Gone
Fishin' (1997) (Read
Orrin's review, Grade: B)
Nelson, Hugh
-The
Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America
(1994) (read Orrin's review)
Tidyman, Ernest
-Shaft
-Shaft Among the Jews
Wright, Richard (1908--1960)
-Native
Son (1940) (read Orrin's review)
X, Malcolm (1925-65) & Alex Haley
-The
Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) (read
Orrin's review, Grade: A+)