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If He Hollers Let Him Go

Chester Himes,

Hilton Als (Foreword by)

3.98 · Rating details · 1,910 ratings · 187 reviews

This story of a man living every day in fear of his life for simply being black is as powerful today as it was when it was first published in 1947. The novel takes place in the space of four days in the life of Bob Jones, a black man who is constantly plagued by the effects of racism. Living in a society that is drenched in race consciousness has no doubt taken a toll on t ...more

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Paperback, 203 pages

Published September 3rd 2002 by Da Capo Press (first published 1945)

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Dec 06, 2020 Reggie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020-favorites

Racism is a Horror Story.

Always has been.

Always will be.

Not only is it a horror story, because of The car wreck effect is has. The effect when you say a car fucked up on the side of the road so you slow down. Causing the traffic that we all hated prior to quarantine.

It's also a Horror Story because it is entertaining. At least the publishers think so. Look at the amount of books available that touch on the topic. In various ways, shapes and forms. Being something important to discuss couldn't be ...more

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May 10, 2017 Richard Derus rated it really liked it

Rating: 4.5* of five

Many long years ago, this book and I crossed paths while I was working at Thunder's Mouth Press. I was gobsmacked by the rawness of Bob Jones's hate and fury. I would never have imagined the horrors of racism and the vileness of color prejudice among African Americans NOT inducing hatred and rage, but Himes was such an amazing writer that I experienced Bob Jones's feelings as deeply as my own.

I can't think of a reason that you wouldn't already have read this book, but if for ...more

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Mar 26, 2010 Brian rated it it was amazing

An absolutely amazing book written not only by one of the best African American writers, but one of the best writers of the 20th century, who had to move to Europe since there was no place in the America of the 50s and 60s for a black man to be a creative and successful writer expressing the reality of being a person of color in this country. While he made his living writing noir novels based on 2 great characters, Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones, both black NYC detectives based in Harle ...more

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Apr 22, 2018 Bill Lynas rated it it was ok · review of another edition

The first novel from Chester Himes has some good characters & sharp dialogue, but for me it doesn't come up to the standard of his later work. It still packs a punch & has plenty to say about racism, while the author's style is sometimes as aggressive as his characters. However, it isn't in the same league as some of his other novels like The Real Cool Killers or Cotton Comes To Harlem which can easily be read more than once.
...more

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Jan 16, 2009 Nancy Oakes rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime-fiction, crime-fiction-america

The setting of this novel is Los Angeles during World War II. The main character, Bob Jones, is an African-American man, who gets a job at a defense shipyard there, and is the narrator of this story. Bob is, in fact, the supervisor of a small crew of other African-Americans. The action takes place just after the forced internment of Japanese-Americans in California, which kind of sets the stage for how Bob sees himself as a black man in white Los Angeles. He's also in a situation where, because The setting of this novel is Los Angeles during World War II. The main character, Bob Jones, is an African-American man, who gets a job at a defense shipyard there, and is the narrator of this story. Bob is, in fact, the supervisor of a small crew of other African-Americans. The action takes place just after the forced internment of Japanese-Americans in California, which kind of sets the stage for how Bob sees himself as a black man in white Los Angeles. He's also in a situation where, because most of the able-bodied men have gone off to war, there's an influx of laborers, both white and African-American, men and women. He often ruminates about his existence as a black man, realizing that even with his position as supervisor, other supervisors will not share their white workers when he needs them to do so, or that he is not wanted in white, middle-class restaurants or other establishments. In short, Bob is aware that as an African-American man at this time, he's being oppressed, and the whole symbolism (imho) of the Japanese internment reminds him constantly that it could happen to him at any time for any reason.

Bob has a girlfriend, Alice, who, since her father is a very well-paid physician, lives a very middle-class sort of life. Alice is fair-skinned and a social worker, entertaining herself with intellectual friends. When Bob tries to explain how he feels because of being African-American in Los Angeles, Alice tries to explain to him that if he'd just let all of these feelings of white oppression go, and find himself a place in the middle-class scene, life would be so much easier for him. Alice is sort of a dreamer, who doesn't want to come to terms with her heritage; she really has no clue. Bob, on the other hand, can't ignore the realities of his life, and this hits home one day on the job when a trashy white woman laborer from Texas calls him the n-word and he reacts in kind, setting off a chain of events that snowball out of control.

I liked this book, and I'll probably read many more by this author in the future. His characters were believable, the setting was entirely believable and as a reader, you get into Bob's head very quickly and you stay with him the entire time. Himes is an awesome writer. I would most definitely recommend this book to people who want a bit of grit in their reading, or to people who may have been previously on the fence about reading this author, but don't expect to come away with this upbeat 'cause it ain't gonna happen. ...more

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Aug 16, 2014 Andy rated it really liked it

World War II-era novel about a man fighting his own personal war against racism and hometown sellouts. Although it would be years before Himes would begin writing crime fiction, the writing style in If He Hollers is distinctly hard-boiled, slash and burn, in other words, NOIR. Patricia Highsmith was a fan, and I can't think of no higher endorsement of Himes' great works. ...more

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Jul 19, 2009 Babydoll rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book is a must-read for those who are literary fans of classic African American literature. Published in 1945, Chester Himes does a marvelous job capturing the vivid character Bob Jones, who endures racism while living in California, discrimination on his job, and color complexes among his Black American friends. The main character, Jones, resembles the character Bigger Thomas from Richard Wright's great novel 'Native Son', in that they both deal with the infectious disease of social racism ...more

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Jan 21, 2015 Shelly L rated it it was amazing

Shelves: oh_africa_and_america, z_college_4_sure, beloved-sagas

Snow wasn't the only blanket of whiteness in the Minnesota of my childhood. Growing up, I didn't grasp the history of, present reality of, or pervasive machinery of racism. Did not get it at all. I mean, I was watching Sesame Street, reading Dr. Seuss, and listening to Free to Be You and Me. Everything was coolio. When shown A Class Divided in elementary school, I marvelled at how people could look down on other people just for the way they look. Ridiculous! With every episode of Star Trek, I fe Snow wasn't the only blanket of whiteness in the Minnesota of my childhood. Growing up, I didn't grasp the history of, present reality of, or pervasive machinery of racism. Did not get it at all. I mean, I was watching Sesame Street, reading Dr. Seuss, and listening to Free to Be You and Me. Everything was coolio. When shown A Class Divided in elementary school, I marvelled at how people could look down on other people just for the way they look. Ridiculous! With every episode of Star Trek, I felt that racism was an ignorance we'd soon leave behind. With every laugh track on The Archie Bunker Show, I felt it would be dead and gone before I came of age. I recall shock and horror when I dropped into a social studies classroom a few minutes early to find two boys slinging racial slurs around. Loud and proud, like they did it every day. While my teacher sat by, trying to eat his lunch, mind his own business. In. Social. Studies. How could this be? Why didn't someone stop them? How could kids at my nearly homogenous high school, in my milky state, in my modern time be haters — and who exactly were they hating on?! Did not get it at all. In college, I took an amazing course on the civil rights movement. The material we covered opened my eyes even as the class itself shut my mouth. In that classroom, I was a minority. My thoughts were suspect. My knowledge was lacking. My poise was lacking, too. I had much to learn. We watched Eyes on the Prize and read oodles of stuff, and I did learn. Slowly. Reading this book was a jolt. I felt a powerful shift in perspective, a painful consciousness raising. I suddenly saw what white privilege is. I wanted more people to read it and see it, too. The more the better. And that's how I got kicked out of book group. It was a couple years later, and we weren't in college anymore. I missed reading and discussing books with people when along came the book group craze. Whoo! Mistake #1 was when I joined this particular book group. Mistake #2 was when they agreed to read this book at my suggestion. Mistake #3 was when one of them said something lazy and privileged and not getting it at ALL, and I went all verbal jujitsu on him. I'm an English major, man! There's nothing I love more than debating literary evidence for pity's sake. Plus, he was lazy and I enjoyed showing him exactly how lazy ... and, welp. I was no doubt insufferable. He later called me up and passive aggressively asked me to "... rethink my commitment to book group." Which I most certainly did. And I never went back. And I still don't do book groups. #MapMyReadingLife ...more

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Sep 24, 2012 April rated it it was amazing

A racially charged story. It is intense, powerful, and painful to read. I do not recommend reading it if you want a feel good book. This will leave you feeling as though the life has been sucked out of you. It deals primarily with the day to day issues of a young black man (Bob Jones) in Los Angeles during WWII. It spans 4 days in his life in which he is confronted with inequality left and right, on the job, during his drive to work, at the movies, at dinner - anywhere and everywhere he turns.

T A racially charged story. It is intense, powerful, and painful to read. I do not recommend reading it if you want a feel good book. This will leave you feeling as though the life has been sucked out of you. It deals primarily with the day to day issues of a young black man (Bob Jones) in Los Angeles during WWII. It spans 4 days in his life in which he is confronted with inequality left and right, on the job, during his drive to work, at the movies, at dinner - anywhere and everywhere he turns.

There are two major female characters in the story, his upper class girlfriend Alice, who is dealing with her own issues regarding race in her own way and within her own social class, and Madge, a white female worker at his job site who refuses to work with him and calls him a nigger - prompting him to call her names back and subsequently get demoted. These two relationships are used to illustrate two different sides of Bob. With Madge (and the others on the job) he is constantly trying to hold back his urges to hurt, rape, and fight as he deals with being treated unfairly and has too much pride to let it go simply because he is one color and they are another. With Alice, he has the opportunity to change his social standing, and although they have trouble seeing eye-to-eye about their color, she eventually has a major impact on his outlook in regards to his color, convincing him that although his color may restrict him in regards to economic factors, it should have no bearing over other concrete things and core values like love, family, integrity, and courage. This is a big turning point in Bob's psychological outlook but it is short lived.

Due to unfortunate circumstances he ends up alone with Madge. She thinks she's going to be in trouble for slacking off on the job and turns the spotlight on his to defer the attention away from herself claiming rape. She has him beaten and arrested and he goes back to his old way of thinking. Alice tries to convince him to be rational and she will help him fight the charges in court but he runs. In the end he is "pardoned" and forced to enlist in the army, which made me think back to something one of the other black men working with him had said earlier on in the book about a black man being in the army. That such a man is only fighting against himself. Fighting for the right to keep on taking the same old crap. Like I said, painful to read. But a great read and an easy one as well. ...more

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Apr 14, 2009 Terence rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Anybody who asked

A very powerful book, probably the closest thing in print a white man can come to experiencing what it's like to live in a world where no matter what you do you're always a "boy" - a second-class citizen. I particularly liked Himes' ability to look at the many ways African-Americans cope with that status.

I think it's better today than when this book first appeared in 1945 but then I read about a private swimming pool that barred a bunch of black children from swimming there (after they had joine ...more

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Mar 26, 2018 Shake rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018-reading-challenge

This book is gutwrenching, and accurately describes the complexity of Blackness, anti-Blackness, and white privilege. Broke my heart into a million pieces reading the raw truth of what we as Black people face... even in 2018.

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Mar 22, 2018 Daniel Polansky added it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, discard

A black worker in a naval plant in WWII-era Los Angeles is brutalized and driven insane by American racial politics. The prose is strong, though not as strong as it would get in his later books, and he still has the sharp eye for injustice and hypocrisy, as he demonstrates throughout the Harlem detective series, but the plot, such as it is, is kind of….loose? Predictable? Ultimately I think his ‘genre’ stuff is stronger, not so much because of the genre angles specifically but more because of th ...more

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Aug 19, 2020 Carol Douglas rated it really liked it

Somehow I managed not to know about Chester Himes until recently, when Isabel Wilkerson recommended this book in an article in The New York Times Book Review. Himes is a classic writer on a par with Richard Wright. But Bob Jones, the protagonist, is nothing like Bigger Thomas.

Bob works as a supervisor in a shipyard near Los Angeles during World War II. He has to contend with racism. He also has difficulty with Alice, the woman he's in love with, a member of the African-American elite who keeps a ...more

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Aug 09, 2017 Kinga rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction

3.5...blistering account of endemic racism in the US during the 40s.

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Oct 04, 2019 Alex (Iseultslibrary) rated it liked it

3.5 stars

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Mar 10, 2017 Dani rated it it was amazing

I testament to the dangerous existence of white women in the world of black men. A pure horror story that's as relentless as it is brilliant. You should read this. ...more

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Aug 14, 2013 James added it

Q: Who's more racist, black people or white people?
A: Black people, because black people hate black people, too.

40's era racism sounds like a bummer. Johnson says he feels white while terrorizing a (white) man who mugged him, i.e. he understands suddenly the feeling of power, control, and safety that white people enjoy all the time. You shouldn't threaten to kill people, but it's not hard to justify his actions given that the white dude robbed him because he knew he could get away with it, and i Q: Who's more racist, black people or white people?
A: Black people, because black people hate black people, too.

40's era racism sounds like a bummer. Johnson says he feels white while terrorizing a (white) man who mugged him, i.e. he understands suddenly the feeling of power, control, and safety that white people enjoy all the time. You shouldn't threaten to kill people, but it's not hard to justify his actions given that the white dude robbed him because he knew he could get away with it, and it is an effective simile. Later, though, when he attempts to rape the white lady who called him a 'nigger' and precipitated him losing his job, you can't make that same claim.

Himes has responded to this criticism, saying basically that he is depicting the effects of racism, and that if you don't like the raw effects of oppression then you can't handle the truth. At some point while reading Johnson stalk a woman to rape her, though, it occurs to me that if a white dude wrote a drunken black dude obsessed with raping white wimmin, I'd throw that book out on principle, but I'm letting Himes get away with the same because he's a black guy.

So, you say, what the fuck do I know, with all my white middle-class privilege and experience, about the experience of poor black men? Fuck all, but neither does Himes. The assumption is that the most autobiographical character is Robert Johnson, but he has a lot more in common with Johnson's middle-class, light-skinned (of course) girlfriend, Alice. Both Himes and Alice are middle-class, both think poor blacks are dangerous imbeciles, and both fuck white people for career purposes.

Himes says of his fellow inmates from his six years in prison: "stupid, uneducated, practically illiterate, slighting above animals." What a fucking cock, right? Betrayal, classism, and the same discrimination that makes monsters of us all. And still, a stupid part of you wants to give him a pass, some belligerent brain cell that claims it is impossible to fully understand the black experience so therefore I can't call out this bullshit. It is impossible to shake that impulse, despite the simple fact that if a middle-class white person told me that they felt that poor whites are barely above animals, I'd think that person was an idiot.

There is a gut-wrenching scene where Robert talks to Alice's mom, who insists that black people will remain oppressed until they prove to white people that they're good enough by being patient and working hard for less until white people give them freedom. And, because Robert is so angry about it, we must assume that Himes doesn't believe this sort of shit. But, why? Robert doesn't actually defend his position, he just takes out his girlfriend, makes a scene at a restaurant, lets her get a ticket for speeding while driving his car drunk, and then beats her up at a party before driving his car onto the sidewalk on the way home. If this is how black people actually acted, then Alice's mom's reasoning would make sense. But, of course, black people don't.

I can't say whether the mistake is that Himes has let blacks be defined by the oppressors or if he just hates poor blacks, but it doesn't matter. His documentation of racism, and his comments on the same, are lost behind his disdain for those he considers beneath him. ...more

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Jan 07, 2016 Thanh Ha rated it it was amazing

4.5 stars

This book is so emotionally densed. It had me on my edge from start to finish. The night I finished the book, I had a dream of being trapped in a pitch-black house of hundreds of room where enemies came from every sides. That was how I felt reading this novel.

This isn’t the kind of book that will provide you with a wonderfully groundbreaking argument on institutional racism and oppression. Many times when I thought Himes was going to let his characters talk it out, the conversation wa 4.5 stars

This book is so emotionally densed. It had me on my edge from start to finish. The night I finished the book, I had a dream of being trapped in a pitch-black house of hundreds of room where enemies came from every sides. That was how I felt reading this novel.

This isn’t the kind of book that will provide you with a wonderfully groundbreaking argument on institutional racism and oppression. Many times when I thought Himes was going to let his characters talk it out, the conversation was broken off.

Himes, however, did an amazing job in profiling his characters and their struggle over control and power. The characterization was classics in a way.
• Bob, troubled, short-tempered, with an urge to preserve his manhood, dignity, and self-worth, by getting even with white folks, by not letting them rule over his life.
• Alice’s mom, fully internalized the belief that black people could only make it at white people’s mercy.
• Alice, light-coloured, sheltered, not entirely blinded from the faults of the system, but choosing not to talk about it & to live within the limitation of her race.
• Leighton, the benevolent white god, infantizing Bob as an unruly child
• Marge, where power took in the form of sexuality
• The black folks at the shipyards who felt the need to protect white women but not their black women
• And that comical Cleo whose definition of white tramp doesn’t extend to white male

The book has many powerful, sensual moments that can get under your skin.
• The scene of Bob and Alice at the restaurant was heartbreaking. I was really rooting for Alice to own it. She regained her control at some points, became beautiful & poised, then they got on her nerves, and she finally did break down in the end.
• Bob’s input to the phoney discussion among social workers in Alice’s room:
"... Well, sister, you’re asking for it, I thought. Aloud I said: ‘Well, now, I think we ought to kill the coloured residents and eat them. In that way we’ll not only solve the race problem but alleviate the meat shortage as well.’ ..."
• The psychological battle of control taking the form of lust (in which he lost, again) on the night Bob went to find Marge

He lost the final battle too. All that psychological losses ended up in a physical loss. He woke up naked, beaten, cornered, without help, with his penetrator being sung a hero. There can be no other way around it. He didn’t have a choice.
...more

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Sep 06, 2012 Zack added it

this is the story of an african american man who lives in LA in the late forties. he is very intelligent but very angry because he constantly experiences racism and hatred because of his skin color. he looses his job because a woman calls him a "nigger" and then he reacts and calls her a "cracker slut." then eeeeeeverything starts going down hill.

o my gooooooooooooooooood. this is such a powerful book. extremely interesting and intensely sad. like my body hurt as i finished it. but it also felt ...more

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Feb 13, 2014 Sarah Zama rated it it was amazing

Shelves: african-american-authors

This is the account of four life-changing days in the life of Robert Jones, a black leaderman of a black crew in a Californian shipyard during WWII. Bob is a fiery man who knows his own worth and tries to assert it in the white world he lives in, even with all the restrictions he knows he have to take into account. But there are things he's not willing to take, and he won't take. And when one of these happens and he is suspended from work because he stood his ground, his entire life is shaken to ...more

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Nov 12, 2007 jo rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: lovers of L.A. lit, african american lit., and walter mosley

Shelves: books-i-teach, african-american

i am not sure how many people would find this fun to read, but it's such a literary feat, it seems to me an essential chapter in african american literature. first of all, it *is* fun to read: it's fast-paced, gritty, fabulously political, witty, sharp, and strikingly contemporary. but i imagine college students reading it (since i plan to teach it, this particular audience knocks on my attention's doors again and again) and, in my mind, i hear them complaining about the narrator's rantish rage, ...more

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Mar 19, 2007 Professor rated it really liked it

Shelves: virtual-catalog

At this point I've read quite a few novels by Chester Himes, but all of them have been from his series of crime novels starring Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, two tough, no-nonsense cops who have to navigate the insane Harlem Himes creates while simultaneously dealing with institutional racism. If He Hollers Let Him Go, however, is not set in a surreal world but instead in the reality of war time Los Angeles. The main character, Bob Johnson, is a "leaderman" at a shipyard and dating A ...more

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Dec 27, 2016 Tunde Oyebode rated it it was amazing

Pay no attention to the synopsis at the back of the book, It is very misleading. After reading the summary I was under the impression that the book will primarily contain some sort of judicial battle between black and white, something akin to 'to kill a mocking bird.' It wasn't the case.

Instead the book, about 90% of it, contained the thoughts and endeavours of a somewhat successful black man who experiences racism daily and is plagued by a rage to do something about it. What makes things so mu ...more

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Mar 22, 2011 Prooost Davis rated it it was amazing

It took me a few pages to decide that this novel had something new to tell me. But it proved to be a moving account of the plight of blacks during the 1940s war years.

Bob Jones is a shipyard worker in Los Angeles, and has been given the post of "leaderman" over a crew of workers (and, therefore, a draft deferment). But he finds that his position gives him no real power, and that subordinate whites are able to ignore him with impunity. Bob's desire for a true manhood makes him chafe against the r ...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Eva rated it really liked it

I wasn't sure how to rate this book. It's well written and offers an intriguing look into racism ca. WWII, as well as how it can vary by class and geography.

It was also a bit uncomfortable to read, since the main character is an angry "negro" man who is furious about how the world treats him and wants to respond with violence--not exactly uplifting, positive propaganda.

Two quotes, to give you an idea:

I thought if they really wanted to give him [the baby] a break they'd cut his throat and bury h ...more

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Oct 19, 2014 Meg added it

Shelves: race-and-racism, fiction

I've rarely been so grateful to arrive at the end of a book - not for lack of literary merit, but because the portrayal of one man's struggle to maintain his sense of dignity and self-worth in the face of constant racism is so painful. So it wasn't enjoyable, but that doesn't mean it wasn't good. From a historical point of view, this book reminded me of "The Warmth of Other Suns" (highly recommended, btw) which gives the context of black folks migrating out of the South and into the North and We ...more

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May 14, 2015 Jesse Wiedel rated it it was amazing

This was a terrific book! Starting this book, I felt I was in for a pummeling about racism and not much else, but the book was written with such fierce satire and wit that I took a lot of pleasure reading it. It was good to read someone not dancing around the issue of racism in the '40's. The style of writing reminded me of Jim Thompson, and even Dostoyevsky in sections, the way he delves deep into the weirdness of the subject's psyche. I loved how he would begin a lot of chapters by recounting ...more

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Oct 17, 2015 Ippolit rated it really liked it · review of another edition

a freudian/lacanian retelling Native Son by Richard Wright. novel of IMPOTENCE AND FAILURE. amazingly written. it is the life of a black Josef K. in mid-century Los Angeles.

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Nov 07, 2014 Kit rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: recentlyread

A few scenes were a little speechy but overall this is an amazing novel.

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Feb 07, 2021 Kimberley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

As I read this, my undergraduate psych classes kept coming to mind: the Freudian theory behind the id, superego, and ego, specifically.

I won't spend too much time on that but, basically, in Freud's theory, the id operates on instinct (with zero regard for consequences), the superego is the moral compass (the means by which we determine right and wrong), and the ego is the realist in us--acting as the moderator between impulse and passivity.

With that in mind, imagine a man, attempting to survive ...more

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About Chester Himes

Chester Himes

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Chester Bomar Himes began writing in the early 1930s while serving a prison sentence for armed robbery. From there, he produced short stories for periodicals such as Esquire and Abbott's Monthly. When released, he focussed on semi-autobiographical protest novels.

In 1953, Himes emigrated to France, where he was approached by Marcel Duhamel of Gallimard to write a detective series for Série Noire, ...more