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In Search of Bisco
In 1965, more than five decades after his forced estrangement from his black boyhood friend Bisco, Erskine Caldwell set out across the South to find him. On the journey, which took him from South Carolina to Arkansas, Caldwell spoke to many people on the pretense of asking Bisco's a black college professor in Atlanta, Georgia; a white real estate salesman in Demopolis, Alabama; a black sharecropper in the Yazoo Basin of the Mississippi Delta; a transplanted white New England housewife in Bastrop, Louisiana; and others. Eighteen of those conversations, with Caldwell's commentary, make up this book.
Caldwell made his journey at the zenith of the civil rights movement. Bisco, whom Caldwell never found, becomes a symbol for the South's race problem, to which he sought an answer in the emotions, experiences, and attitudes of those he encountered.
Caldwell made his journey at the zenith of the civil rights movement. Bisco, whom Caldwell never found, becomes a symbol for the South's race problem, to which he sought an answer in the emotions, experiences, and attitudes of those he encountered.
- GenresTravelNonfiction
240 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1995
About the author
Erskine Caldwell
334 books230 followersErskine Preston Caldwell was an American author. His writings about poverty, racism and social problems in his native South won him critical acclaim, but they also made him controversial among fellow Southerners of the time who felt he was holding the region up to ridicule.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erskine_...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erskine_...
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 19, 2019
This is the first and only non-fiction work of Erskine Caldwell I’ve ever read, but that should come as no surprise given that this is the only non-fiction work he produced in his lifetime.
Is it worth reading? Absolutely! In it, he achieves the same monstrosity of purpose he achieves with his fictional work. But here, he’s not inventing; he’s just reporting. The only thing I found slightly annoying was the change of narrator chapter to chapter. I suppose he had a purpose; I just don’t know what it was.
In any case, here follow a few examples of Caldwell’s exceptional prose to let you decide if this work of non-fiction is for you.
On p. 90, we find: “(a)ll might be well in Laurel, as it could be elsewhere in Mississippi, if prideful residents of the northside would look at least as far away as the southside of their town even if they do not wish to see beyond the borders of their own state. As it is, and as though it is a way to avoid embarrassment, they fail to acknowledge their responsibility for the poverty and degradation of the Negro families on the southside and ignore the fact that it was the labor of Negroes that enabled them to accumulate wealth and social pretensions.
But customs prevail. And arrogance predominates. Instead of acting upon his responsibility as a citizen in modern America to alleviate and adjust economic and social discrimination imposed upon the Negro for generations, the white supremist is intent upon striving by any means to enforce a perpetuation of racial injustice that originated long ago in the time of slavery. As long as this custom can be maintained, the conscience of the white supremist will be quiet and undisturbed. Enforcement of the custom ranges from intimidation to physical punishment to violent death.”
On p. 105, we find this rather trenchant observation from a local African-American looking desperately to bury his father: “(y)ou don’t know how poor poor can be till you get too poor to be buried in the ground.”
And finally, on p. 167, we find: “(t)he red clay hills are undoubtedly more deeply eroded and gully-washed, the sky-line of jagged pines probably juts higher against the horizon, the stark spires of crumbling brick chimneys have become melancholy monuments to homes burned to ashes, briar thickets and clumps of beggar-lice have been quick to claim possession of abandoned cotton fields, and the gaunt granite gravestones in the cemetery have taken on the somber gray moss of age and oblivion.”
Say what you will about Caldwell’s social criticism. When the man wants to wax lyrical in his prose, he has only to remove one cap and replace it with another. And that—to me, at least—is the best kind of writer!
RRB
Brooklyn, NY
19 November 2019
Is it worth reading? Absolutely! In it, he achieves the same monstrosity of purpose he achieves with his fictional work. But here, he’s not inventing; he’s just reporting. The only thing I found slightly annoying was the change of narrator chapter to chapter. I suppose he had a purpose; I just don’t know what it was.
In any case, here follow a few examples of Caldwell’s exceptional prose to let you decide if this work of non-fiction is for you.
On p. 90, we find: “(a)ll might be well in Laurel, as it could be elsewhere in Mississippi, if prideful residents of the northside would look at least as far away as the southside of their town even if they do not wish to see beyond the borders of their own state. As it is, and as though it is a way to avoid embarrassment, they fail to acknowledge their responsibility for the poverty and degradation of the Negro families on the southside and ignore the fact that it was the labor of Negroes that enabled them to accumulate wealth and social pretensions.
But customs prevail. And arrogance predominates. Instead of acting upon his responsibility as a citizen in modern America to alleviate and adjust economic and social discrimination imposed upon the Negro for generations, the white supremist is intent upon striving by any means to enforce a perpetuation of racial injustice that originated long ago in the time of slavery. As long as this custom can be maintained, the conscience of the white supremist will be quiet and undisturbed. Enforcement of the custom ranges from intimidation to physical punishment to violent death.”
On p. 105, we find this rather trenchant observation from a local African-American looking desperately to bury his father: “(y)ou don’t know how poor poor can be till you get too poor to be buried in the ground.”
And finally, on p. 167, we find: “(t)he red clay hills are undoubtedly more deeply eroded and gully-washed, the sky-line of jagged pines probably juts higher against the horizon, the stark spires of crumbling brick chimneys have become melancholy monuments to homes burned to ashes, briar thickets and clumps of beggar-lice have been quick to claim possession of abandoned cotton fields, and the gaunt granite gravestones in the cemetery have taken on the somber gray moss of age and oblivion.”
Say what you will about Caldwell’s social criticism. When the man wants to wax lyrical in his prose, he has only to remove one cap and replace it with another. And that—to me, at least—is the best kind of writer!
RRB
Brooklyn, NY
19 November 2019
July 27, 2021
In Search of Biscotti is another hard hitting story by Erskine Caldwell. Here we have a book purely based on race, race within the South and Deep South. We have the story of a man in search (years later) of a farm hand African friend who he wanted to spend more time with. The story takes the author through the south trying to track him down. In the process, you have the story from both the White and Black perspective of life in the region.
Sometimes this story is also the history of Africans coming to the US. It is interesting to note that Caldwell does state and differentiate different African Nations and where they settled in the US. Something seldom referred to else where. It was interesting to see the history of oppression stated this way.
Sometimes, when speaking to the White Americans, it felt like reading the book Lolita (a terrible book by the way). This is a book of a man trying to convince you it’s ok to sleep with an underage girl. Here, similarly you have White Americans trying to convince you they were not racist because they were following the law and Africans aren’t seen as human beings.
A tough and uncomfortable read in parts, but is exactly what you would expect from Erskine Caldwell.
Sometimes this story is also the history of Africans coming to the US. It is interesting to note that Caldwell does state and differentiate different African Nations and where they settled in the US. Something seldom referred to else where. It was interesting to see the history of oppression stated this way.
Sometimes, when speaking to the White Americans, it felt like reading the book Lolita (a terrible book by the way). This is a book of a man trying to convince you it’s ok to sleep with an underage girl. Here, similarly you have White Americans trying to convince you they were not racist because they were following the law and Africans aren’t seen as human beings.
A tough and uncomfortable read in parts, but is exactly what you would expect from Erskine Caldwell.
April 4, 2018
what to say about this book? although it was hard to read, i'm glad i read it. it's so sad to see that 50 years after its publication we are still dealing with so many of the racial difficulties it illustrates. and perhaps not dealing with them well. racism and prejudice are so ingrained in our society. this books sheds light on a sliver of that experience during the 1950s and 1960s in the deep south. i like the way caldwell alternates chapters between the voices of folks on both sides of the colour line. he is never one to pull a punch when it comes to calling out cruelty, ignorance and religious fanaticism. here he even takes a jab at how politicians whip up feelings of racial prejudice to insight tribal fears (and get votes). sigh. no so different from our world today.
May 20, 2022
Searching for Bisco
Caldwell was an excellent writer and this book is another example of his skill. This book is set in the deep South as his best nove!s are. It follows the lifetime search of the narrator, a white boy reminiscing about and searching for Bisco, his young black friend.
At times this novel is a little difficult to understand, but eventually the narrator returns to the search. I recommend getting professional narration. In my opinion, it enhances the story.
Enjoy your read!
WLM of SC
Caldwell was an excellent writer and this book is another example of his skill. This book is set in the deep South as his best nove!s are. It follows the lifetime search of the narrator, a white boy reminiscing about and searching for Bisco, his young black friend.
At times this novel is a little difficult to understand, but eventually the narrator returns to the search. I recommend getting professional narration. In my opinion, it enhances the story.
Enjoy your read!
WLM of SC
March 28, 2019
Erskine Caldwell never disappoints in his raw accounts of what life was like and in many ways still is in the deep south. Though many of the things he describes in this book are no longer extant does not mean that there are not to many who wish they were still in practice. This is a brutal look at what he calls Bisco Country. This should be mandatory reading in high schools or at minimum in college.
October 16, 2020
No wonder his books were banned in Georgia. This guy tells you the honest truth...and that's hard to face for the deep South.
Legendary author...my all-time favorite.
Legendary author...my all-time favorite.
June 25, 2013
The book alternates telling on one chapter the point of view of a white, prejudiced, callous, hypocrytical plantation owner and on the next the plight of a martyr-like black. In between there are chapters where a well-intentioned buckra manifests his siding with blacks to the point of marrying one of their females and being proud of it as well as accounts of how good blacks saved the author's life or helped him in a difficult situation brought by the whites themselves.
The book is an astounding description of the Deep South and the characters and long standing customs that were built more than two hundred years ago and the inexorable changes that the 1960's brought. It's also an anthropological study of the African peoples that served as slaves and that mingled with their white masters and thus constituted the African American race.
Nevertheless, the book seemed to me somewhat romantic in the treatment of blacks, idealizing them as goody-goodies,(I was reminded of the 1970's film "Mandingo"). Sure, the violence that blacks created in the following three decades after the book was written was the logical outcome of the violence that whites created during the prior two centuries and that forced blacks to flee to Northern cities and crowd their slums. I wish I had Caldwell's point of view during drive by shootings, hold ups and crime in general by gangs such as the Crips and the Bloods ten, twenty years after the book was written. At one point a racist landowner of rice paddies in Arkansas says that the Yanks would get "a whopping big dose of their own medicine" and his voice seemed somewhat prophetic in the following three decades. I'm acknowledging that the first who brought trouble in the first place were the white slave traders who uprooted the Africans from their land and left them orphans and displaced in an America that was forged with cruelty.
Still the custom of Going-to-the-barn is one I'd have enjoyed...
The book is an astounding description of the Deep South and the characters and long standing customs that were built more than two hundred years ago and the inexorable changes that the 1960's brought. It's also an anthropological study of the African peoples that served as slaves and that mingled with their white masters and thus constituted the African American race.
Nevertheless, the book seemed to me somewhat romantic in the treatment of blacks, idealizing them as goody-goodies,(I was reminded of the 1970's film "Mandingo"). Sure, the violence that blacks created in the following three decades after the book was written was the logical outcome of the violence that whites created during the prior two centuries and that forced blacks to flee to Northern cities and crowd their slums. I wish I had Caldwell's point of view during drive by shootings, hold ups and crime in general by gangs such as the Crips and the Bloods ten, twenty years after the book was written. At one point a racist landowner of rice paddies in Arkansas says that the Yanks would get "a whopping big dose of their own medicine" and his voice seemed somewhat prophetic in the following three decades. I'm acknowledging that the first who brought trouble in the first place were the white slave traders who uprooted the Africans from their land and left them orphans and displaced in an America that was forged with cruelty.
Still the custom of Going-to-the-barn is one I'd have enjoyed...
June 25, 2013
This poignant reminder of how poorly African Americans were treated and viewed in the "Deep South" at the dawn of the Civil Rights movement affected me deeply. I am a Caucasian female, born in the '60's, in northern Michigan, so far removed from the heart of the racial tension and tribulation. I read with renewed shock, the true accounts Mr. Caldwell got first hand from white and black folks alike. I am angry at the awful attitudes and behavior of the majority of white folks. It hurts me to think they really thought and acted that way toward anyone of color. When he interviewed black people throughout his book, the theme of kindness first, giving despite poverty, and statements such as "the only real difference I see between me and the white man, is the color of my skin." Mr. Caldwell did no sugar coating in any of his accounts. He really was only looking for a boyhood friend named "Bisco". He found instead, some of the worst racists in the form of "fine upstanding white citizens" that I think could ever be found. He was called a n-lover more than once. He knew white racists were so closed to change, and the truth about race not making someone less than human. He knew change was coming, in a slow,heating volcanic motion. God bless you Erskine Caldwell for your words--true,beautiful and painful as they were to this reader.
May 6, 2025
I cannot say I liked it, but it is definitely worth the read for anyone wanting insight into the south and it's journey. This memoir was first published in the 60s.
I personally found this to be a difficult read. I read for fun, mysteries, spy novels, etc. If you choose to read this expecting an Erskine Caldwell story, you will be disappointed - I was. I guess I missed any reviews that mentioned this. This seems more like an anthropological exploration written for the average person. It started out as a story where he describes a friend (Bisco) he had as a young boy and how they were separated through segregation - personally I expected an end to that story. The book became encounters he had with various people in various towns while on his search - seemingly individual shorts with minimal connection between them. There was the occasional question - Did they ever know someone named Bisco? - and conversation, but the flow between these was almost non-existent.
Again, definitely worth the read because of the topic it explores.
I personally found this to be a difficult read. I read for fun, mysteries, spy novels, etc. If you choose to read this expecting an Erskine Caldwell story, you will be disappointed - I was. I guess I missed any reviews that mentioned this. This seems more like an anthropological exploration written for the average person. It started out as a story where he describes a friend (Bisco) he had as a young boy and how they were separated through segregation - personally I expected an end to that story. The book became encounters he had with various people in various towns while on his search - seemingly individual shorts with minimal connection between them. There was the occasional question - Did they ever know someone named Bisco? - and conversation, but the flow between these was almost non-existent.
Again, definitely worth the read because of the topic it explores.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews