I bought this book about 8 hours ago and I have since managed to start and finish it. It was so interesting that I couldn't put it down.
Written in 1967, it is a novel about race relations in the United States in that era. It must have been a very shocking book when it was published. There are things in this book that I didn't even know existed. The descriptions of ghetto life are horrifying and the hopelessness and desperation of African Americans presented in this book are heartrending.
I had read a book in 1972 that was written by Malcolm X and I remember it having a powerful infuence on me. That book was mild compared to what this book presents.
I would like to say that things are different now but through my travels in the US within the last 10 years I can testify that things haven't changed nearly enough and there are still massive ghettos in many American cities. How a country considering itself as the greatest nation in the world can continue to allow this discrimination and suffering of a large percentage of it's citizens I will never fathom. How America can rush off to *save* other countries and establish it's form of democracy while it ignores it's own problems is unbelievable to me. Who would *want* to establish a democracy based on American values if this is the result?