RUN MAN RUN - Chester Himes


 Matt Walker is a white cop with a bad temper. Drunk and stumbling around Harlem after a rough visit with a prostitute one night, Walker can't find his car and is sure that a Black man - a porter at the hotel - he runs into has stolen it. He threatens the man, pointing a gun at him, trying to make him say where the car is when the gun 'accidentally' goes off.  Walker isn't so drunk that he isn't aware of the trouble he'll be in, so he finishes the man off- killing him with another shot.

Another Black porter is aware of what's happened and Walker kills him as well.  And still another man, Jimmy Johnson, is in Walker's way to a free and clear exit and Walker shoots him, too.  But Jimmy survives and when he wakes from his coma, he points the finger at Walker. But Walker was at least smart enough not to use his service revolver (which was tested after the allegation) so who are people going to believe? A New York cop or a Black man in Harlem?

But Walker isn't satisfied leaving a possible witness to his crime and stalks Johnson, looking for a way to get rid of him. What Walker doesn't know is that he is also being stalked - by someone he would never suspect.

It's more than a little bit sad that a story about a cop killing a Black man, published in 1960, is still a story that resonates, perhaps even more-so, today.

I have to be honest and say that this kind of racism is really hard for me to read and enjoy.  Of course I read through it, hoping that Walker would not come out unscathed, but it's still the rare kind of story that puts me on edge and I really have difficulty enjoying.

There's a fair amount of tension in the stalking, which I suspect is what holds this book together for most readers, but I actually found it not only uncomfortable, but a bit boring.

This is not a book I would recommend and it's not something I would consider to be a classic.

Looking for a good book? Run Man Run by Chester Himes is a thriller from 1960 that is much too close to home today and shows how poorly we've done with race relations.  

3 stars

* * * * * *

Run Man Run

author: Chester Himes

publisher: Carroll & Graf

ISBN: 9780786702091

paperback, 192 pages

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