'A stark depiction of the “alligator pond” of prison life … Rage tempered with compassion … [its] emotional core continues to smoulder’ The New York Times Book Review
Thrill-seeking teenager Jimmy Monroe is serving a twenty-year sentence for robbery in the state penitentiary, where terror and chaos reign, corrupt guards inflict casual violence, and men try to preserve their dignity amid isolation and inhumanity. When a fire breaks out, setting hell and mayhem loose, it seems Jimmy’s entire world is unravelling. But as he develops a tender relationship with fellow convict Rico, hope begins to glimmer, and, through his eventual foray into writing, something resembling redemption. Originally published in reduced and bowdlerized form in 1952, in an expurgated version, as "Cast the First Stone", "Yesterday Will Make You Cry" draws on Chester Himes’s own youthful experiences of imprisonment to face down the scouring truths of harm and love, and is presented in ebook form for the first time
uncensored, and precisely as Himes wrote it.
‘Himes at the top of his game … what an amazing book it is’ Melvin Van Peebles
CHESTER HIMES began his writing career while serving in the Ohio State Penitentiary for armed robbery from 1929 to 1936. From his first novel, If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945), Himes dealt with the social and psychological repercussions of being black in a white-dominated society. Beginning in 1953, Himes moved to Europe, where he met and was strongly influenced by Richard Wright. It was in France that he began his best-known series of crime novels--including Cotton Comes to Harlem (1965)--featuring two Harlem policemen. As with Himes's earlier work, the series is characterized by violence and grisly, sardonic humor. He died in Spain in 1984.
Quote: Praise for Chester Himes's Yesterday Will Make You Cry
"The book's strengths lie in Himes's unflinching ability to stare down terrible truths and his finely details portrayal of men in conditions of great adversity. . . . the novel's emotional core continues to smolder. Rage tempered with compassion is the backbone of this story--and what makes it eminently worth reading."
--The New York Times
"An illuminating sociological portrait of prison life--certainly one of the best available in fictional form--and adds another intriguing installment to Himes's fascinating oeuvre."
--Washington Post
"[Yesterday Will Make You Cry] is, most beautifully, a love story. . . . What a gift this is to American literature."
--Buffalo News
"Deeply engrossing. . . [A] clear-eyed tale about the brutality, physical and psychological, of prison life with a sensibility that turns agony into the poetry of pain and loss."
--Dallas Morning News
"[A] unique work and a fascinating one. . . . Himes has long deserved a serious reassessment, and this is a fine place to start."
--Boston Globe
"There could not be a fitter time or place for the publication of this great prison novel than today's United States."
--The Nation
"A textbook performance in which all of Himes's gifts come into play: the colorful characters, the ability to create a blunt reality without sacrificing an elegant style, and the trenchant commentary about blacks living in a society that is hostile ot them."
--Ishmael Reed
"Both a superior novel and a moving fictional record of the perseverance of humanity amidst unrelenting degradation."
--Publishers Weekly
