Cart
Free Shipping in the UK
Proud to be B-Corp

The Man Who Cried I Am John A. Williams

The Man Who Cried I Am By John A. Williams

The Man Who Cried I Am by John A. Williams


£12.69
New RRP £14.99
Condition - New
40+ in stock

Summary

Rediscover the sensational 1967 literary thriller that captures the bitter struggles of postwar Black intellectuals and artists, with a foreword by Ishmael Reed and a new introduction by Merve Emre about how this explosive novel laid bare Americas racial fault lines.

The Man Who Cried I Am Summary

The Man Who Cried I Am by John A. Williams

Max Reddick, a novelist, journalist, and presidentialspeechwriter, has spent his career struggling againstthe riptide of race in America. Now terminally ill, hehas nothing left to lose. An expat for many years, Maxreturns to Europe one last time to settle an old debtwith his estranged Dutch wife, Margrit, and to attendthe Paris funeral of his friend, rival, and mentor HarryAmes. Among Harrys papers, Max uncovers explosivesecret government documents outlining King Alfred, aplan to be implemented in the event of widespread racialunrest and aiming to terminate, once and for all, theMinority threat to the whole of the American society.Realizing that Harry has been assassinated, Max mustrisk everything to get the documents to the one man whocan help. Greeted as a masterpiece when it was publishedin 1967,The Man Who Cried I Amstakes out a range ofexperience rarely seen in American fiction: from thelife of a Black GI to the ferment of postcolonial Africato an insiders view of Washington politics in the era ofsegregation and the Civil Rights Movement. John A.Williams and his lost classic are overdue for rediscovery.

The Man Who Cried I Am Reviews

Sixty years after it was first published, this shocking novel takes us on an astonishing black global journey that is historical but feels totally alive, energized and contemporary.
Bernardine Evaristo, author ofGirl, Woman, Other


[A]n idiosyncratic, rancorous compound of roman a clef, sociocultural history, bildungsroman, and international thriller complete with an apocalyptic ending that patched disquietingly into our worst nightmares of what white America ultimately had in mind for us. Imagine a chronicle with the sweep, breadth, and momentum of Honore de BalzacsLost Illusionsmorphing plausibly into one of Eric Amblers darker and more acerbic spy melodramas. Only with Black people sad, mad, and fiercely articulate in the foreground.
Gene Seymour,Bookforum


It is a blockbuster, a hydrogen bomb.... This is a book white people are not ready to read yet; neither are most black people.... But [it] is the milestone produced sinceNative Son. Besides which, and where I should begin, it is a damn beautifully written book.
Chester Himes, author ofRage in Harlem


Magnificent ... obviously in the Baldwin and Ellison class.
John Fowles, author of The Magus


IfThe Man Who Cried I Amwere a painting it would be done by Brueghel or Bosch. The madness and the dance is never-ending display of humanity trying to creep past inevitable Fate.
Walter Mosley, author ofDevil in a Blue Dress

About John A. Williams

John Alfred Williams (19252015) published overtwenty books in his lifetime, fiction and non-fiction,includingThe Angry Ones(1960),The Man Who Cried IAm(1967),The Most Native of Sons: A Biography of RichardWright(1970),Captain Blackman(1972), and!Click Song(1982). He was the Paul Robeson Professor of English atRutgers University and won the American Book Awardfor Lifetime Achievement in 2011.

Additional information

NGR9781804270967
9781804270967
1804270962
The Man Who Cried I Am by John A. Williams
New
Paperback
Fitzcarraldo Editions
2024-04-24
528
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a new book - be the first to read this copy. With untouched pages and a perfect binding, your brand new copy is ready to be opened for the first time

Customer Reviews - The Man Who Cried I Am