Two lives spiral into a chaotic, fatal pas de deux during a weekend of sex, alcohol and violence—from the acclaimed author of the Harlem Detectives series
Years ago, Jesse Robinson and Kriss Cummings had a passionate weekend in Chicago, but they haven’t seen each other since. Jesse’s career as a novelist has been trending downward, and much of his time is spent drinking and brooding in his Harlem tenement. Kriss is divorced and infertile, disillusioned with her life and often seeking out intimacy with Black men. When they meet again, this time drinking excessively and sniping at each other, sexual frustration and resentment with their marginal lives mount as they hurtle toward a macabre climax.
Taking place over the course of a bourbon-soaked weekend in 1952, The End of a Primitive tells the story of two absurd lives in McCarthy-era New York that are fated to end in destruction.
Chester (Bomar) Himes began his writing career while serving in the Ohio State Penitentiary for armed robbery from 1929 - 1936. His account of the horrific 1930 Penitentiary fire that killed over three hundred men appeared in Esquire in 1932 and from this Himes was able to get other work published. 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 lived as an expatriate in France and Spain. There, 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) and Run Man Run (1966)---featuring two Harlem policemen Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. As with Himes's earlier work, the series is characterized by violence and grisly, sardonic humor.
View titles by Chester Himes
Two lives spiral into a chaotic, fatal pas de deux during a weekend of sex, alcohol and violence—from the acclaimed author of the Harlem Detectives series
Years ago, Jesse Robinson and Kriss Cummings had a passionate weekend in Chicago, but they haven’t seen each other since. Jesse’s career as a novelist has been trending downward, and much of his time is spent drinking and brooding in his Harlem tenement. Kriss is divorced and infertile, disillusioned with her life and often seeking out intimacy with Black men. When they meet again, this time drinking excessively and sniping at each other, sexual frustration and resentment with their marginal lives mount as they hurtle toward a macabre climax.
Taking place over the course of a bourbon-soaked weekend in 1952, The End of a Primitive tells the story of two absurd lives in McCarthy-era New York that are fated to end in destruction.
Chester (Bomar) Himes began his writing career while serving in the Ohio State Penitentiary for armed robbery from 1929 - 1936. His account of the horrific 1930 Penitentiary fire that killed over three hundred men appeared in Esquire in 1932 and from this Himes was able to get other work published. 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 lived as an expatriate in France and Spain. There, 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) and Run Man Run (1966)---featuring two Harlem policemen Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. As with Himes's earlier work, the series is characterized by violence and grisly, sardonic humor.
View titles by Chester Himes
