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FREEDOMWAYS          FIRST QUARTER 1968

to tell where fiction ends and facts begin in this topical and plausible book. The fact that Harry Ames is recognizable as the late Richard Wright, and other characters such as Dawes, Mister Q and the "president" are reflections of men who lived, strengthens the novel's unusual credibility.
  
Williams is a master writer, a painter of moods and details that often reach poetry. His writing is sharp, lucid and tough. He is also a master of understatement, often leading the reader by a well-placed and suggestive word to either complete the author's thought, or the momentary action. His speech is elegant and varied. He slips with ease from American journalese to the vernacular of Harlem, to the speech of wherever Max Reddick happens to be, in Amsterdam, Paris, Nigeria or Washington. Max Reddick-John A. Williams sees "precisely," if not wholely and his observations are often caustic and stabbing. He understands the basic nature of western men, of the African, and of women-that is, the way men make them. He is a sharp and knowing critic of U.S. democracy and its incipient genocide. (American is "going downhill without breaks")

No one escapes his lens-or scalpel; neither from the Right or the Left. Reddick-Williams is a man who sees things coming, "viscous and nasty things, involving us and them." And us are the blacks and all the people who want to live together in peace. Reddick says in one section of the book:

"And if you are white in America you are privileged. We hope for the law to protect us. But I have seen the White House break laws."
  
Reddick does not have much faith in the belief that U.S. society can reform itself. The shocking ending of this well-formed novel is proof of that, as is his incurable cancer. Nevertheless there is plenty to cheer in the brilliant novel, especially Williams' accurate reflection of general Afro-American mood and impatience. Williams has Reddick say to Zutkin:
  
"If you are black, you know that every white man thinks he has the power over you and, ergo, he has until you kick his tail for him."

Alvin Simon

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