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FREEDOMWAYS          THIRD QUARTER 1969

STORYTELLER WITH CREATIVE GENIUS

BLOODLINE. By Ernest J. Gaines.  The Dial Press, New York.  249 pages. $4.95

MANY OF THE BEST-SELLER selections on neighborhood bookstands give one the distinct impression that popular American fiction is written under the stress of either an erection or the women's equivalent to that state.  Fanny Hill-reigning goddess of pop erotica-could pass for a prudish nun if her adventures were compared to the literary orgies currently titillating the public mini-mind.  Indeed, the substance of such "literature" seems distilled from the bowels of the Marquis de Sade.

So far, most black writers haven't allowed themselves to be integrated into this.  There are exceptions of course-those whose mediocrity can only be hustled in the marketplace of vulgarity; but in the main, the black writer has kept the faith by refusing to contract in literary masturbation, despite the chance for quick money-success.

I know of no writer who bears the cross of these austere compliments better than Ernest J. Gaines.  He is, to put it simply and without exaggeration, one of the best writers we have produced, a storyteller with creative power of genius.  With economy and clarity, he writes about ordinary people whose behavior and passions are as universal as they are commonplace.  His work is not mired in sentimentality, neither is it tendentious despite his strong feelings for his characters.

There are five stories in this volume and each one demonstrates Mr. Gaines' remarkable talent.  The first story is a gem.  A young couple's marriage has been ruptured because the simple-minded husband has been neglecting his wife for-of all things-his new car!  The wife, refusing to put up with this stupidity, packs off her son and belongings to mamma's.  The crusty old woman greets her daughter with the question:  "What's that no good nigger done done [now]?"  And she reminds her of having "warned you 'bout that nigger.  I said, Amy, a yellow nigger with a gap 'tween his teeth ain't no good...."

The story is humorous not because the author has set out to tell us a funny story, but because he has so completely captured the texture and spirit of his subject.  His creative magic makes the story come to life in all of the full-blooded richness of its regional setting.  The young son, through whose tender viewpoint the story is told, finds no humor in his parents' folly, but he timidly submits to the 

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