The Avenue, Clayton City,New

Review“A gripping story.”—John Hope FranklinIn a direct line of descent from both Richard Wrights Native Son and Zora Neale Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God, C. Eric Lincolns The Avenue, Clayton City is one of the best written and most gripping accounts of the African American experience that I have encountered in years.Henry Louis Gates Jr.“Truly a masterpiece.”—James H. ConeProduct DescriptionThe Avenue in C. Eric Lincolns fictional town is the principal residential street of the black community in Clayton City, a prototypical southern town languishing between the two world wars. Unpaved and marked by ditches full of frogs, snakes, and empty whiskey bottles on one side of town, it is the same street, though with a different name, that originates downtown. Only when it reaches the black section of Clayton City do the paving stop and the trashfilled ditches begin. On one side, it provides a significant address for the white people who live there. On the other, despite its rundown air, it is still the best address available to the towns black population. Some of them, in fact, are willing to go to any extreme, including murder, to get there.In this novel, originally published in 1988, Lincoln creates with deft skill the drama that rises from the lives of the people of Clayton City. In turn amusing, disgusting, enraging, wistful, and, as one hears the secrets hidden deep in their hearts, shocking, they exist in a place whose vibrant personality is itself a unique configuration of geography, relationships, patterns of behavior, and events. It is also a place whose unspoken and hidden power lies in its crushing compulsion to maintain itself as it already isa power that forces everyone to succumb to an inflexible social order.From the Back Cover'In a direct line of descent from both Richard Wright's 'Native Son' and Zora Neale Hurston's 'Their Eyes Were Watching God,' C. Eric Lincoln's 'The Avenue, Clayton City' is one of the best written and most gripping accounts of the African American experience that I have encountered in years.'Henry Louis Gates Jr.About the AuthorC. Eric Lincoln (19242000) was, at the time of his death, William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of Religion and Culture at Duke University. His widely acclaimed publications include The Black Muslims in America; The Black Church Since Frazier; Race, Religion, and the Continuing American Dilemma; and, with Lawrence H. Mamiya and published by Duke University Press, The Black Church in the African American Experience. He has also written a memoir, Coming through the Fire, published by Duke University Press, and a collection of poems, This Road Since Freedom. He is the founding president of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.The Avenue, Clayton CityBy C. Eric Lincoln Duke University PressCopyright 1996 Duke University PressAll rights reserved.ISBN: 9780822317456ContentsUnder the Streetlight,House Calls,Coley's Hand,Nish,Inside the Fort,When God Messed Over Vernon,Lil' Un,A Tough Titty,Mama Lucy,The Final Appointment,CHAPTER 1UNDER THE STREETLIGHTGUTS GALLIMORE turned out the light in the Blue Flame and stepped out onto the concrete apron that marked the entrance to his establishment. The night was warm and humid, and he sighed resignedly at the thought that though the day was finally over, tomorrow was still to come. Tomorrow would be another hot day, and a long day just like today, and the day after tomorrow. And all the other days were long and hot. Hot and long. He sighed again. His weight was bothering him. His feet were tired, and his bunions had started to heat up and ache a little. He set the bottle of RC Cola he was carrying home to Rosie down on the pavement so he could unlock the big iron padlock hooked through the Ubolt on the doorjamb. A