
The Stone Face
William Gardner Smith(Author)
NYRB Classics (Publisher)
Published on 13. July 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-68137-516-8 (ISBN)
Description
"First published in 1963, The Stone Face tells the tale of a young African-American man who takes refuge from American racism in France, only to find himself complicit in a racist order of another sort. Simeon Brown, a journalist who, as a teenager, lost an eye in a racist attack, lives in his native Philadelphia in a state of agonizing tension, and after a violent encounter with some white sailors on shore leave, he decides to pack up and leave for Paris, known as a safe haven for black artists and intellectuals. At first, the City of Light seems close to idyllic to Simeon: He can do what he wishes and go where he pleases without fear. On the streets he meets Babe, a long-standing black American âemigrâe, who introduces him to a whole cadre of interesting friends-among them the Chester Himes stand-in James Benson, a famous black novelist now retired, and Maria, a mysterious Polish actress and concentration camp survivor who is awaiting surgery to keep from going blind. But soon Simeon discovers that Paris is not the racial wonderland he took it to be-not when Algerians are being raided, beaten in the streets, and sent to detention centers-and his friendship with Hossein, an Algerian radical, will lead him to realize that he can no longer remain a passive spectator to French injustice and that he must decide where his loyalties truly lie"--
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
New York Review Books
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 199 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
254 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-68137-516-8 (9781681375168)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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Persons
William Gardner Smith (1927–1974) was a journalist, novelist, and editor. His first novel, Last of the Conquerors, was published in 1948, followed by Anger at Innocence, South Street, The Stone Face, and Return to Black America.
Adam Shatz is the US Editor of the London Review of Books and a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, and The New Yorker, among other publications.
Adam Shatz is the US Editor of the London Review of Books and a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, and The New Yorker, among other publications.