I Can't Wait on God - Softcover

French, Albert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385483678 ISBN 13: 9780385483674

Publisher: Anchor Books, 1999

Synopsis

Follows an African American couple who flee Pittsburgh in the summer of 1950 after an entanglement with a pimp turns deadly

About this title

Review

"An intricate tour de force, showing how love can be one's greatest enemy, and how selfishness could be a savior....Overflowing with his own love and compassion, French does not pass judgment on his characters and, in the end, neither can we....A blues novel par excellence." "An intricate tour de force, showing how love can be one's greatest enemy, and how selfishness could be a savior. . . . Overflowing with his own love and compassion, French does not pass judgment on his characters and, in the end, neither can we. . . . A blues novel par excellence." --Boston Globe "In simple, eloquent strokes French brings the alley and its people to vibrant life. A marvelous exploration of the complexities of the human experience." --Library Journal

From the Back Cover

'Albert French is one of the more distinctive voices of the 90s...I Can't Wait On God has the wit, compassion and acute observation we expect from French, as well as the suspense...most impressive' New York Times Book Review

Life in 1950s Pittsburgh is slow and unsatisfying, at least for Jeremiah Henderson and his woman, Willet Mercer. So while the other locals sit and wait on their back-alley porches, the couple plan their escape to New York City. Poverty-stricken, Willet is forced to consider prostitution to fund their new life, but at the last minute she baulks and stabs the pimp, Tommy, to death. Aided by Tommy's money and a fancy Buick, it seems they may be in sight of their dreams; but they just have to make one last stop outside Wilmington, North Carolina, to see the little boy Willet abandoned long ago...

'This book resembles Joyce. With an ever-shifting focus and linguistic invention, French has created a kind of symphonic poem about the hard scrabble of life in the back alleys of a dirty Northern town...This is not just a black novel, but a quintessential piece of noir. In black American writing - on the male side, at least - the literary patron remains the same as in noir: Dostoevsky...I Can't Wait On God is a fine, moving novel and worthy inheritor of that tradition' Independent

'From the author of the brilliant Billy, this is equally moving and beautifully written' The Voice

'An evocative work, alternately brilliant and melodramatic, brimming with life' Publishers Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: Anchor Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0385483678
• ISBN 13: 9780385483674
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 246