Man Who Cried I Am

Max Reddick, a novelist, journalist, and presidentialspeechwriter, has spent his career struggling againstthe riptide of race in America. Now terminally ill, hehas nothing left to lose. An expat for many years, Maxreturns to Europe one last time to settle an old debtwith his estranged Dutch wife, Margrit, and to attendthe Paris funeral of his friend, rival, and mentor HarryAmes. Among Harry's papers, Max uncovers explosivesecret government documents outlining 'King Alfred', aplan to be implemented in the event of widespread racialunrest and aiming 'to terminate, once and for all, theMinority threat to the whole of the American society'.Realizing that Harry has been assassinated, Max mustrisk everything to get the documents to the one man whocan help. Greeted as a masterpiece when it was publishedin 1967,The Man Who Cried I Amstakes out a range ofexperience rarely seen in American fiction: from thelife of a Black GI to the ferment of postcolonial Africato an insider's view of Washington politics in the era ofsegregation and the Civil Rights Movement. John A.Williams and his lost classic are overdue for rediscovery.