Chester Himes by James Sallis

world
bouleversé
. He understands the way in which prison forms and institutions are distorted versions of those in the larger society outside. He understands, too, that he must come to terms with—learn to control, or at very leastrechannel—his anger. In this he is not always successful, as his creator was not, then or in later life. The outward story documents down-and-out prison life; the inner story records Jimmy Monroe’s wrestle with the angel of his own self-destructive impulses, a match he wins, but just barely.
    We struggle, in part by our sufferings, in part by our identification through art and relationships with others, in part by those relationships themselves, toward redemption, Jimmy Monroe and Chester Himes no less than the rest of us. Monroe-Himes enters prison a man closed off, a man who will
not
be hurt again. There he relearns to open himself, learns not so much to make connections with others as to let them form spontaneously. As Robert Creeley says: It’s only in the relationships we manage, that we live at all.
    Cast the First Stone
is structured around four relationships, each marking a period of Jimmy’s development. Mal shows up early in the book to appoint himself Jimmy’s tutor-protector. Adamantly against “degeneracy,” he steers Jimmy clear of those “filthy sons of bitches” and instructs him in the small ways a man can maintain dignity in prison surroundings. The friendship comes to an end with the fire, when Jimmy, at the edge of hysteria, tells Mal “I want you for my woman.” Next is Blocker, after Jimmy gets transferred into the cripple company. Presented in more or less idealistic terms, this is the most uncomplicated relationship, as Jimmy learns to fit in; he and Blocker become central to prison society, buddies who might easily stride off together into the film’s closing moments. With Blocker’s parole Jimmy befriends Metz, who offers something new: “His conversation was a relief from the stale, monotonous babble of the prison. I’d get away from that when we talked … Metz was the first really decent fellow whom I had met in prison, although Blocker was my only true friend.” 38
    The final, all-important relationship, coming after Jimmy drifts to the very rim of madness then solidly back, is with Duke Dido. They’re of an age, and Jimmy must see in Dido something of himself as newcomer five years before. Jimmy’s commitment is instant, total. The two become inseparable, denounced, and persecuted by other convicts for whom same-sex acts are the norm but who can’t accept such passionate engagement. When Dido is transferred to the girl-boy company, Jimmy insists upon going along, but the warden transfershim to the prison farm instead. Dido, a naif who unlike Jimmy never was able to adapt to prison life, hangs himself.
    I knew, beyond all doubt, that he had done it for me. He had done it to give me a perfect ending. It was so much like him to do this one irrevocable thing to let me know for always that I was the only one. Along with the terrible hurt I could not help but feel a great gladness and exaltation. 39
    Letters, drafts, and anecdotal evidence validate the Dido story in both broad outline and detail. Duke Dido was in real life Prince Rico. Whereas Himes’s previous relationship, with a Catholic called Lively in one early draft of
Cast the First Stone
, was never consummated (despite Himes’s devotion being such that he enrolled in catechism classes and probably converted), Rico and Himes quickly became lovers. They read to one another, wrote plays and an opera called
Bars and Stripes Forever
together, talked endlessly about movies they’d seen, called one another by pet names. Early drafts of the novel contain letters and instances of more frank romance between the lovers. Upon publication of
Cast the First Stone
in 1952, Himes wrote to Carl Van Vechten that the most fulfilling