Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights - by Susan Straight (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"A writer of exceptional gifts and grace." --Joyce Carol Oates

A young fireman battles to provide for his family--and struggles to avoid the traps of crime and poverty that surround him.

A resident of impoverished Rio Seco, California, Darnell Tucker works part-time as the lone black member of the fire department. Cutbacks to the state budget force him to search for new work, and the low-paying positions he finds rival firefighting in their peril. His path blocked by economics, institutionalized racism, and the dangers of the place he lives, Darnell must find a way to persevere. Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights is a stark and thoroughly convincing portrait of life on the margins.

Review Quotes

Praise for Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights

"[A] nuanced, unsentimental portrait . . . [The characters] ring remarkably true." --Los Angeles Times

"A writer of exceptional gifts and grace." --Joyce Carol Oates

"Here [Susan Straight] has again reached into the hearts and hurts of her Rio Seco people and walked with sureness and tenderness on the land they inhabit. Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights is a beautifully told, smoldering book that says that survival with dignity shines brighter than the California sun." --Shelby Hearon, Chicago Tribune

"This is a triumph, a portrait of a young black man trying to find his way that ends not in prison, drug dealing, or death, but with small moments of affirmation and the acceptance of responsibility that are a tribute to his will and intelligence. It counters all stereotypes about black men that are prevalent in contemporary writing." --David Nicholson, The Washington Post

"A lyrical and intelligent storyteller, [Susan Straight] burns clean the forbidding barriers of culture and race that blind people to one another." --People

About the Author

Susan Straight has published eight novels and a memoir, In the Country of Women. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and received the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement from the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the O. Henry Prize, the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She was born in Riverside, California, where she lives with her family.