Books: Makin' Free

KINGDOM COMING—Roark Bradford— Harper ($2.50). Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun (from which Marc Connelly shaped his 1930 Pulitzer Prize play, The Green Pastures) effectively pigeonholed Roark Bradford as a writer of humorous Negro dialog. But Author Bradford, not content with his niche, has made manful attempts to emerge. This Side of Jordan, a serious novel, was a far cry from Ol' Man Adam; most readers found it sordid and sinister. John Henry was a little consciously folk-tale-ish. But now, in Kingdom Coming, Author Bradford has turned the trick: neatly sidestepping the hoodoo of black-face minstrel-showmanship and the voodoo of Harlem, he has written a grown-up novel about Negroes of the Old South. Grammy (full name: Telegram) knew that his daddy, Messenger, and his mother, Crimp, were superior slaves. He could not figure out why their master should have sent them from New Orleans way up to his plantation on the Red River—especially since Messenger was such a wonderful coachman and Crimp such a good cook. But when Crimp's baby came, and it was yellow, everybody knew the reason. Messenger wanted to kill Crimp, but instead he moved out of her cabin and took Grammy with him. Soon afterwards he went away on the "underground," trying to "make free." But it was the "blind underground"; a few days later he was found in a swamp with his head bashed in. Grammy grew up with a horror of "makin' free." And he liked the plantation life. He was smart with mules and horses, like his daddy, and quickly rose to be the most responsible slave on the place. After the usual amount of pleasuring he settled down to married life with Penny. The Civil War never seemed real to Grammy and his fellow-slaves till the soldiers began to come and commandeer stock. When three Confederate divisions marched by one day, Grammy knew that the Yankees could never lick so many men. But then the overseer had to join the army, and with the white folks gone the slaves began to fade away. Grammy had been left in charge, but finally he faded too. In New Orleans he was much surprised to be told he was free, not nearly so surprised when he and his family were herded into a guarded camp. Freedom was not what he had heard it cracked up to be; enforced idleness gave him the blues. Penny became a voodoo priestess. When their baby disappeared Grammy was sure she had kidnapped and killed it. He looked for her, found her, was caught in a red-handed murder. It took a military tribunal and a firing squad to set Grammy really free. "He heard a rumble and roar, like a thousand peals of thunder, and he landed squarely in the middle of Free Heaven, right on the lap of the Sweet God A'mighty King Jesus."