![]() ![]() The rest of his career was spent by writing song-books, songs, and screenplays. When it was published, Attaway was all of 30 years old, and upon finishing it, his desire to create long-form prose narrative seems to have been finished with it. As a novel, there is a lot wrong with it, but as an overall reading experience, it’s a trip worth taking. Despite all this, it’s a novel well worth reading, because Attaway crams it full of ideas and tangents and fragments. It’s not a perfect book by any means: for a short novel, it has quite a few dull stretches, and oftentimes, its author seems more interested in the story he’s telling and its political and historical contexts than in the telling itself, which is never a good sign. Lucky for us, Blood on the Forge was rescued from oblivion by the invaluable NYRB Classics imprint. ![]() His only two novels have deeply sunk into the obscure chasm of American literary history, much less successful than those by contemporaries like African-American novelist Richard Wright. Its author, African-American novelist William Attaway, is perhaps best know today as co-writer of Harry Belafonte’s “ Bananaboat Song“. Blood on the Forge, NYRBīlood on the Forge, originally published in 1941, is an interesting read. ![]()
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