I Can't Wait on God - Softcover

It's the summer of 1950, on the eve of the Korean War, and Jeremiah Henderson dreams of trading in the slums of Pittsburgh for the high life of New York City. To this end, he proposes a spot of prostitution to his girlfriend, Willet, in order to get enough money to make the break. At the last minute, however, Willet can't go through with it, and her would-be john, a lowlife hustler named Tommy Moses, ends up dead. Albert French's third novel, I Can't Wait on God, is set in the same mean streets often visited by another African American writer, John Edgar Wideman, and it chronicles five days in the lives of the denizens there. While white cops collect clues, the black residents go on about their business, fully aware of who committed the crime but in no hurry to help solve it. Scenes set in the neighborhood and featuring finely drawn characters such as the pushcart vendor Dicky Bird and the street musician Mack Jack are intercut with Jeremiah and Willet's flight from Pittsburgh in Tommy Moses's stolen car. Murder, drug abuse, police brutality, and poverty are the challenges French's characters must face, but in the hardscrabble world he has created, the likelihood that they'll overcome them are slim indeed.

"French's mixture of nostalgia and horror makes for an evocative work that, alternately brilliant and melodramatic, brims with life." --Publishers Weekly

"Comes alive and stays alive, and stays with you, too." --National Public Radio