an outcast, however, Fox lives on the margins of
southern culture, neither accepting nor adhering
to its beliefs and traditions. Unlike many protag-
onists in antebellum southern fiction, Fox is less
than magnanimous. He comes from a disreputable
background, holds non-southern views, and suc-
ceeds by less than admirable means. Although The
Foxes of Harrow compares favorably to such con-
temporary historical romances as Gone with the
Wind (1935) and Anthony Adverse (1933), it is in
actuality a throwback to the picaresque tradition.
In addition to producing a popular novel, there-
fore, Yerby achieved success in The Foxes of Harrow
in his skillful adaptation and manipulation of the
picaresque genre to create a vehicle for him both to
write entertaining fiction and to debunk the myths
of the South.
James L. HillFrench, Albert (1943– )
Like his cousin, the novelist JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN,
Albert French captures the violence and despair
that marks the lives of many African Americans as
they struggle to survive in a racist society. Born in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1943, French grew up
in Pittsburgh’s Homewood, written about so often
in Wideman’s books. French’s life took a different
route from his cousin’s, however. Following high
school graduation, French joined the marines. He
was soon sent to Vietnam. He was discharged in
1967, but the effects of his experience stayed with
him for many years after the war. He had been se-
riously wounded in combat, and by 1991 French
realized that he was suffering from post-traumatic
stress disorder. He began writing to come to terms
with these painful events in his life. It was at this
time that he started to draft the work Patches: A
Story of War and Redemption, published in 1997.
An autobiographical account of Vietnam, it is also
a chronicle of the ability of creative expression to
heal inner wounds. The work also considers Amer-
ica’s inability to come to terms with its history and
the blight of racism.
Before the publication of Patches, howe ver,
French produced two novels. While he worked
on revising his memoir, he wrote Billy (1993) and
Holly (1995). Wideman’s wife saw the manuscript
of Billy and passed it along to Wideman’s book
agent. The debut work met with critical success
and established French as a powerful emerging
African-American voice, even though he was 50
years old at the time. Billy tells the story of Billy
Lee Turner, a 10-year-old African-American boy
growing up in Baines, Mississippi, in 1937. Tragedy
erupts when Billy kills a young white girl, Lori. The
older and larger girl starts to beat up Billy when she
catches him swimming in her family’s pond. Billy
defends himself the only way he knows how—with
a knife. He accidentally and mortally wounds the
teenager. What follows is Billy’s trial and eventual
execution. Billy is an innocent child unable even to
comprehend his crime. The legal system and the
society fail to see the human child or his family.
Like the slave child of the past, Billy is torn from
his mother, and his family is destroyed—all to sat-
isfy the will of white authority. Alluding to works
like RICHARD WRIGHT’s NATIVE SON and the story
of EMMETT TILL, French exposes American racism
through the emotional and heart-wrenching loss
of children—both Billy and Lori. If America can-
not heal the wounds of history and face its preju-
dices, its future is in danger.
Critics also admired French’s next novel, Holly.
The title character is a white woman who falls in
love with an African-American World War II vet-
eran, Elias. Elias lost his arm during the war and
is unable to pursue the career in music of which
he had dreamt. Holly eventually becomes pregnant
and is later beaten nearly to death by her racist fa-
ther. Elias is able to save her life but later dies in
jail. The novel is a further indictment of American
racism and its destruction of loving relationships.
French’s novel I Can’t Wait on God (1999) is set
in Homewood in 1950. Unlike his other novels, I
Can’t Wait on God focuses solely on the African-
American community. Nevertheless, the commu-
nity suffers from violence, poverty, and despair: Its
main characters seem unable to escape the limited
possibilities offered them by American society.
French has also recently written a new foreword to
Harper Lee’s To a Kill a Mockingbird at the request
of the author. The appeal comes, no doubt, fromFrench, Albert 191