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      The Third Generation

      by Chester Himes
      Published
      Feb 1993
      Main Genre
      Literary Literary
      Pages
      336
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      About This Book

      From the acclaimed author of the Harlem Detectives series, a powerful autobiographical novel about a black family tortured by colorism as it strives to live up to the myth of the Black middle class in white, post-war America

      Lillian Taylor has three sons, a comfortable house, and a well-liked husband who teaches at a local college. But her contempt for her family's dark complexion infects this bright world until it begins to come undone. As one troubling incident leads to another, her husband is pushed to an ever more precarious existence and her best-loved son, Charles, sinks into a life of vice in the perilous borderland between black and white society. With piercing insight and emotional depth, The Third Generation chronicles the unraveling of a black family plagued by the pernicious psychological effects of racism.

      Genres & Themes

      Genres

      General Fiction

      Subgenres

      Literary

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      Paperback

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      First Edition Feb 1993 Da Capo Press ISBN 0938410733
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      Mar 2025 Vintage ISBN 0593686683
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      eBook

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      Feb 2025 -- Not Selected ISBN B0D4K1L338
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      Mar 2025 Knopf ISBN 0593686691
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      Audio

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      Apr 2026 -- Not Selected ISBN B0FHM8F41P
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      Apr 2026 Tantor ISBN B0G2142S22
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      Apr 2026 Tantor ISBN B0G1ZNS1GX
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