The Flagellants
Carlene Hatcher Polite
Macmillan
<span><b>This extraordinary 
first novel is a brilliant, detailed record of a stormy relationship 
written in a unique, concrete language that takes on an independent, 
stylized life of its own.</b><br><br></span><span>A lyrical and evocative novel that 
tells the story of the stormy and fragmented relationship between 
Jimson, an aspiring black poet concerned with Afro-American cultural 
history, and ideal, a young black woman whose roots are in Black Bottom,
 USA .-Jimson and Ideal meet in Greenwich Village and fall in love, but 
theirs is a tempestuous affair as they struggle to get beyond the roles a
 racially oppressive society has forced upon them. The result is a 
painful and moving exploration of the relations between men and women.</span>
  <span><br></span><span><br></span><span>Carlene Hatcher Polite was a </span><span><span>Black </span> American writer.</span><span></span><span><br>In 1964 Polite moved to Paris where her first book <i>The Flagellants</i>
 was published in French in 1966, and was subsequently published in 
English in 1967. The book received critical acclaim, with Mel Watkins in
 <i>The New York Times</i> Book Review stating it was “a complex, 
scathing and often brilliant depiction of the disintegration of a black 
couple’s relationship,” and that it “was among the first fictional works
 by a black woman to focus directly on the theme of the sometimes bitter
 antagonism between black men and women.”</span><span></span>