Temple and Shipman

Bill Brauer (Cover paintings) Cambridge, Massachusetts: MS in a Bottle, 1999. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. [6], 272 pages. Stiff cover has front and rear flap. Autographed copy sticker on front cover. Signed on the title page by the author. A young black man is stopped by cops on suspicion of rape. A fight breaks out and the kid is killed. Jeffrey Temple, the cop who threw the fatal punch, opposes the coverup contrived by his partners. The father of the dead kid, John Shipman, goes to the DA and demands justice. But what is justice? The narrative follows these two men, Temple and Shipman, towards a final, tragic climax. The novel bursts with power and passion. From the opening police chase to the ending manhunt, Pfarrer is in tune with rage--the murderous fury of his working-class White police-men and the weary hatred of his self-educated Black protagonist. The novel descends into the chasm between the races. In the authentic voices of all his characters, Pfarrer scrutinizes the anguished, pre-racial needs of our nation's Caucasians and African-Americans. Can we all get along? The answer many very well be "hell no." Temple and Shipman is that rarity of narrative entertainment--a fast-paced action story enriched by complex and engaging characters. At the heart of the novel are considerations of ideas, faith, and race upon which the future of our nation may very well depend.--A stunning achievement of the novelist's craft. Twenty years before George Floyd and too many other unarmed African-American men, this novel attempted to highlight the issue and sought to bridge, at least in part, the gap between communities. Donald Hudson Pfarrer studied literature, history and economics at Harvard College. While covering civil rights in the ’60s for the Hartford Courant, the Milwaukee Journal and the Washington Star he interviewed Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, James Farmer, Roy Wilkins and other leaders of the movement. He covered the March on Washington of 1963, traveling from Milwaukee with a bus load of Wisconsin civil rights activists. For the Star he covered the drive for home rule for the District of Columbia, led by King. When the US entered the war in Vietnam he volunteered for recall to active duty and served as naval gunfire boss in the 7th Marine (infantry) Regiment in Quang Ngai and adjacent provinces. He was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat V and the Purple Heart. Returning from the war he covered the antiwar movement and the politics of protest for the Milwaukee Journal. He was one of three Journal reporters who covered the bombing of the “Army Math” center at the University of Wisconsin -- Madison. In mainstream politics he covered important aspects of the presidential campaigns of 1972, ’76 and ’80. He also wrote for the Journal on crime and crime victims, labor relations, affirmative action, the movement of blacks to the Milwaukee suburbs, and the personal lives of black members of the Green Bay Packers living in a virtually all-white city. He left the Journal in 1984. He founded of MS in a Bottle, a Massachusetts-based publishing company. Derived from a Publishers Weekly article: What starts out as a typical police brutality yarn takes a turn while examining racial justice, familial bonds, and the price of perpetuating harmful stereotypes. Three white police officers--Banes, Ruthenbeck and Temple--are hunting for a black rapist when they come upon a young black man, Hawk Shipman, who fits the description. During questioning a fight erupts and Temple, a former pro football player with a short fuse, kills Hawk with his fists. Hawk, as it turns out, is an innocent college honors student on his way to the barbecue restaurant owned by his father, John. Ruthenbeck plants a knife on the dead youth and invents a plausible scenario to justify their murderous mistake: Temple was using necessary force to restrain the armed and violent suspect. Hawk's death strikes a sentimental chord for Temple: he has a son of his own, and thwarted dreams, too, with his troubled marriage and hopes of becoming a lawyer. Temple wants to come clean, and all but exposes Ruthenbeck's fabrication. Another painful decision is made by John Shipman. John suddenly begins to plot with a security guard friend to avenge Hawk's killing. Pfarrer delivers a bang-up action beginning, he builds the suspenseful core of the novel and give an edge to the plot. This is an earnest attempt to come to terms with serious questions that plague our society. Condition: Very good.

Keywords: Racial Profiling, Police Misconduct, Arrest, Death in Custody, African-American, Police Brutality, Vengeance, Justice, Law Enforcement, Bill Brauer, Novel, Fiction

ISBN: 096675400x

[Book #82279]

Price: $100.00

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