This fascinating follow-up to Black Fire
, Peery's 1994 memoir of his political awakening as a U.S. soldier in the all-black 93rd Infantry Division in WWII, begins with his involvement in the Communist Party in 1946. His course through the turbulent history of post-WWII race relations and McCarthy-era excesses leads him to the conviction that “the concrete expression of anti-Communism in America was anti-Black.” In 1949, he accepted a Party transfer to Cleveland, where he continued worked as a bricklayer and organized his life around the Party, only to be expelled after internecine quarrels and anti-Communist crusades. Believing that “nothing could be done without a serious Communist Party,” Peery became active in the drive to re-establish a Marxist-Leninist Communist Party. In New York (1959–1963) and Los Angeles (from 1964), he continued his bricklaying while becoming a founding member of the Communist Labor Party. His politically active mother, six supportive brothers and fiercely disapproving father assume vivid roles. Many anecdotes show off Peery's storytelling ability, as when he arranges a meeting between Leadbelly and the Dean of Canterbury and colludes in accused spy Gerhardt Eisler's escape to East Germany. Some readers may chafe at Peery's avowedly Marxist terminology, but “the development of [his] revolutionary consciousness” is absorbing. (Aug.)
