Themes

Easy Rawlins finds himself questing for his social and cultural identity in a shifting racist milieu. His feelings of alienation, to no small degree, stem from his experiences in World War II, in a prejudice-ridden and segregated United States Army that eventually grew desperate enough to let African Americans fight. Five years of war rendered Easy "used to white people," both men and women. "I ate with them and slept with them, and I killed enough blue-eyed young men to know that they were just as afraid to die as I was." Easy can no longer readily submit to 1930s-style prejudice and injustice.

After being fired from Champion Aircraft for failing to show enough subservience to a white boss, Easy receives an offer to do some detective work. Acceptance will enable Easy to keep up the mortgage payments on a house in Watts, his stake in the American...