Long Old Road

From the time that he ran away to sea at sixteen until he graduated from the University of Washington Horace R. Cayton was a messman on a freighter an unknowing handyman in an Alaskan brothel a juvenile delinquent and inmate of a reform school a dock worker and steward on a passenger liner and a deputy in the sheriff's office of King County Washington.Born in Seattle a city then uniquely free from racial tensions and prejudices Cayton found the privileged secure middle-class position of his well-to-do parents ineffectual against the gradual spread of racism that was sweeping America. His disarmingly honest autobiography is the ever-absorbing record of an intelligent sensitive and proud man's attempts to find identity in a confusing and conflicting chaos of black and white in a nation that although dedicated to equality somehow managed to deny this ideal by almost every action.Although his turbulent life was complicated by the color barrier - often resulting in reverses and frustrations that have rendered him close to a breakdown - this alone is not what makes Cayton's book such captivating reading. Wholly lacking in self-pity or special pleading Horace Cayton has written a personal narrative of unfailing interest on any number of scores a book that ranks with the best of American autobiographical writing. For it manages to remain highly critical without once resorting to bitterness; to be filled with hope though not always hopeful; and brims with compassion and bemused and acute insights into a troubled society. It is a telling almost poetic tribute to the resiliency of black culture.