MEETING THE BEAR: A Journal of the Black Wars

It's happening here in the last third of the 20th century although the militants have been phased out and Blacks seem to have reverted to ""coloreds"" and ""coons."" The journal is that of a well-intentioned but ordinary young man who works for California's ineffectual Commission, where presumably racial grievances will be taken care of. Here, there, everywhere, escalating disturbances occur -- bombing of property, arson, ambushes, and takeovers which spread from city to city, ending with a more terrible vista (cf. the title's ""As if a man did flee from/ a lion and a bear met him. . . "" The Book of Amos). This has none of the scaresell of Edwin Corley's Siege; Mr. Zimpel's low-keyed narrator is almost like a teleprompter while news items flash on and off the screen with a nervous stutter. It contributes to the live and frightening insistence of the events which are taking place, uncontrollably, before your eyes.