Afternoon in the Jungle: The Selected Short Stories of Albert Maltz [Paperback]

This superb collection signals the long overdue return of Albert Maltz, one of the Hollywood Ten blacklisted during the McCarthy era, to the forefront of American letters. From Afternoon in the Jungle an unforgettable glimpse of the brutalization of povertyto the gripping adventure of The Farmer's Dog, Maltz probes deep into the American consciousness, displaying a keen outrage at the injustices of poverty, prejudice and oppression. Yet, throughout, he remains true to a central vision of the essential dignity of man. Engrossing . . . Maltz writes with a Steinbeckian concern for the human condition.  Albert Maltz is one of the most gifted short story writers around. If his stories are concerned with social conditions, he is never the prisoner of the didactic. . . . He is for a moment the conscience of the world . . . a writer who wants to believe that in the spirit of man, there is an impulse to pity and compassion. . . . These stories do touch that deep impluse.