Pinktoes
Subtitle: A Novel (Banner Books)
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: August 1996
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 264
ISBN-13: 9780878058860
Subjects: Humorous stories; Himes, Chester - Prose & Criticism; Fiction - General; Fiction; Race relations; General; African American women; Harlem (New York, N.Y.); Satire
First sentence: For the most part the American Negroes are descendants in whole or in fractions of African Negroes who were brought from Africa to the Western Hemisphere as slaves during the two centuries preceding the Civil War.
Description: "Pinktoes," Chester Himes said, "is a term of indulgent affection applied to white women by Negro men, and sometimes conversely by Negro women to white men, but never adversely by either.".

In this rowdy work of fiction that debunks self-satisfied do-gooders, Himes satirizes social missionaries who preach uplift and promote specious causes. With Rabelaisian zest he portrays Mamie Mason, Harlem's most influential society matron, hosting desegregated sexual orgies, all for the advancement of harmony between the races. Just as eager as Mamie to bask in the favorable light of social justice are liberal whites who wish to be seen amid the "right people.".

Printed in Paris in 1962 because it was perhaps too confrontational for U. S. publishers, this sex farce is regarded as Himes's most daring work of fiction.