RaveThe Pittsburgh Post-GazetteMr. Coates’ collection of letters is more akin to the forlorn violence of the Richard Wright poem from which it takes its title. In the poem, a man is set upon by a lynch mob as though by a natural disaster and finds relief only when he is set aflame. The letters by Mr. Coates are a scream in the night meant to stir his son from the slumber of the American Dream altogether ... Altogether, [Coates] does nothing short of challenging Americans to give up the privileges of blind belief in thinking themselves the best and of blind faith that everyone reaps exactly what they sow.
