![]() ![]() ![]() A police constable catches Willie Boy running from Doughtry’s apartment and chases and kills him. When he sees the old man’s corpse, however, he is frightened and runs away. When Mikey does not answer the door, Willie Boy goes to ask Doughtry for money instead. Shortly after this, Willie Boy comes to borrow money from Mikey. After sobering up and realizing what he had done, he flees back to his own apartment and bolts the door. In a rage, Mikey strikes Doughtry in the head and kills him. Uncle Doughtry unintentionally insults a drunken Mikey, who mixes his words with those of the foreman who fired him. Still angry at the injustices he had suffered that day, Mikey taunts Uncle Doughtry by withholding his bottle of cheap wine. He finally heads home to his tenement where his neighbor, an alcoholic Irishman named Uncle Doughtry, invites him over for a drink. He goes to a pub where he talks to his friends about racial injustice in South Africa and America, crime in their neighborhood, and movie heroes. During the course of his walk, he gives a homeless boy named Joe money for food, and is stopped and searched by police who suspect him of possessing marijuana. Mikey goes for a walk through the neighborhood to shake off his anger. The gang teases Mikey for being a “good boy”, because he refuses to join them. Willie Boy’s gang enters the café to look for Sockies, a gang member who is supposed to assist them with a burglary that night. Willie Boy brags that he never even tried to look for honest work. Mikey meets his friend Willie Boy at a café and tells him about being fired. The neighborhood is filled with gang activity and prostitution, and a woman uses toilet water to make tea. Mikey walks home through his impoverished neighborhood, seething with resentment over what has happened. Michael Adonis, known as Mikey, is fired from his job at a sheet-metal factory for swearing at a white foreman who accused him of being lazy when he requested to use the bathroom. The volume begins with the title story, "A Walk in the Night". La Guma won the Lotus Prize for Literature in 1969. The other stories in the book take place in a crowded prison, a restaurant, and a boxing ring. The title piece, "A Walk in the Night", tells the story of an impoverished black South African man who is tempted to join a gang after being unjustly fired from his job. The book was published in 1968 and contains seven short stories that detail the injustices arising from South Africa’s system of racial apartheid. A Walk in the Night and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by South African author and anti-apartheid activist, Alex La Guma. ![]()
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