Hippodrome

Set in a Chicago seething with physical and psychological violence, Cyrus Colter's The Hippodrome is an examination of power and exploitation and their entanglement with sexuality. The central character, Yeager, has murdered his wife and her white lover. Fleeing the police, he is both offered refuge and held captive in the Hippodrome, a ghetto house where a troupe of blacks stage sexual theater for white audiences. The murderer becomes a victim, the fugitive is caught in the spotlight. Colter's subtle treatment of sensational subject matter, and his careful delineation of his characters' conflicting motives, make The Hippodrome a classic of modern fiction.