Only the Strong (2015) by Jabari Asim

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Only the Strong (2015)

by Jabari Asim

St. Louis, Missouri

Missouri: 2/11

   It is impossible for me to discuss Only the Strong without referencing Colson Whitehead's 2021 novel, Harlem Shuffle.  Both books are literary fiction informed takes on the crime novel, which is my favorite genre of genre fiction besides science fiction. It's important to distinguish crime fiction from the police procedural and detective fiction.  Police procedurals are novels about law enforcement officers, usually city employed investigating detectives, solving crime.  Detective fiction features non law enforcement officers, typically private investigators who work for clients investigating cheating spouses, solving mysteries which often involve crime or appear NOT to involve crime.  Crime fiction involves a protagonist who is, for better or worse, a criminal and the most common plot is trying to escape the consequences of past crimes committed. 

  Obviously, a writer of literary fiction working in the 2000's is going to focus on crime fiction.  Police procedurals rarely if ever ascend out of genre status.  Detective fiction has endured, of course, but it is in crime fiction that you find the most interesting subjects, characters and plots.  Only the Strong is an excellent example of the "genre plus" approach, with interesting, deep characters and a plot that is well grounded in the history of the city of St. Louis. Like Harlem Shuffle, is both engaging as a work of genre fiction and as a work of literary fiction.  I'm only surprised it didn't sell more copies or spawn a movie/tv version. Only the Strong is an outstanding justification for the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America, I only wish there were more books like it on the list.