White Lotus Author:John Hersey Once upon a time a race was enslaved. Once upon a time there were rebellions - spontaneous, unorganized, then mystical, visionary. Once upon a time there were efforts to flee, emancipation, race riots, crimes of despair, and nonviolent protest. — John Hersey boldly dramatizes the issues of race in this massive and powerful novel. Not of black ... more »against white, or white against black, not indeed of any specific racial struggle - but rather of one that seems to have emerged from a strange, time-erasing legend.
For White Lotus is essentially a creation of the imagination, in which the dust and confusion of immediate issues are pierced, and the underlying issue of any race against another, of race against race, or, as it truly is, of man against man, is searched out.« less