Report an issue
Tell us what's wrong and we'll take a look.
Thanks – we got it. We'll review and follow up if needed.
Faith Cross, a beautiful and purely innocent young black woman, is told by her dying mother to go and get herself "a good thing." Thus begins an extraordinary pilgrim's progress that takes Faith from the magic and mysticism of the rural South to the promises and perils of modern-day Chicago. It is an odyssey that propels Faith from the degradation of prostitution, drugs, and drink into a faceless middle-class reality, and finally into a searing tragedy that ironically leads to the discovery of the real Good Thing. National Book Award-winner Charles Johnson's first novel, originally published in 1974, puts the life-affirming soul of the African-American experience at the summit of American storytelling.
Charles Johnson
Charles Johnson is the National Book Awardwinning author of Middle Passage and a novelist, essayist, literary scholar, philosopher, cartoonist, screenwriter, and professor emeritus at the University of Washington. A MacArthur fellow, his acclaimed work explores race, identity, culture, and philosophical questions, and his books include Night Hawks, Dr. Kings Refrigerator, Dreamer, Faith and the Good Thing, and Middle Passage. In 2002, he received the Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Seattle.
More by Charles Johnson
Why Readwise Books?
Readwise Books is an ebook & audiobook platform that automatically logs how much you and your friends read, making it fun and easy to read more. Learn more →