Benjamin "Chappie" Puttbutt, a black juior professor at the overwhelmingly white Jack London College, lusts after tenure and its glorious perks (including a house in the Oakland Hills). He spends most of his time trying to divine the ideological climate of the school and obligingly adapting his beliefs to it. When Puttbutt's mysterious Japanese tutor, who promises to teach him Japanese by spring, suddenly becomes the school's new president and appoints Puttbutt as academic dean, the fun really beginsfor Puttbutt sets out to stir things up and settle old scores.
Turning every contemporary...
Benjamin "Chappie" Puttbutt, a black juior professor at the overwhelmingly white Jack London College, lusts after tenure and its glorious perks (inclu...
Since 1976 the Before Columbus Foundation has been devoted to the task of redefining our notion of mainstream American literature to reflect this country s multicultural, multiethnic, and multiracial diversity. Since 1980 it has sponsored the American Book Awards, which honor a wide spectrum of books that reflect this heritage. To recognize literary excellence in this way demands a panoramic perspective, without restrictions and without quotas. Open, inclusive, democratic, the American Book Awards celebrates the many tributaries that flow into, in Ishmael Reed s words, the ocean of American...
Since 1976 the Before Columbus Foundation has been devoted to the task of redefining our notion of mainstream American literature to reflect this coun...
The classic freewheeling look at race relations through the ages. Mumbo Jumbo is Ishmael Reed's brilliantly satiric deconstruction of Western civilization, a racy and uproarious commentary on our society. In it, Reed, one of our preeminent African-American authors, mixes portraits of historical figures and fictional characters with sound bites on subjects ranging from ragtime to Greek philosophy. Cited by literary critic Harold Bloom as one of the five hundred most significant books in the Western canon, Mumbo Jumbo is a trenchant and often biting look at black-white...
The classic freewheeling look at race relations through the ages. Mumbo Jumbo is Ishmael Reed's brilliantly satiric deconstruction of Weste...
As a fiercely independent thinker, Ishmael Reed, author of Mumbo Jumbo, Flight to Canada, Reckless Eyeballing, and other works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, is often in conflict with the culture that appears to have a compulsive need to cage its artists and intellectuals in worn-out cliches and labels. As a writer who experiments in many forms and genres, and one who embraces postmodernism rather than protest and naturalism, Reed defies popular conceptions of what American writers, particularly black American male writers, should be or do.
In this collection of candid...
As a fiercely independent thinker, Ishmael Reed, author of Mumbo Jumbo, Flight to Canada, Reckless Eyeballing, and other works of fiction, ...
In this broad survey of American poetry since 1900, the editor shows that American literature, from the very beginning, has been as miscegnated as this hemisphere, influenced by a mixture of cultures, nations, and races.
In this broad survey of American poetry since 1900, the editor shows that American literature, from the very beginning, has been as miscegnated as thi...
A new collection of essays first published in The New York Times and Playboy. Reed tackles subjects including Oakland, eugenics, and domestic violence,
A new collection of essays first published in The New York Times and Playboy. Reed tackles subjects including Oakland, eugenics, and domestic violence...
The life of ex-slave Booker T. Washington embodied the legendary rise of the American self-made man, and his autobiography gave prominence for the first time to the voice of a group which had to pull itself up from extreme adversity. This book places Washington's achievement in its historical context.
The life of ex-slave Booker T. Washington embodied the legendary rise of the American self-made man, and his autobiography gave prominence for the fir...
Ishmael Reed's career as one of our great playwrights has long been eclipsed by his other work. Here published for the first time, Reed's plays follow the ancient tradition of using the theater as a forum in which the official versions of our history can be critiqued. Dealing with subjects that mainstream theatergoers might find disturbing-homelessness, the arbitrary entrapment of a black politician, the excesses of the radical feminist movement, the use of black conservatives to promote right-wing agendas, the exploitation of blacks and Africans as unsuspecting guinea pigs by the...
Ishmael Reed's career as one of our great playwrights has long been eclipsed by his other work. Here published for the first time, Reed's plays fol...
In 2010, the Newseum in Washington D.C. finally obtained the suit O. J. Simpson wore in court the day he was acquitted, and it now stands as both an artifact in their "Trial of the Century" exhibit and a symbol of the American media's endless hunger for the criminal and the celebrity. This event serves as a launching point for Ishmael Reed's "Juice ," a novelistic commentary on the post-Simpson American media frenzy from one of the most controversial figures in American literature today. Through Paul Blessings--a censored cartoonist suffering from diabetes--and his cohorts--serving as...
In 2010, the Newseum in Washington D.C. finally obtained the suit O. J. Simpson wore in court the day he was acquitted, and it now stands as both a...
An exhilarating mix of unpredictable points of view . . . there s real vitality in this anthology s crazy-quilt vision of America. Kirkus Reviews Is there such a thing as American culture? No, says Ishmael Reed, the editor of this refreshing anthology and a longtime critic of the mainstream media which, he insists, marginalizes non-Anglo, non-Yankee cultures. In this impressive collection of dissenting voices, Reed and other African-Americans, Native Americans, Asian-Americans, Italian-Americans, and Irish-Americans speak out against monoculturalism and provide perspectives from...
An exhilarating mix of unpredictable points of view . . . there s real vitality in this anthology s crazy-quilt vision of America. Kirkus Reviews
