Japanese by Spring - Softcover

Reed, Ishmael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140255850 ISBN 13: 9780140255850

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 1996

Synopsis

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 begins—for Puttbutt sets out to stir things up and settle old scores.

Turning every contemporary political and social movement on its head—from feminism to nationalism to jingoism—this boistrois and irreverent novel manages to be by turns hilarious and totally serious.

"One of the funniest satires of university politics I've ever read. Ishmael Reed is funnier than Norman Mailer or Gore Vidal." —Leslie Marmon Silko

"Reed is, as always, an American original; a wiseguy whose wisdom is the real thing," —The Boston Sunday Globe

About this title

About the Author

Ishmael Reed is one of America's most renowned African-American writers. He is the author of plays, poetry and novels, including Japanese by Spring. He lives in Oakland, California.

From Library Journal

Born into a distinguished family of black military officers, Chappie Puttbutt becomes an English professor at racist Jack London University after he is expelled from the Air Force Academy. Although he seeks approval by attacking affirmative action and multiculturalism, he is still denied tenure in a department where many varieties of political correctness vie for control. Family and academic politics soon expand to the international realm when Puttbutt's Japanese-language tutor takes over the university and initiates a campaign to affirm Japanese cultural supremacy under a restored shogunate. Though Reed aims his satire primarily at academic follies and phobias, few forms of extremism escape his sharp wit. Still, he is an intrusive character in his own novel, at times letting his commentary overpower the richly comic narrative. Recommended for most collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/92.
- Albert Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0140255850
• ISBN 13: 9780140255850
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 240