Deals with the Devil - Hardcover

Cleage, Pearl

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0345382781 ISBN 13: 9780345382788

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1993

Synopsis

"Pearl Cleage breaks down for sisters all the old rules and unspoken taboos. She tells us the truths our mothers are still afraid to confront, the essential wisdom we need to stay alive. Her book mourns and rages all in one breath."

BEBE MOORE CAMPBELL

Author of YOUR BLUES AIN'T LIKE MINE

Dead-on, to the point, fearless. A third-generation black nationalist feminist, Pearl Cleage recognizes the pure power of telling the uncompromising truth--about African-American life and about the fate of the race in racist America. Whether she's writing about her--and her sisters'--defenition of good brother, or why she's so mad at Miles Davis, DEALS WITH THE DEVIL is filled with Pearl's most provactive, fascinating, and outrageous insights.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Cleage breaks down for sisters all the old rules and unspoken taboos. She tells us the truths our mothers are still afraid to confront, the essential wisdom we need to stay alive. Her book mourns and rages all in one breath."<br><br>BEBE MOORE CAMPBELL<br><br>Author of YOUR BLUES AIN'T LIKE MINE<br><br>Dead-on, to the point, fearless. A third-generation black nationalist feminist, Pearl Cleage recognizes the pure power of telling the uncompromising truth--about African-American life and about the fate of the race in racist America. Whether she's writing about her--and her sisters'--defenition of good brother, or why she's so mad at Miles Davis, DEALS WITH THE DEVIL is filled with Pearl's most provactive, fascinating, and outrageous insights.

Reviews

Cleage, a columnist for the Atlanta Tribune , editor of Catalyst magazine and director of a theater company, offers approximately 40 pointed, colloquial and lively essays rising from an anger that is both feminist and black nationalist. An "outsider by choice as well as historical imperative," Cleage gets nervous when Bill Clinton makes her feel included and argues that America's integrationist dream is a "perverse fantasy" for blacks. Though she attacks Clarence Thomas as "an enemy of our race," she refuses to honor Anita Hill, arguing that Hill's service to the Reagan administration marked her as a "collaborator." Cleage is most forceful when she writes about race and sex. She can no longer celebrate Miles Davis when she learns he beats women, but her arguments that blacks are always right in interracial discussions of race and that "conscious" women are always right in discussions about sexism are certainly debatable. Other topics include Malcolm X, the film Driving Miss Daisy and Cleage's reflections on love, marriage and friends. A worthy voice.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Atlanta Tribune columnist Cleage, essays that treat sex and politics from an African-American feminist perspective and that are--with minor exceptions--powerful, outspoken, and fluent. Ranging from the hortatory to the reflective, the 36 pieces here make take a principled stand on contemporary issues. In the opening ``Why I Write,'' Cleage announces: ``I am writing to help myself understand the full effects of being black and female in a culture that is both racist and sexist.'' And in succeeding pieces, as she tackles events in Atlanta and elsewhere, she also helps readers understand. In ``The Other Facts of Life,'' ``Mad at Miles,'' ``Good Brother Blues,'' and ``Basic Training,'' Cleage describes and analyzes horrifying instances of black men beating, raping, and murdering black women, and she bravely exhorts her ``sisters'' to reject all excuses for violence, along with the violence itself. In essays such as ``On Redbones'' and ``Fatal Floozies,'' the author brings to bear beautiful memories of her childhood among strong, well-educated black women and men on controversies over skin tones and sexpots; in ``Forgetting to Fuss,'' she compares her reluctant enthusiasm for Bill Clinton with her parents' subdued hopes for JFK (``At our house the much ballyhooed beauty of the new First Lady was greeted with a contemptuous snort...''). Elsewhere, she delineates always thoughtful views of Clarence Thomas (``He is an enemy of our race in particular and of people in general''); Anita Hill (``There is no such thing as a reluctant African-American woman warrior''); and Spike Lee (``His characters are the men we see all the time...the ones who are angry and don't know why'')--as well as Julian Bond, Bret Easton Ellis, Marion Barry, and the film Driving Miss Daisy. A few pieces are disappointingly slight, and two or three may resemble manifestos more than polished essays, but, as a whole, a fresh, gripping, and sane collection. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This no-holds-barred, no-words-minced collection gathers essays and performance pieces written and delivered since 1987 by Cleage, an Atlanta writer ( The Brass Bed and Other Stories , LJ 5/15/91), performance artist, and playwright. Since she is a "third-generation Black Nationalist" writing "to help herself understand the full effects of being black and female in a culture that is both racist and sexist," there is no garden club, country club, or investment club talk. There is, however, "Basic Training" talk: women--and men--are told the sexist and racist facts of life. A significant part of Cleage's focus is upon the pervasiveness in American society of violence against women. In no uncertain terms. she expounds upon the differences between a hero and a "shero." Cleage's comments on Clarence Thomas, Anita Hill, Spike Lee, Malcolm X, pornography, and the U.S. Supreme Court make for stimulating reading. Her voice needs and deserves to be heard: all libraries should ensure that that happens.
- Katherine Dahl, Western Illinois Univ., Macomb
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0345382781
• ISBN 13: 9780345382788
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 207