Items related to Free-Lance Pallbearers an Irreverent Novel
Ishmael Reed's first novel zooms readers off to the crazy, ominous kingdom of Harry Sam - a miserable and dangerous place ruled for thirty years by Harry Sam, a former used car salesman who wields his power from his bathroom throne. In a land of a thousand contradictions peopled by cops and beatniks, black nationalists and white liberals, the crusading Bukka Doopeyduk leads a rebellion against the corrupt Sam in a wildly uproarious and scathing satire.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Ishmael Reed has been on the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley since 1968.
Review:
"(Reed) ... is one of the most underrated writers in America. Certainly no other contemporary black writer ... has used the language and beliefs of folk culture so imaginatively, and few have been so stinging about the absurdity of American racism" -- New York Review of Books
"A great writer." -- James Baldwin
"For all the talk of the black aesthetic, few black novelists have broken sharply with the traditional devices of the realistic novel. One writer who departs from such conventions, however, is Ishmael Reed. . . . The Free-Lance Pallbearers uses an explosive combination of straightforward English prose, exaggerated black dialect, hip jargon, advertising slogans and long, howling uppercase screams." -- Robert Gross, Newsweek, 6/16/69
"Reed's gift is for the outrageous, for giving vivid expression to cultural controversies very much in the air. . . . He is one of the most underrated writers in America. Certainly no other contemporary black writer, male or female, has used language and beliefs of folk culture so imaginatively, and few have been so stinging about the absurdity of American racism." -- New York Review of Books, 10/12/89
"Reed's hero serves as a weird telescope for a society that is terrifying for its violence and passive hypocrisy, yet somehow hilarious as well .... If comparisons are to be made, they should be to Burroughs, but this novel is all Mr. Reed's own. Read it!" -- The Nation
"[A] wildly provocative young Negro writer anxious to create an uproarious uproar . . . Ishmael Reed can hardly be called a camp follower. His novel inverts conventional attitudes for sustained comic effect; his feints are brilliant and his punches swift." -- Martin Tucker, Commonweal
"A great writer." -- James Baldwin
"For all the talk of the black aesthetic, few black novelists have broken sharply with the traditional devices of the realistic novel. One writer who departs from such conventions, however, is Ishmael Reed. . . . The Free-Lance Pallbearers uses an explosive combination of straightforward English prose, exaggerated black dialect, hip jargon, advertising slogans and long, howling uppercase screams." -- Robert Gross, Newsweek, 6/16/69
"Reed's gift is for the outrageous, for giving vivid expression to cultural controversies very much in the air. . . . He is one of the most underrated writers in America. Certainly no other contemporary black writer, male or female, has used language and beliefs of folk culture so imaginatively, and few have been so stinging about the absurdity of American racism." -- New York Review of Books, 10/12/89
"Reed's hero serves as a weird telescope for a society that is terrifying for its violence and passive hypocrisy, yet somehow hilarious as well .... If comparisons are to be made, they should be to Burroughs, but this novel is all Mr. Reed's own. Read it!" -- The Nation
"[A] wildly provocative young Negro writer anxious to create an uproarious uproar . . . Ishmael Reed can hardly be called a camp follower. His novel inverts conventional attitudes for sustained comic effect; his feints are brilliant and his punches swift." -- Martin Tucker, Commonweal
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherMacmillan Pub Co
- Publication date1989
- ISBN 10 0689707320
- ISBN 13 9780689707322
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages155
- Rating
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