King Comus (Paperback)

Paperback. Past and present collide in this posthumous, semiautobiographical masterpiece, which tells the stories of two Black World War II servicemen, their white commanding officer, a famous gospel singer, and an enslaved man making his escape in the early nineteenth century.Past and present collide in this posthumous, semiautobiographical masterpiece by the author of Beetlecreek."One of the great novelists of the last 100 years." -Ishmael Reed, author of Mumbo JumboIn the present day, a Black American expat to Rome named D. reconnects with his former Army friend, Tillman, and their former commanding officer, Joe Stabat, to organize a gospel summit for the singer Little Antioch. In the 1940s, as D. becomes enmeshed in Tillman's large and boisterous family for the first time, Tillman recounts the story of his fabled ancestor King Comus. And in the early nineteenth century, master musician King Comus embarks on a grand journey to freedom from enslavement.In this time-bending tale of survival and kinship, the product of more than twenty years of literary labor, William Demby weaves elements of the neo-slave narrative and Afrofuturism into a panoramic vision encompassing the forces of empire, race, gender, and religion. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…