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cryingoflot49 · 5 months

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Book Review

The Last Days of Louisiana Red by Ishmael Reed

There is a chapter in Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra portraying a tightrope walker. The tightrope walk is an attempt the man makes to leave the commonplace behind, to explore new possibilities, to see new lands, to expand the parameters of life, to move on to something better...a higher state of existence. However, below the tightrope is the audience, made up of the masses of the narrow-minded, the simple folk, the ordinary citizens, the littlepeople, the flies of the marketplace as Nietzsche calls them. They aspire towards nothing but mediocrity and the maintenance of the status quo. These people resent the tightrope walker’s attempt at finding a new way of life, so halfway through the stunt, they pull him down from the rope so that he dies in the fall.

Ishmael Reed, in his novel The Last Days of Louisiana Red, transplants this dilemma to a different context. He applies it to the African-American community in Oakland during the 1970s where the politics of the New Left, Black Power, and the feminist movement are in full swing. I don’t know if Reed consciously borrowed the allegory of the tightrope walker from Nietzsche or not (probably not), but it does serve as a legitimate point of comparison. Ed Yellings, the businessman who starts the Gumbo Works business, can easily replace the tightrope walker; Ed Yellings gets murdered early in the book, but as it is, he stands in for the upwardly mobile element of the African-American community in the post Civil Rights Movement era. He represents the builders and founders of an African-American economic class that is self-deterministic and independent of white America. And s the envious mediocrities of Nietzsche’s town, the ones who kill the tightrope walker, correspond to the Moochers, Reed’s portrayal of the radicals and activists, some of which come from privileged backgrounds, who refuse to build a better society and instead insist on simultaneously destroying the society that exists while demanding that everything be given to them because they are an oppressed minority. This conflict might sound shocking to younger readers who weren’t alive in the 1970s, especially considering it is being articulated by Ishmael Reed, an African-American author, but he is addressing a real social problem with detrimental consequences in the real world.

Ed Yellings’ Gumbo Works is an instant success. The gumbo is sold in a restaurant and manufactured in a factory but little is said about these establishments. This lack of detail is, I think, one of the many flaws in the novel. The business is actually a front for a secret voodoo operation which involves the defeat of Louisiana Red who is not actually a character but more like a spirit of sorts that brings negative energy into the African-American community. Ed Yellings becomes a millionaire and raises a family of four children in a mansion. Wolf grows up to be a business man, following in his father’s footsteps in preparation to take over the company. Street is a Black Power-type radical and criminal who is obviously a caricature of Eldridge Cleaver. The passage about Street committing murder then fleeing to Algeria where he is given a villa free of charge by the government is lifted directly from that Black Panther Party leader’s life. Sister barely figures into the story but probably represents the Back to Africa ideal of the 1970s since her clothes are African-inspired and she associates with a Nigerian friend. Minnie is the one who plays the most prominent role in the story. Based on Cab Calloway’s classic jive anthem “Minnie the Moocher”, she is a prominent member of the Moochers, but she falls out of favor with them because she shows up at rallies to give speeches about ontology and epistemology and other pseudo-intellectual crap that puts people to sleep. She represents the feminist element of the radical Left and insists she is entitled to take over Gumbo Works even though she has no knowledge of business. The inclusion of all these representatives in one family is of symbolic importance. Not only do African-American people bond by colloquially referring to each other as Sister and Brother, but but the idea of the community as an extension of the family makes Reed’s whole point more clear. He is depicting the African-American community as a family which is supposed to be closely knit and supportive of each other despite their individual differences yet at the same time he is showing how this family is one that is dysfunctional.

Ed Yellings gets assassinated, his factory gets burned down, and the two brothers shoot each other while Minnie insists that she inherit everything her father left behind. This is not the way families are supposed to work.

So far it sounds like a lot of interesting and legitimate ideas are introduced into the story. And it is true, a lot of them are interesting and legitimate and there is an abundance of them. A lot of them barely go anywhere after being introduced though. Sister is the easiest example of this as she only makes two brief appearances and doesn’t contribute in any significant way to anything that happens. Street and Wolf are not developed much more as characters either. Street’s only purpose in the book seems to be for the sake of mocking Eldridge Cleaver without mentioning him by name. Some of the supporting characters actually do a lot more than the main members of the family. Nanny, a woman from Louisiana, gets hired to raise the family but her ulterior motive is to groom Minnie for the sake of disrupting Gumbo Works. Nanny is a representation of the old, southern African-American way of life that the urban professional class wants to leave behind. She is actually a practitioner of voodoo and intends to spread the chaos of Louisiana Red through the Oakland Black community.

Nanny’s opposition is Papa LaBas, a houngan who is brought in to replace Ed Yellings as head of the Gumbo Works corporation. The two are engaged in a magical combat that is an updated version of the voodoo war between Doc John and Marie Laveau. The history and folklore surrounding those two legendary figures from New Orleans is sufficiently explained in one chapter. You might remember Papa LaBas as a catalyst of the action in Ishmael Reed’s previous, and far superior novel, Mumbo Jumbo. Aside from running the company, his most memorable part is when he gives Minnie a marsh and misogynistic lecture about how Black women should stay in their traditional places. His twisted logic is that women are already powerful because they provide men with sex, something which makes men obedient and submissive. I suppose that line of reasoning works if you are the type of sex-obsessed man who thinks with the wrong head, but for those of us with a more diverse range of interests, it comes off as a rather infantile view of sexuality and power.

The author’s misogyny is extreme, even by 1970s standards yet it is totally in line with what a lot of African-American men were thinking at that time. Black hyper-masculinity and sexual potency were big components of the Black Power movement and those were the progressives of their time. Read up on the Black Panther’s approach to women and sexuality if you don’t believe me. One Black Panther, I forget who, famously said, “The only place for Black women in the Revolution is on their backs.” The more conservative members of the Black community then, as represented in this story, were even more traditional and domineering in their approach to sex and gender politics.

By far, the most interesting characters are Kingfish and Elder, representatives of the lumpenproletariate who Reed despises. These two clownish characters refuse to work and survive by collecting welfare and committing petty crimes like stealing, burglary, scamming, and begging. They are obviously capable of being useful but refuse to indulge in thing like employment, instead paying for beer and weed by swiping tips off the tables in restaurants. “Owning a business is something that Black people don’t do,” says one of them. This is the type of attitude Ishmael Reed is addressing in this novel in an attempt at correcting it for the sake of his people. Kingfish and Elder stand out here because they are the most direct and clear criticism offered up by Reed and they work well as comic relief.

The least successful character is Chorus, a man who acts as the chorus of the story, explaining what is happening and what is yet to come. He provides counter-narratives about Isis and Osiris, the Egyptian deities, and Antigone, the Greek daughter of Oedipus. These plots correspond to what is happening with Minnie, Ed Yellings, and Papa LaBas. But the stories are confusing and poorly narrated. The purpose of a dramatic chorus is to clarify a story, but in this case Chorus muddles the narrative to the point where skipping these chapters might actually make the book easier to read.

I am wondering if this novel was originally intended to be a play written for theatrical production. The inclusion of Chorus, as well as a scene in a theater where Minnie heckles the performers (sound familiar Leftist millennial students at Berkeley?) are obvious references to the theater. But the whole story is told through dialogue the way a stage performance would be. Even the assassination, the shootings, and the fire at the factory are explained through conversation rather than shown as part of the narrative. This might have been conceived of as a play but written as a novel for some reason I can’t comprehend.

The aforementioned lack of detail is a real weakness. As previously mentioned, the violence and the fire are relayed to the audience by speech. There is also no description of the restaurant or the factory. Even worse, for a book about voodoo, it is disappointing that the actual rites and ceremonies are not described. Rather than having these things talked about in casual conversation, actually showing them visually bulks up the writing, fills in the blank spaces, and makes the story more complete. It allows the audience to experience these events emotionally and creates depth by drawing us into the environment and the action. If the characters only talk about these things than we just move on to the next page without really connecting with them in our imagination.

The other big problem is that Reed introduces too many ideas but never follows through on them. The different characters all represent different aspects of the African-American community but they are little more than hollow receptacles of ideas. What they symbolize is obvious but beyond the symbolism they have no life of their own. With such underdeveloped characters and themes, it is hard to tell if Ishmael Reed is being fair in his critique or not. You can find plenty of things to criticize in the Black bourgeoisie, the Back to Africa ideal, the gangster, the Black Power movement, and the feminists but there are a lot of things those people got right too. By not addressing all sides of these issues, the author does a disservice to his claims by making his criticism look shallow, uninformed, and rudimentary.

The Last Days of Louisiana Red is the follow up novel to Ishmael Reed’s most celebrated work Mumbo Jumbo, a novel that deserves all the praise it gets. The main idea of that book is that if white people stand back and give African-American people enough space then their culture will grow and thrive. I think the main idea of The Last Days of Louisiana Red is that, now that Black people have sufficient space to grow and thrive, they have to deal with some problems internal to the Black community. Notice how prominent a role the white people play in Mumbo Jumbo and how marginal the white people are in Louisiana Red. Reed has progressed to a new set of parameters here. But this latter novel is less successful because he introduces too much information into those parameters. It is like a chef making a pot of gumbo and using every ingredient he finds in the kitchen so that no individual flavor stands out and whatever is there in the pot doesn’t blend in with everything else. Reed could have left a lot of the content out to give more room for the important ideas to take hold or he could have expanded the novel to three times its length to fully develop everything he introduces. Otherwise, he does raise a legitimate issue, that of some members of the African-American community working against its greater interests. even if Some of his criticisms, particularly of feminism, are not entirely justified. I like to think that Reed is too good an author to write this kind of book since he certainly showed what he is capable of in Mumbo Jumbo, but in comparison this just ends up being another novel that doesn’t live up to its potential.

#book reviews #ishmael reed #vintage books #vintage paperbacks #african american fiction #postmodernism #american literature

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jamietukpahwriting · 2 years

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Book Review: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Janie Crawford is still a teenager when she first feels the bloom of spring deep in her soul. The intensity of the feeling inspires her to search the world for true companionship, a bond of mutual attraction and fervor. However, Janie has no chance to plunder her newfound emotional depths. Her grandmother, terrified that Janie’s curiosity and courage could ruin her, forces Janie into a marriage in the name of stability.

Janie’s marriage isn’t what her grandmother promised, and it’s even further from what she imagined herself. At first, her grandmother’s warnings about being a woman without any assurance of stability are enough to keep her in place. Yet eventually, the yearning inside her that thirsts for experiences to nourish her parched soul can no longer be silenced. Janie refuses to waste any more time.

In her subsequent journey, Janie endures the life her grandmother wanted for her and experiences the love she always wanted for herself. She meets all kinds of people and goes through hell and high water. Through it all, Janie is constantly evolving, ultimately discovering how to remain true to her inner soul-self without regard for the judgment of others.

When Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, pushed her into marriage, Janie was too young to understand the difference between her aspirations and Nanny’s. Nanny wanted stability for Janie, but Janie wanted love for herself. Janie’s relationship with her first husband helped her discover her disinclination to bow down to material possessions. She refused to be in awe of her husband’s wealth, and chose to leave once she was sure she could never find happiness with him.

Janie’s next relationship taught her to be silent. Her second husband always isolated her from others by putting her on a pedestal, above everyone else. He resented her for wanting experiences outside of those he approved. Janie endured until she couldn't take his constant criticism of her looks, intelligence, and age. When she finally spoke out, it shattered his self-confidence and he can’t bear to be near her even though he doesn’t hate her.

Janie’s last relationship was the love she always longed for. Tea Cake didn’t only see her as a status symbol. He wanted to provide for her, but he also wanted her right next to him instead of insisting on putting her on a pedestal she wasn’t allowed to get down from. Janie truly loved and felt loved by Tea Cake.

5 stars! Recommended for anyone who believes it’s never too late for love to bloom.

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#bookblr #books #book reivew #literature #black book reivewer #black woman writer #fiction #african american fiction #african american literature #their eyes were watching god #zora neale hurston #black author #books by black women #books by black authors #writeblr #jamietukpahwriting #jamietukpahreviews

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holley4734 · 26 days

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One Blood: #bookreview

One Blood Synopsis: “My blood flows back to my enslaved ancestors. My blood flows through everything, everyone.” Potent, poetic, powerful, told with deep love, and spanning from the Great Migration to the civil unrest of the 1960s to the quest for women’s equality in early 2000s, Denene Millner’s beautifully wrought novel explores three women’s intimate struggle with generational trauma and…

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#African American fiction #book blog #Book review #books #Denene Miller #featured #historical fiction #One Blood

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thepenmuse · 28 days

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Blog Tour: HOMECOMING CHAOS

HOMECOMING CHAOS by D.W. Brooks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GENRE: Romantic Suspense/Mystery/African American Fiction ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BLURB: A dead body in the parking lot of her family’s business, a killer on the loose, and a handsome detective asking a lot of questions… Jamie Scott’s life fell apart four years ago when she broke off her engagement, turned down a dream job, and went overseas to run…

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#African American Fiction #author chat #author interview #blog tour #book blurb #book tour #Mystery #romantic suspense

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ovalleba · 1 month

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Midlife Gumbo #CoverReveal

Title: Midlife Gumbo Series: Boudin, Barbecue, and Hoodoo #3 Author: Reggi Dupree Genre: Paranormal Women’s Fiction Tropes: Forbidden Romance, Fated Mates Sibling’s Ex, Grumpy/Violent Sunshine Cover Design: Moor Book Designs Release Date: May 2, 2024 BLURB When you think life can’t get worse, the universe says: hold my beer. Anastasia This forty-five-year-old honey badger shifter is newly…

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#African American Fiction #cover reveal #Give Me Books #Paranormal Romance #Pre Order #Romance #Series

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widamaker · 3 months

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American Fiction: “If they want stereotypes, I’lll give them one.”

Slight spoilers for AMERICAN FICTION. I left my screening of AMERICAN FICTION thinking that I had watched a decent film. The perfect “3-star” movie. I recall thinking “as someone not keen on satire, this one hit the nail just fine.” The movie poked at its subject of black narratives and ownership. The manner in which minorities claim their lives and the white people that facilitate them. Unlike…

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#2024 #Academy awards #African american fiction #American Fiction #Jeffrey Wright #Review #satire

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widamaker1 · 3 months

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American Fiction: “If they want stereotypes, I’lll give them one.”

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#2024 #Academy awards #African american fiction #American Fiction #Jeffrey Wright #Review #satire

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book0ftheday · 7 months

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The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris, cover illustration by Temi Coker, cover design by James Iacobelli, printed 2021.

#the other black girl #zakiya dalila harris #temi coker #james iacobelli #new fiction #new scifi/horror/mystery #cover art #african american fiction

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rbtbc · 8 months

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The downside of scheduling content is that I forget to share it. 😩 🙄

#love honor betray #african american fiction #bookblr #booklr #blogger #bookish #books #bookworm #book review #bookblog #book blog #arcs #Mary Monroe #lexington alabama

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jamietukpahwriting · 2 years

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Book Review: The Star Side of Bird Hill by Namoi Jackson

Neither Dionne, nor her younger sister Phaedra, had ever anticipated their mother actually shipping them home. Home being, in this case, not their shoebox apartment in Brooklyn, but their mother’s hometown in Barbados. And Avril isn’t even going with them. Instead, they’ve been handed off to their grandmother, Hyacinth, a midwife and practitioner of the local spirit practice of obeah.

To Dionne, having been ripped away from her boyfriend, best friend, birthday plans, and beloved Brooklyn, this summer trip to Barbados is more like exile. Phaedra, on the other hand, begins to feel like the hill is the best place for her to grow steady and strong, nourished by stories of her mother and the intimate hill community. Hyacinth, having known her granddaughters solely through letters and pictures, isn’t quite prepared to handle Dionne’s stubborn, heartbroken rebellion, or Phaedra’s confused desperation for validation and affection.

As the three get more familiar with each other, they try to orient themselves around the empty space left by Avril. Things are only made more difficult when the girls’ flashy-like-fool’s-gold father blows into town, apparently having decided it was about time he saw to them. Yet, the Braithwaites are from a long line of strong women—between the three of them, there’s nothing they can’t handle.

Family is complicated. Whether your family is blood-related, made, or a combination of both, loving people through thick and thin isn’t always easy. This book explores the lives and lessons learned of three generations of women, spanning two countries. The girls, especially Dionne, viscerally remind Hyacinth of Avril in countless ways, just as Dionne and Phaedra discover more of their mother in Barbados than they ever knew of her in Brooklyn. Hyacinth, Avril, Dionne, Phaedra—each of their personalities is made distinctive by their age and experiences.

Hyacinth’s roots are planted deep into the earth of the hill. She could never understand why Avril was so determined to leave when it was clear to her that Avril needed the comfort of home more than anyone else. Avril gives so much of her love to people who are powerless to stay—or are indifferent to doing so— that she no longer has enough to sustain herself or her daughters. Dionne loves her mother fiercely, but is so determined to avoid making Avril’s mistakes she’s blind to how recklessly she makes her own. Phaedra is uncertain whether she’s the pitiful, penniless outcast she was in Brooklyn, or the powerful, preternatural woman she might become in Barbados.

5 stars! Recommended for anyone who knows loving your family doesn’t always mean getting along with them.

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#bookblr #books #book review #young adult fiction #black book reviewer #black woman writer #literature #fiction #african american fiction #the star side of bird hill #naomi jackson #young adult #black author #books by black women #jamietukpahwriting #jamietukpahreviews

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