Average customer rating:
- Freewheeling black comedy
- Probes sore spots with comic vision
- Why Aren't People Reading This Novel?
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Reckless Eyeballing
Ishmael Reed
Manufacturer: Dalkey Archive Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Satire, General
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Reed, Ishmael Scott
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Reed, Ishmael
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ASIN: 1564782379 |
Book Description
It's the 1980s and the politics of the New York theater scene have taken yet another turn. Masochism is out and feminism is in, Jews are out and Germans are in, race is out and gender is in, and everyone's fighting (and rewriting) for a piece of the pie. Jewish director Jim Minsk disappears during a trip to the South. Black playwright Ian Ball writes the all-female play RECKLESS EYEBALLING in hopes of getting off the "sex-list." Preeminent playwright Jack Brashford, claiming the Jews stole all his black material, decides to write about Armenians. In the background, an unknown assailant dubbed the "Flower Phantom" runs loose through the city shaving heads of prominent black feminists (to the secret delight of black men).
In this hilarious, devastating, but also deeply sympathetic novel, Ishmael Reed turns characters on the backs, sides, tops and bottoms to expose the multiple hypocrisies at the heart of American culture.
Customer Reviews:
Freewheeling black comedy.......2006-01-17
RECKLESS EYEBALLING is an odd book that on one level is brilliant, but on another is just a big mess. But it's a lot of fun however you characterize it. Ian Ball is a young black playwright in New York trying to maneuver his way around the minefield of political correctness. (This book was written in the 80s before the phrase came into widespread usage, however.) Everybody's got a cause, everybody's got a problem that they're blaming someone else for. He just wants to get his play produced. (The lesbian theatre administrator wants to dump his play and produce a play that shows Eva Braun as a victim of male oppression instead.) There are lots of targets and they all take a hit from the blunt language of Reed's literary shotgun. There are sly lampoons of ideological feminists, racists, Jews, Blacks, critics, writers, media, you-name-it. I doubt there's anyone who won't find something offensive about it. But it's easy to take because it's hilarious. In some ways this book's surreal style reminded me of Leonard Cohen's haunting BEAUTIFUL LOSERS. But it's far more disjointed and ultimately becomes diluted by too many agenda working at the same time. One of the book's best scenes, a macabre story of a town that annually re-enacts the lynching of a Jew with an imported and unsuspecting "guest star" to play the title role, ends up being a mere footnote in the story. (The issue of the Jew's disappearance is never resolved.) Reed writes in a unique voice that is very refreshing. On the whole, I liked the book. I look forward to reading more of Reed's work, especially the plays. (I assume that the book was based on his own experiences as a playwright, so I'm curious to see whether he ever wrote any plays like the ones described in this novel.) This is quick reading and very entertaining.
Probes sore spots with comic vision.......2005-08-18
RECKLESS EYEBALLING is an original, highly comic dispatch from the politicized culture wars of the 1980's that makes some very serious charges that should remain open for discussion nearly 20 years later. As the other reviewer says, why aren't more people reading this?
The novel's title is the title of the protagonist's play. The narrator is Ian Ball, a playwright whose perspective as an African American male has been set upon by feminists. With the very real image of Ronald Reagan at the Bitburg Cemetery in West Germany honoring Nazi soldiers killed in World War II as "victims" on the news, Ball's world of New York Theater is in the hands of WASP producer Becky French, a strident feminist who insists all women are victims, including Eva Braun. Ball needs French in order to get his new play produced, the theme of which echoes the Jim Crow law that left America with the scar of the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till after he was accused of whistling at a white woman. French replaces Ball's friend and director, Jim Minsk, a Jew who disappears under mysterious circumstances, with Tremonisha Smarts, an African American feminist who had been among Ball's past accusers. Meanwhile, a serial assaulter, the "Flower Phantom" is terrorizing New York, a disguised man who captures feminists and shaves their heads after the fashion of the French Resistance who shaved the heads of female Nazi sympathizers in World War II. He bequeaths a chrysanthemum to each victim, including Tremonisha.
Who is that masked man? What will happen to Ball's play? What really happened to Jim Minsk? What's going on with that bigoted cop just days from retirement who is investigating the "Flower Phantom"? Will Tremonisha and Ball ever see eye to eye? Reed keeps the plots, characters and suspense flying, richly offered up in solid writing enriched with the symbolism of sight. This is at once a very readable and often funny book that also probes some very sore spots.
Why Aren't People Reading This Novel?.......2004-12-10
The novel probably contains the best answer to that question within itself. Reckless Eyeballing is Ishmael Reed's satirical response the feminist movement which often (not always realizing it) has attempted to make its gains by vilifying black men and which has often worked to supress the voices of black men (like Reed himself--who is an excellent and under-read novelist).
The plot itself is fairly difficult to describe because there are several plays within the novel that are important. The main character is Ian Ball, a playwright who is trying to produce a play that will get him off of the feminist hate lists. His play is being produced by Becky French (a literal femi-nazi who is producing a play hilariously exonerating Eva Braun) and directed by Tremonisha Smarts (authoress of a play--who is largely based on Alice Walker--entitled "Wrong-Headed Man"), and once the play is in their hands, it turns into an absurdly feministic farce. There are several other things happening in the novel as well. Some man, the flower phantom, is shaving feminists heads, as the French Resistance did to traitors during WWII, and Ian finds himself sympathizing with him. Additionally, there is a bigot detective out to catch the flower phantom who loves Tremonisha's play.
This novel is often hilarious, particularly when the two plays in the novel are described. It is, as all satires are, also very sad at its heart. There are a lot of people, such as Ian and Tremonisha, who are being used to oppress others, and the novel exposes that. Ultimately, this is a very compassionate novel. Even Tremonisha isn't a detestable figure. She, along with much of the rest of the feminist movement, is just being used by an establishment that is larger and more powerful and is actually evil. Reed's novel has been called inflammatory, but to call it that is to ignore the sympathy in the novel. So many people are oppressed, but the attempt to gain freedom shouldn't necessitate the finding if a scapegoat.
Book Description
The loyal stableboy Rap had fought through hell and high water to rescue Inos, his queen. But once he did, he found that she had already married the accursed Sultan Azak, who had despoiled her beauty. As Inos follows her destiny, and Azak his, Rap awaits his fate at the hands of torturers....
Customer Reviews:
This is a great finish to a graet series!.......2007-04-16
This is book four of Dave Duncan's 4-book, "A Man of His Word", series. The entire series is well-written and moves at a good pace. This book satisfactorily brings the series to a close with any loose ends pretty well tied up. A note of caution though, Stop with this book! Mr. Duncan's sequel series, "A Handful of Men", continues the story about fifteen years after this series, and the first three books are mediocre, but book four, "The Living God", is simple atrocious! Don't waste your time or money on the series.
Fourth in a superb series of eight fantasy novels.......2006-11-07
"Emperor and Clown" is the fourth volume and climax of "A Man of his Word" which is itself the first of two marvellous fantasy quartets.
The titles of the four volumes of "A man of his word" are taken from Keats' "Ode to a nightingale" and the words from the poem perfectly match the themes of the books.
The lines which inspired the titles are as follows -
"The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days, by Emperor and Clown ....
... The same that oft-times hath
Charmed magic casements, opening on the foam
of perilous seas, in Faery lands forlorn"
The four books of this quartet are
The Magic Casement
Faery Lands Forlorn
Perilous Seas
Emperor and Clown
These four books tell one complete story and are best read in this order.
There is a sequel quartet, set 15 years later in the same universe, which is called "A handful of men" and has its titles taken from Masefield's poem, "Tomorrow." The four books in that story are
The Cutting Edge
Upland Outlaws
The Stricken Field
The Living God
All eight books are set in a world of Gods and Sorcerers, where magic abilities are conferred by the knowledge of words of power. The descriptions of magic powers and how they work are far more effectively and consistently thought through than in the typical fantasy novel, and as the hero and heroine travel through a strange and diverse world a picture both of that world and the serious threat which it faces gradualy takes shape.
At the start of "Emperor and Clown", the loyal stableboy Rap fought his way from the other side of the world to rescue Inos, rightful Queen of Krasnegar, and arrived just too late. Inos, who was told by a God when she was a child that she must "trust in love" took this to mean that she should marry the Sultan of Zark, Azak. Rap arrived just after the wedding and saved Inos and Azak from an evil sorceress, but his reward was to be thrown into prison by Azak. The sultan then took Inos to Hub, capital of the Empire of the Imps.
But when Inos arrives at Hub, the great events which have been unfolding become clear: only Inos and Rap can avert a terrible disaster.
The original editions of the "A man of his word" quartet had beautiful covers painted by Don Maitz, and the books would almost have been worth buying for these covers if they had not also comprised a beautiful story.
Fourth Book in A Man of His Word Series.......2004-05-13
Emperor and Clown picks up where Perilous Seas left off, with Queen Inos of Krasnegar married to the cursed Sultan Azak of Zark. Inos hopes that Azak will help solidify her right to rule the tiny kingdom of Krasnegar, but she soon discovers that Azak is nowhere near as easy to manage now that Rap has killed the Sorceress Rasha. To make matters worse, the curse that Rasha placed on Azak is still there - he still cannot touch another woman without burning her. Humiliated, but determined to make Inos his, Azak and Inos set out for the capital of the Impire to beg the Imperor's aid.
Meanwhile, Rap is being tortured in Azak's dungeon because it is obvious that he has feelings for Inos. Inos has no idea that he is there, as Azak promised her that he would be released. However, Rap's faithful friends are not about to let Rap die in some desert dungeon in the middle of nowhere. Once free, Rap isn't sure what to do. He was so sure that Inos would need his help and that they would return to Krasnegar together once he found her, but now she was married to the handsome, powerful sultan - what would she need with a homely, faithful stableboy? Still, Rap had promises to keep and prophecies to fulfill so he too set out for the heart of the Impire. All too soon Rap would find himself battling the crazed jotunn raider Kalkor, meddling in the Impire's politics and finding himself one of the most feared men alive...
Emperor and Clown is the fourth and final book in A Man of His Word series and it was a riveting conclusion. I found myself racing through the book, desperate to find out what happened to Rap, one of my favorite heroes who is not exactly a hero. Inos has finally become an interesting character so I didn't find myself skimming through her sections as I sometimes did in the past, which helped pick up the pace quite a bit. A few new secondary characters were introduced along with the regular bunch which kept the story fresh and new. We also got to see the heart of the Pandemian Impire, which was quite interesting. I have to admit that the ending was a shocker and I wasn't necessarily pleased with the way it ended, but I guess there was really no other way. The ending aside, this is the still the best and most exciting book in this series! A masterful conclusion to a lovely epic fantasy series.
Warning!.......2003-06-25
The other reviews give a description of the book, so I won't reiterate. I just wanted to point out that all of those other reviews seem to be based upon what I'm assuming was a different edition of this book? The copy that I bought from Amazon looked like the picture so I thought, "Great! The cover looks interesting."
I could not enjoy this book as much I would have because the typeface and the way the print was aligned were terrible! To be honest, the book looked like an amateur printing job slapped together with a cool cover. So if you're like me in that straining to read the word on the edge of the page frustrates you, I would try to find a different edition of this book....and the story is as good as the other reviewers state.
Perfect!!!.......2002-03-01
Pandemia is one of my favorite worlds. I read Dave Duncans A man Of his word series ten years ago, and I have owned a copy of it ever since. Whenever I feel the need to return to my Favorite fantasy series of all time, I just start with Magic casement and keep on reading. I am now just finishing reading "A living God" (the last book in his pandemia series) for the sixth time and the entire series just keeps on getting better. Read all eight books set in pandemia and just hope that Mr. Duncan writes another dozen. Emperor and clown may be my favorite of all of the pandemia books.
Average customer rating:
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Emperor and Clown
Dave Duncan
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000GRBMD6 |
Customer Reviews:
Mussolini.......2007-08-21
This is the story of a small war that was a preamble to the great war, and a watershed war that changed the course of modern history.
Mussolini ordered the invasion of Ethiopia on trumped-up charges, in large part to inspire new respect for his government. It didn't seem that the tribal chiefs of Ethiopia, barefoot warriors with spears, would be a match for Mussolini's Modern Army. But Mussolini, and the rest of the world, underestimated the determination and leadership skill of Haile Selassie, the black emperor whose ancestry has been traced back to Solomon and who united Ethiopia to give Mussolini a good fight, who secured world recognition for his country and awakened public opinion in Europe and the United States to the dangers of Fascism and Nazism.
Average customer rating:
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Emperor and Clown
Dave Duncan
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000J31U7A |
Customer Reviews:
An excellent Light vs. Dark story.......1999-07-01
The worst thing about this story is the fact that the late author never wrote a sequal. A Dark Travelling involves a boy who gets extra-hairy during full moons, his adopted sister who is a witch, his brother who lives in a castle and the exchange student who lives with them, having been raised as a trained assasin. They are part of a group of families which together controlls the secret interdimensional commerce between parallel worlds, and who support a revolution on a Darkband... an alternate reality where forces of Dark have taken over. This was a fascinating novel for Zelazny's younger fans, with visible influences from A Wrinkle in Time and the Dark is Rising sequence
Book Description
The commercial explosion of ragtime in the early twentieth century created previously unimagined opportunities for black performers. However, every prospect was mitigated by systemic racism. The biggest hits of the ragtime era weren't Scott Joplin's stately piano rags. "Coon songs," with their ugly name, defined ragtime for the masses. Though the name itself is offensive to modern ears, it is impossible to investigate black popular entertainment of the ragtime era without directly confronting the "coon songs" which cleared the way for the "original blues."
In Ragged but Right Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff investigate musical comedy productions, sideshow bands, and itinerant tented minstrel shows. Ragtime history is crowned by the "big shows," the stunning musical comedy successes of blackface performers Williams and Walker, Bob Cole, and Ernest Hogan. Under the big tent of Tolliver's Smart Set, Ma Rainey, Clara Smith, and others were converted from "coon shouters" to "blues singers." Throughout the ragtime era, circuses and Wild West shows exploited the popular demand for black musicians and performers yet segregated and subordinated them to the sideshow tent. Minstrel shows have long been marginalized in discussions of the history of blues and jazz. Yet this overlooked black entertainment industry helped to move blues and jazz into the mainstream.
Drawing from careful reading of the Indianapolis Freeman, Chicago Defender, and other black newspapers and mainstream entertainment trade papers, the authors reveal a torrent of creativity that swept thousands of black writers, performers, musicians, and entrepreneurs into the professional ranks despite the overt racism of the times.
Customer Reviews:
10 stars, a necessary book covering important stuff.......2007-05-24
I have not finished this book, but I feel it is so important that I want to review it now and not wait. Most people who think they know about the history of Black and general popular music, jazz, blues, and old time music do not know anything about the material that is covered in this book. Without this knowledge, we are all wrong, mistaken and confused.
An important thread central to musical culture in this country was commercial and professional African American musicians and other entertainers who were centered in traveling companies of various kinds including circuses, minstrel shows, and traveling theatar companies during the years covered. Here we have gathered in minstrel shows the great women singers who helped make the blues nationaly known and recorded like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. Here you have musicians who became masters of Jazz playing and composition. Here you had comedians whose routines became part of the standard discourse in this country far from the stages they performed on. Here you have the dancers who ignited the great African American dance crazes of the 20th century.
Seroff and Abbot cover the information about this slowly, thoroughly and with abundant illustrations and documentation. Their sources are the coverage of Black entertainment in columns and entire newspapers that were published during the era on this in African American newspapers. The documentation they use should be a guide for further research into specific aspects of the music.
The prices on this book is quite steep. One hopes that libraries make a special push to acquire this book. Ask your library to do so, even if you have the money,or like myself, the urgency, to buy it.
Average customer rating:
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A Dark Traveling
Manufacturer: Morrow/Avon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000HTCFMA |
Product Description
Poetry.
Average customer rating:
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Traveling Through the Dark
William Stafford
Manufacturer: Weatherlight Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
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Single Authors
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
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| British & Irish
| Continental European
| United States
ASIN: 0952279835 |
Average customer rating:
- AN EXTRAORDINARY FIRST VOLUME
- This small volume of work gets my highest praise.
- GREAT STUFF! WHAT AN AMAZING WRITER!
- This book has made me a fan of poetry.
- GREAT STUFF! WHAT AN AMAZING WRITER!
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Light, Traveling Dark, Traveling Light
Roger Steigmeier
Manufacturer: First East Coast Theatre
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| 18th Century
| 19th Century
| 20th Century
| African American
| Asian American
| Classics
| Collections & Readers
| Drama
| General
| Hispanic
| History & Criticism
| Humor
| Jewish American
| Letters & Correspondence
| Native American
| Poetry
| Short Stories
| Women Writers
General
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
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ASIN: 0910829063 |
Customer Reviews:
AN EXTRAORDINARY FIRST VOLUME.......1999-03-14
As a former reviewer with Publishers Weekly, I can only say that it was a great mistake for PW to pass on reviewing this volume. They blew it! The only thing this landmark work of a great American poet lacks is a recognizable name and established reputation. If you can't find it anywhere else, go to a library and try to find it.
This small volume of work gets my highest praise........1999-03-08
I do poetry criticism for a poetry journal in Vancouver, B.C. A friend passed this collection of poems on to me, and I was deeply impressed with the sophistication and originality of the langauage, the striking imagery and the multiple layers of meaning packed into the symbols and metpahors used. This is truly a masterwork by a writer of immense gifts.
GREAT STUFF! WHAT AN AMAZING WRITER!.......1999-03-08
Here is a major voice in American verse. The first part of the book has poems that are imaginative, deeply imagistic and original. The second part of the book is even better with poems that offer a profound if soemwhat obscure vision. This is perhaps the most powerful philosophical poetry since T.S. Eliot. What a fantastic read!
This book has made me a fan of poetry........1999-03-08
Normally I don't read poetry, but I found Steigmeier's stuff clear, brilliant and stunning. The second half of the book is very difficult, but I found myself "getting it" on an intuitive level. Some of the images and metphors took my breath away. Who is this guy?
GREAT STUFF! WHAT AN AMAZING WRITER!.......1999-03-08
Here is a major voice in American verse. The first part of the book has poems that are imaginative, deeply imagistic and original. The second part of the book is even better with poems that offer a profound if soemwhat obscure vision. This is perhaps the most powerful philosophical poetry since T.S. Eliot. What a fantastic read!
Customer Reviews:
Holy.......2005-06-04
This one sits on my shelf next to yoga sutras, the I ching, the Tao te ching, the bible, the koran, the bagavad gita, the upanishads, etc. A must read if you are seeking truth. Book 4 is my favorite. I have read many of Szekely's works. 5 star.
Thanks and praise
-Oracle
Essene Gospel of Peace, book 4.......2001-06-01
By far one of the highest and deepest books ever written. Exoterically, it is a simply story about wheat grass, growing up. Yet this simple teaching is deeper than the deepest ocean and higher than the highest mountain.
If anyone else relates with me on this book, please write to me @: erb@libertyfinancialservices.org or call me @: 800-867-8024.
With Love & Light, Brother Erb Avore
Books:
- Ring around the Moon: A Novel
- Savrola: A Tale of the Revolution in Laurania
- Secret Father: A Novel
- Shadow Without a Name: A Novel
- Some Night My Prince Will Come
- Stars and Bars: A Novel
- Strait is the Gate (Tusk Ivories Series)
- Suder (Voices of the South)
- Tempting Faith DiNapoli : A Novel
- The Bar Sinister, Pride and Prejudice Continues
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