American Skin: A Novel

American Skin: A Novel
Average customer rating:

entertaining Irish visitor Noir

See Moniker's Review

"American Skin": Not worht your time

Irish noir peers into the American dark psyche

Not that good

American Skin: A Novel
Ken Bruen
Manufacturer: Justin, Charles & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1932112472

Book Description

Stephen Blake is a good man blown in bad directions. He and girlfriend Siobhan, best friend Tommy, IRA terrorist Stapleton, and a particularly American sort of psychopath named Dade, are all on a collision course somewhere on the road between the dive bars of New York, and the pitiless desert of the Southwest. American Skin is the long-awaited American novel by Ken Bruen, the hardboiled master of Irish Noir.

Customer Reviews:

entertaining Irish visitor Noir .......2007-09-26

In Galway, Ireland Stephen Blake reluctantly participates in a bank robbery in which his friend is killed. He escapes with the loot and after consulting with his girlfriend Siobhan flees to Tucson, Arizona where he is to hide as an American; Siobhan will join him shortly with the plan being she will launder the money.

The IRA leader who arranged the heist wants its booty. Crazy outraged hitman John A. Stapleton comes to America to take back what is his; however, John A. plans to eliminate anyone who knows about the money. Blake also runs into other problems in spite of his effort to remain figuratively buried in the desert. He meet femme fatale killing machine Sherry and Tammy Wynette's biggest fan Dade, who kills anyone who fails to stand by his singer. This fearsome five will soon collide turning the southwest into a ferocious dead zone.

This Irish visitor Noir is an over the Rocky Mountains thriller that hooks fans of Ken Bruen from the moment the key quintet is introduced and never slows down until the desert storm is over. The story line is action-packed as the audience anticipates a multiple High Noon shoot out in which there is no telling who the last man or woman standing will be. Violence may be as American as cherry pie, but Mr. Bruen takes murder and mayhem to caricature levels in this fun tale.

Harriet Klausner

See Moniker's Review.......2007-08-26

On page 179 a minor character's name changes from Bob to Bill. Lest you think it was a mere typo, "Bill" is then mentioned by name five times on p. 179. Then his name changes back to Bob.

A nitpick on my part? Maybe.

But when I see things like this in novels I wonder how much time and effort was really put into them by the author, the editor and the publisher.

I've read all of Bruen's stuff and there seems to be a precipitous downhill slide. His three current books are all marked by minor, yet jarring, errors. This one, in Ammunition a key character has a change of eye color and in Cross protagonist Jack Taylor grits his teeth even though they were, to a molar, all knocked out a few installments ago.

Sad.

"American Skin": Not worht your time.......2007-08-01

I'm generally very open about crime books, from Douglas Preston to Lee Child and Janet Evanovich and all the others. So when I saw this book at the library, I had to take it off the shelf and read it. Barely 300 pages, in large text, "American Skin" fails both as a drama and a crime book.

The plot outline is simply: Stephan Blake, of Ireland, gets involved in a failed attempt to rob a bank, resulted in his best friends death. Now th e third member of the bank robbing party is after him and his girlfriend, forcing Blake to run away to America. Despite his claims that he is moral and loves his girl friend, Blake sleeps around in New York and does just about every drug imaginable, with no point.

Strangely, the book does not seem to have a consistent plot. The author, Ken Bruen, writes about certain characters for a time and then forgets around then for chapters at a time before returning them to the plot. None of these characters even have a semblance of maturity, depth or even personality. There's no real beginning - the bank robbery takes place in poorly done flash backs - or even a middle - just excessive amounts of drug usage - and the ending falls apart with no climax or even real conclusion.

The author attempts to connect with the reader by making a huge number of media and cultural references, primarily through movies and music, but the attempt to "bond" with the reader makes it seem that Bruen simply went on wikipedia and looked up a list of popular shows and music before writing. The pointless references to Sex and the City, Christopher Walken, Monk, The Ramones, Bruce SPingsteen and more add nothing.

Side note: The book also suffered from very poor editing skills, with multiple grammar mistakes, typos and poorly spaced print. Which just goes to show that no one really cared about the book enough to even properly review it.

Irish noir peers into the American dark psyche.......2007-05-09

Irish noir meister Ken Bruen offers his prickly, ironic, and often humorous view on what it means to wear "American skin". Stephen Blake who served in the English army does a bank heist with his Irish pal Tommy and IRA sniper Stapleton. The botched attempt sends Blake packing to New York City, and then west to Las Vegas and Tucson. Extreme violence and hard living are the currency in the modern noir (and sometimes real) world. The whacko Dade addicted to Tammy Wynette and dope is sure to become a classic villain like Hannibal Lecter. Fans of George Pelecanos and Bruce Springsteen should enjoy reading Mr. Bruen's seamless, satiric, and, yes, unsettling American Skin.

Not that good.......2007-03-23

After reviewing the reviews, all I can say is it is not his best, I did not find it funny, depressing for sure. I find the character flat, like he had read Vachss and was trying it his way. His books set in Ireland, do not often have the brutal out look that seem to permeate this offering. I am hooked on his books, and will con't to buy them, cause when they are good they are very good. I have read about ten so far, and only 2 were flat, that ok in my book

Black No More : A Novel (Modern Library Paperbacks)

Average customer rating:

Life is a Con
Wonderful and thought provoking
What it means to be black in America
i normally don't think much of conservatives..
Excellent, Timely Satire

Black No More : A Novel (Modern Library Paperbacks)
George S. Schuyler
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Cane
The New Negro : Voices of the Harlem Renaissance
Blacker the Berry. . .
The Ways of White Folks: Stories
The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader (African American History (Penguin))

ASIN: 037575380X
Release Date: 1999-06-29

Amazon.com

This satirical Harlem Renaissance-era novel by black conservative intellectual George S. Schuyler (1895-1977), who wrote for the Pittsburgh Courier and contributed to the NAACP's influential Crisis magazine, is a hilariously insightful treatise on the absurdities of racial identity. Dr. Junius Crookman, a Harlem-based African American physician, mysteriously returns from Germany with a formula that can transform black people into whites. "It looked," Schuyler deadpans, "as though science was to succeed where the Civil War failed." One of the first to enlist Dr. Crookman's services is an insurance salesman named Max Disher, who as the white Matthew Fisher is now free to pursue the white women who once rejected him and otherwise bask in Euro-American social privilege (including a top position in a hate group called the Knights of Nordica). Schuyler unveils the futility of this electro-chemical form of "passing" through the emptiness the Disher/Fisher character encounters in the white cultural world, which doesn't measure up to the Harlem nightlife--revealing the poison behind the notion of wanting to be something you're not. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Book Description

Modern Library Harlem Renaissance

What would happen to the race problem in America if black people turned white? Would everybody be happy? These questions and more are answered hilariously in Black No More, George S. Schuyler's satiric romp. Black No More is the story of Max Disher, a dapper black rogue of an insurance man who, through a scientific transformation process, becomes Matthew Fisher, a white man. Matt dreams up a scam that allows him to become the leader of the Knights of Nordica, a white supremacist group, as well as to marry the white woman who rejected him when he was black. Black No More is a hysterical exploration of race and all its self-serving definitions. If you can't beat them, turn into them.
Ishmael Reed, one of today's top black satirists and the author of Mumbo Jumbo and Japanese by Spring, provides a spirited Introduction.

The fertile artistic period now known as the Harlem Renaissance (1920- 1930) gave birth to many of the world-renowned masters of black literature and is the model for today's renaissance of black writers.

Customer Reviews:

Life is a Con.......2003-06-08

George Schuyler's (1895-1977) novel, Black No More, is a deliciously wicked satire on 1920s American racial mores. First published in 1931, it was initially reissued during the late 1980s as part of The Northeastern Library of Black Literature.

Like many satires, Black No More takes a common, controversial idea, gives it form in flesh and blood, and plays it out to its logical conclusion: "What if white America didn't have any more negroes to kick around?"

This idea is realized by "Dr. Junius Crookman" (most of the characters have similarly "subtle" names), who invents an operation for turning black folks white. In lightning speed, the nation becomes monochromatic, as its entire black population "disappears."

No lack of comic -- and dramatic -- complications ensue, when it becomes clear that the operation doesn't change the genetic program for the pigmentation of one's offspring.

George Schuyler worked from a few basic premises: Most of humanity is a damned sight closer to the Devil than to the angels; most men are con artists; and the few who truly believe in anything are even worse!

For Schuyler, W.E.B. DuBois' (1868-1963) "talented tenth" of bourgeois negro society was of no more help to the average black than were the leaders of the racist, white order. Indeed, Schuyler saw those who made a living railing against Jim Crow as having the strongest interest in its preservation: every lynching brought in more money from rich, white reformers.

Thinly veiled caricatures portray DuBois ("Dr. Shakespeare Agamemnon Beard") as a hypocrite, and Marcus Garvey (1887-1940; "Santop Licorice"), the founder of the "Back-to-Africa" movement, as a common swindler (for which Garvey was, in fact, convicted in 1920, and deported in 1924).

For Schuyler, black nationalist rhetoric was merely a smokescreen to obscure its practitioners' class contempt for their erstwhile constituents, whose pockets they were busy picking. (Has anything changed in the meantime?!)

Down deep, Schuyler says, we're all the same -- and God save us! Ultimately, he surmises, if there weren't a color line, men would have had to invent one! His metaphor for American race relations was that of an "insane asylum." (Already during the 1920s -- 60 years before Dinesh D'Souza -- Schuyler had written a pamphlet arguing that total miscegenation, eliminating all distinct races, was the sole cure for America's racial madness.)

Though many of Schuyler's characters are -- as per his genre -- stereotypes, the central pair of "Max Discher/Matthew Fisher" and "Bunny Brown" are as engaging a couple of rogues as any you're likely to be fleeced by, this side of Rudyard Kipling or Chester Himes, their banter generously peppered with the black vernacular of the day.

George Schuyler was a great lover of science fiction, especially the then stupendously popular novels of H.G. Wells. He is the only notable black American novelist to smoothly incorporate science fiction motifs into his work. (To Samuel R. Delany fans: I said "notable" and "smoothly.")

In addition to Schuyler's great story, there are two other reasons for reading Black No More.

First, as by far the most influential black newspaperman this nation has ever seen, George Schuyler bestrode the negro press, and thus, negro America, like a colossus.

From 1924-1966, Schuyler worked at black America's most influential newspaper, the Pittsburgh Courier. But George Schuyler didn't "write" for the Courier; he WAS the Courier. He wrote the weekly, unsigned house editorial; a weekly column, News and Views; wired in scoops and exposes from around America and the world so amazing as to catch the attention of the day's most respected, white newspapers, who also published his work; penned the pseudonymous, serialized pulp novels and short stories that were the Courier's most popular features; and engaged other prominent contemporaries to write for the Courier. It was Schuyler, for instance, who engaged pop historian J.A. Rogers to write the Courier's immensely popular feature on black history. The various strategies of silence and misrepresentation, which are today used (for instance, by alleged journalist Jill Nelson and by Henry Louis Gates Jr.) to erase or diminish Schuyler's legacy, belong to contemporary black studies and black journalism's many scandals.

The second reason for reading Black No More (together with the serialized novels published in book form as Black Empire) is for Schuyler's role as unwitting intellectual godfather of the Nation of Islam. The Nation stole its theory of the "myth of Yacub," which claims that the white man was created 6,000 years ago by an evil black scientist, from Schuyler's Black No More, except that the Nation, as was its wont, turned Schuyler's story on its head. (Schuyler, for his part, was reworking H.G. Wells' story, The Island of Dr. Moreau.)

So read Black No More, enjoy some belly laughs, and learn some history in the bargain.

Black No More has an overly informative foreword by James A. Miller, which is best read as an afterword (so as not to ruin your enjoyment of the book), to clarify historical questions.

Originally published in 1992 in A Different Drummer magazine.

Wonderful and thought provoking.......2002-07-08

In my search for quality books written by black writers, I stumbled upon BLACK NO MORE and I am so glad that I did. This is a relatively small book, but probably one of the most thought provoking books that I've ever read. It forces you to look at the power of racisim in all of its incarnations, whether it is being imposed on black people from white people or if it is imposed on blacks from their own people. I think that George Schuyler is one of the most unsung heroes of African American literature and all people (especially Black people) should find the time to read his work. I'm currently purchasing anything I can find that he has written.

What it means to be black in America.......2001-07-09

Schuyler may have been a conservative, but his novel is as forward-think today as it had been decades ago. His insightful, satirical, and at times, funny writing, made me think about the meaning of black nationalism and Martin Delaney's comment about blacks being "a nation within a nation". African-Americans have been a critical part of American history, and to suddenly eradicate them from them makes me wonder what America really is about. Everyone should read this book. It will remind them what it means to be, not just an African-American, but an American.

i normally don't think much of conservatives.........2001-03-02

especially black ones, but this book hits the mark in race relations, about how blacks and whites really feel about each other and how much we need each other( whether we want to admit it or not !) this book was light years ahead of other black novels when it was first published and can hold its own against any black novel published today . a black man makes himself white in order to get the woman he loves...what a man will do for love !

Excellent, Timely Satire.......2000-11-22

It seems as if George Schuyler and Spike Lee are kindred spirits, it would be interesting to see what the modern-day director and satirist would do with this 1931 satire of Blacks who become White and the outrageous consequences! If Schuyler were alive (he died in 1976), he'd get two high-fives and a "YOU GO, BOY!" from me!

Average customer rating:

Tries, comes close.
Not Better than the Film
One of the few times I'd say "See the movie."
5 STARS
the movie outshines the book

Mysterious Skin: A Novel
Scott Heim
Manufacturer: Harpercollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Book Description

At the age of eight Brian Lackey is found bleeding under the crawl space of his house, having endured something so traumatic that he cannot remember an entire five-hour period of time.During the following years he slowly records details from that night, but these fragments are not enough to explain what happened to him, and he begins to believe that he may have been a victim of an alien encounter. Neil McCormick is fully aware of the events from the summer. Wise beyond his years, curios about his developing sexuality, Neil found what he perceived to be love and guidance from his baseball coach. Now, ten years later, he is a teenage hustler, a terrorist of sorts, unaware of the dangerous path his life is taking. His recklessness is governed by idealized memories of his coach, that unexpectedly change when brian comes to Neil for help and, ultimately, the truth.

Customer Reviews:

Tries, comes close........2007-05-12

Scott Heim, Mysterious Skin (Harper, 1995)

My review of this book, which I warn you now is going to be ambivalent as all get-out, hinges on one question to which I do not, and likely never will, know the answer: did Scott Heim mean the big reveal at the end to be a big reveal, or did he intend we know the answer to Brian Lackey's question all along? If the former, the book is an utter failure in every sense of the word. If the latter-- which Publisher's Weekly seems to assume, since the big reveal has its dustcover whisked off in the first few sentences of their treatment of the ("impressive"; Library Journal concurs with "powerful") book.

Brian Lackey, at the age of eight, is coming home from a Little League game one night. One minute he's at the game; the next, he's curled up in the crawlspace of his house, nose gushing blood, and five hours of his life is missing. Brian becomes convinced that aliens abducted him during the missing time, and sets off to find corroboration of this. Brian's story, however, is not the only one we're told. Neil McCormick is a teenage hustler who plays on the same little league team as Brian, and is being molested by the team coach; these two form the core of the narrative, with other chapters from the points of view of some of the other characters in the story (Neil's friends, Brian's sister, et al.).

You know, Library Journal spoils the end, too, so I don't feel terribly awful about doing it. If the pros are at it, why not me? In any case, I find it somewhat difficult to believe that anyone could get more than thirty pages into this book without realizing that Brian's search for aliens is a red herring, and that Brian, too, was molested by his little league coach. It's not as if Heim isn't broadcasting it in three-foot-high neon letters throughout. But, as I said before, did he mean to? If so, this becomes not a bad freshman effort. A bit badly-paced, perhaps, but well-written, with a band of interesting characters who have enough neuroses to keep the staff of a good-sized asylum on constant alert. If not, Heim has a great, great deal to learn about the art of foreshadowing. I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt, thinking no one could miss it, but then people are surprised by the endings of Jodi Picoult novels all the time. In any case, if the subject matter doesn't squick you out-- or perhaps more importantly if it does-- this is one you might want to consider picking up. ***

Not Better than the Film.......2007-05-10

The film, "Mysterious Skin" takes all the raw material available in the novel and transformed into something moving and special.

Let me start with the virtues of the book. The plot is fascinating; the juxtaposition of graphic, child molestation and UFO abduction sheds light on both issues. It also makes clear how post traumatic stress buries itself deeply into the lives of people who experience it and does so in different ways depending on the person. I also really like Neil's complex relationship with his molester, Coach. The book does a better job fleshing out Brian's character than the movie. His belief in his UFO abduction fades away rather than disappearing dramatically. Also his relationship with the older woman Avalyn is more nuanced as well.

My biggest problem with the book the use of first person for all the different characters who narrate sections of the novel. They all sound the same. I get no sense from their voices of how they differ from each other. This makes the novel and the characters feel flat and lifeless. Add to that his writerly voice which at times is quite poetic but never feels like how a real person would speak or write. I think the novel is worth reading only if you really loved the movie. I don't think its much of a standalone experience.

One of the few times I'd say "See the movie.".......2006-11-02

I became aware of Mysterious Skin first as a film. I've been fascinated by the films of Gregg Araki in the past (most notably "Nowhere"), and when I discovered this was his newest project, I sought out the film one spring afternoon at my local art house cinema.

In terms of story, the film is very faithful to the book. Araki took very few liberties, and those he took were necessary for creating a tight cinematic narrative. He eliminated extraneous points of view and told the story strictly from Brian's and Neil's.

I think the book handles Brian's epiphany more realistically, although I prefer the pacing of the film.

After reading the book, I recall the utter brilliance (or good luck) of Araki's casting. It probably could not have been any better.

What to say about the book? I don't know. The subject matter is really difficult to deal with. I read the book simply because I wanted to be able to compare it to film. That's the kind of thing I like to do. But, I cannot say that I liked revisiting the subject all that much.

Mysterious Skin reeks of first-novel-itis. Heim is definitely going to be seen as a rising star in "gay literature," whatever that really is. But if you put him against a contemporary gay author, say Augusten Burroughs, Heim is Crayola crayon to Burroughs' water color. The writing is very self conscious. There are some very nicely turned poetics in his prose, but none are good enough to recall. What stays with me is the kernel of the story and not Heim's writing. Maybe that's because the film is superimposed, or perhaps primary, in my consideration of this work. I don't know.

I guess I just have to say that if you're interested in this story, the movie tells it better. As with any comparison of book to film, one will find that the book has deeper characterizations, a lot more background information, and more individual events. But I won't return to this book, and I was glad to move it off the nightstand.

5 STARS.......2006-08-14

Excellent Novel. If you like Scott Heim, you'll like Equisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite.

the movie outshines the book.......2006-05-30

I read this recently after I saw Araki's film. The book hasn't aged well or something...it seems so weak and whiny compared to the boldness of the film. Small story and one we've heard b4.

Average customer rating:

I Gave This Book To My Library
A Very Entertaining Book
Be Prepared to be Terrified
Moments of suspense
I was disappointed

The Skin Gods: A Novel of Suspense
Richard Montanari
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0345470974
Release Date: 2006-03-14

Book Description

With the breakneck pacing and intricate plotting of his most recent novel, The Rosary Girls, Richard Montanari established himself as one of the most exciting suspense writers working today. Now he proves himself a virtuoso with The Skin Gods, an explosive new thriller featuring Philadelphia homicide detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano.

It is the steaming heart of summer in the City of Brotherly Love. Back on the force after taking a bullet during the arrest of a sadistic murderer, Detective Kevin Byrne warily returns to police headquarters. He cannot shake the memory of the Rosary Killer’s innocent victims–or his growing sense that the evil has not been vanquished. And when he and his partner, Detective Jessica Balzano, are called in on a bizarre case, Byrne’s gravest suspicions are confirmed.

A madman, dubbed The Actor by the homicide unit, is meticulously re-creating Hollywood’s most famous–and most gruesome–death scenes. The first murder is caught on film, spliced into a rented VHS edition of the Hitchcock black-and-white masterpiece Psycho. But in place of Janet Leigh is a real-life woman, and this time, the blood is red and the knife is real. Soon, more thrilling classics are turned into terrifying snuff films and placed on video store shelves for an unsuspecting public to find.

The key to this horrific puzzle could lie with any of The Skin Gods’ supporting cast: the A-list Hollywood director, the ruthless executive assistant, the convicted mass murderer–or perhaps someone else who has made a sinister art of gruesome violence.

Hot on the psychopath’s trail, Balzano and Byrne descend into the mouth of madness and beyond, deep into the depraved underworld of S&M clubs and the porn industry, where the worship of flesh leads to malevolent evil. Before the final credits roll, the investigators will discover that none of The Actor’s victims are as innocent as they appear to be, and that the clue the police need to prevent future murders might be found in Detective Byrne’s own dark past.

Download Description

Richard Montanari is a novelist, screenwriter, and essayist. His work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and scores of other national and regional publications. He is the OLMA-winning author of the internationally acclaimed thrillers The Rosary Girls, Kiss of Evil, Deviant Way, and The Violet Hour. Visit the author’s website at www.richardmontanari.com.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

I Gave This Book To My Library.......2007-08-23

I only keep those books I really like. I'm not a literary critic, but I do read at least 2 books a week, so I'm fairly "well read" (whatever that means).

A Very Entertaining Book.......2007-03-24

"The Skin Gods" is the first novel I've read by Richard Montanari and I got two words for you...Great book! It's a detective story laced with movie history and is totally original. The main characters are Jessica Balzano and Kevin Byrne, two Philadelphia Homicide detectives who are searching for The Actor. The Actor is a serial killer, who has recently stolen the video "Psycho" from an independent video store. When it was rented and the scene where Janet Leigh is killed finally arrives, the tape cuts to a real murder committed exactly like that one. As the detectives try to find out what he'll pick next and figure out his motive (as well as who the victim is), The Actor stikes again...The movie is filled with movie references and is really fun to read for a movie fanatic, but you don't REALLY need to know anything about movies to enjoy the book. It's got short, brisk chapters (there's 98 chapters and an Epilogue) with the story progressing from several different perspectives. It's actually pretty suspenseful. Some of the story is told from The Actor's perspective, but, wisely, Montanari doesn't tell us anything that the police don't know. The book is filled with false leads, making us second guess ourselves the entire time while never seeming forced. I highly recommend this book...It's the first book I've read by Montanari, but it's certainly not the last.

GRADE: A-

Be Prepared to be Terrified.......2007-02-14

Richard Montanari was born in Cleveland, Ohio. As a young man Richard travelled Europe extensively and lived for a time in London, before returning to work in the family construction business. Five years and a few damaged thumbs later, he decided that writing may be a less painful occupation. He has now written several very successful suspense novels.

The Skin Gods is a suspense novel in the true sense of the word, sometimes violent and brutal, but not just for the sake of it It delves into the seedy world of cheap nightclubs and even cheaper women, pornography and all the other things that make a large city tick. Detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano are trawling the streets of Philadelphia in the blazing summer heat. A series of crimes has shattered the quiet of the city. A secretary has been slashed to death in a seedy motel shower and a street hustler has been brutally murdered with a chain saw.

Someone is recreating copy cat murders from famous Hollywood murder scenes and placing the clips in videos for the unsuspecting public to find while they are eating their pizzas and popcorn in their own living rooms. Is this some local psycho or is it something even more sinister . . .

Moments of suspense.......2006-11-07

This is the first novel that I have read by Richard Montanari. There were some good, suspenseful moments in the book however there were also parts that seemed to drag along. I didn't read the Rosary Girls yet so I don't know if that would have helped to move along some of the character development that really didn't seem to go anywhere. All in all it was an entertaining read and I look forward to reading the Rosary Girls.

I was disappointed.......2006-08-30

I had really looked forward to reading "The Skin Gods" because I had just finished "The Rosary Girls" which was a great mystery.I found this novel hard to follow, characters that were sometimes hard to remember,(possibly because they didn't impress me) a detective that was not the best. I've read all the rave reviews but in my opinion.... The Skin Gods was a disappointment...

Average customer rating:

Compelling...
meh...
Cartoon Skin
Fastest plane ride of my life
ok

AMERICAN SKIN: A Novel
Don De Grazia
Manufacturer: Touchstone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0684862220

Book Description

American Skin was first published in the United Kingdom to resounding acclaim after the author used his last seventy-five dollars to make an unsolicited submission to the publisher of the Scottish beats, whose work he admired. It is a timeless story about a young man's coming-of-age as well as a stunning portrait of the class and racial tensions that pervade our society.

Alex Verdi is on the lam, fleeing from the police who have arrested his parents on drug charges and want him for questioning. Traveling to Chicago, he joins a multiracial group of anti-Nazi skinheads and embarks on an odyssey that takes him from the city's embattled streets to an Army boot camp to Northwestern's plush campus, and finally lands him amid the horrors of maximum-security prison.

In this intense and gripping debut, Don De Grazia confirms his stature as a young writer of uncommon seriousness and consummate artistry.

Customer Reviews:

Compelling..........2007-09-06

Before American History X, before This is England (and so on) there was American Skin. Its amazing how much has been borrowed from and outright ripped off from this book. And yet, it is still an inimitable coming of age story. If you are looking for a glorification of your particular subculture you might not like American Skin. It is set in a time when skinhead and punk were new to middle America. De Grazia shows the contradictions and naivete of his characters, and that's one of things that makes it such a great book.

meh... .......2007-07-22

This is clearly written for people who know nothing about skinheads, straightedge, punk, 2nd wave ska, etc. etc. That gets real annoying, plus stupid considering something like 90% (surprising accurate figure pulled from thin air) of this book's readers are people who have some knowledge of all that.

There's also some stupid lines. I felt embarrassed when whats-her-name goes "promise you'll be straight-edge with me."

Meh... the bok's ok. Its a quick read at least. Kinda' stupid how the end there's review questions... like we're in sixth grade English... wonder when this book will make it to those kids. In twenty years will it be read like the Outsiders? I doubt it.

If you can pick up a copy for a couple bucks, I wouldn't laugh at you for buying it. I mean, I did. But I'd say you're better off just saving your cash and reading it in the store.

Cartoon Skin.......2007-05-21

What a terrible waste of time this book turned out to be. This is nothing but vulgar fantasy for mass entertainment. Of course the nazi skins in this pathetic pandering mess are nothing but cartoon cannon fodder for the "good guy" skins. Honestly folks I have known ALOT of nazi skins and none of them acted this way or would have tolerated it from someone else.Anyone who says this is even remotely realistic knows absolutely nothing about the scene. As stated this is just pandering to mass entertainment fantasies and is a staggering disappointment for anyone looking for an objective and honest view into skinhead culture. Save your buck and go buy some...gum or something.

Fastest plane ride of my life.......2006-07-31

I read a great deal on planes because of business but this one was more than a quick thriller. I hadn't heard of it before but since my brother insisted I thought I'd take it along, not expecting much because his taste is very different from mine. I liked it from take off. Plenty of action but also really thoughtful. Alex, the narrator, was really natural and not stilted like I feel about most new first person fiction. I read the whole way home and was one of the last to get off the plane. I can't wait to recommend it to my friends.

ok.......2006-07-27

this book was ok. i didnt finish reading it, almost though. It is a slightly believable story but the voice of the character didnt really grab me, and niether did anything else. the guy's girlfriend is annoying. some stuff just kind of grates on my nerves. its an alright read though. mostly...

Out of Touch: Skin Tropes and Identities in Woolf, Ellison, Pynchon, and Acker (Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory)

Average customer rating:

Out of Touch: Skin Tropes and Identities in Woolf, Ellison, Pynchon, and Acker (Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory)
Curtin
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Reference | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0415940192

Book Description

Out of Touch investigates how skin has become a crucial but disavowed figure in twentieth-century literature, theory, and cultural criticism. These discourses reveal the extent to which skin figures in the cultural effect of changes in visual technologies, a development argued by critics to be at the heart of the contest between surface and depth and, by extension, Western globalization and identity politics. The skin has a complex history as a metaphorical terrain over which ideological wars are fought, identity is asserted through modification as in tattooing, and meaning is inscribed upon the human being. Yet even as interventions on the skin characterize much of this history, fantasy and science fiction literature and film trumpet skin's passing in the cybernetic age, and feminist theory calls for abandoning the skin as a hostile boundary.

A Venom Beneath the Skin (Romilia Chacon Mysteries)

Average customer rating:

loveeeeeeeeeeeed it
Deserves 6 Stars!
A fun read you won't feel guilty about in the morning!
Wow! A suspenseful, multi-cultural, feminist mystery!
exciting police procedural

A Venom Beneath the Skin (Romilia Chacon Mysteries)
Marcos Villatoro
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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Minos: A Romilia Chacon Novel (Romilia Chacon Mysteries)
Home Killings
Moony's Road to Hell
Killing Kin
Tequila Blue

ASIN: 0440242223
Release Date: 2006-02-28

Book Description

Latina detective Romilia Chacón is a marvelous heroine, one who clings to her heritage, her son, and a determination to do her new job in Los Angeles better than anyone else. She has to–because inside the FBI, Romilia is the only link to a legendary criminal who may have just taken down one of their own....

FBI agent Chip Pierce was found poisoned, a single word–cabrón–carved into his stomach. The only suspect is the infamous Tekún Umán, a seductive and brilliant Guatemalan drug dealer who once got under Romilia’s skin–and never quite left. Now, skirting official regulations to begin a personal hunt for Tekún, Romilia will stumble into a world where terror, fanaticism, and murder collide. What awaits her is a shocking new evil–and the ultimate threat to everything she holds dear.

Customer Reviews:

loveeeeeeeeeeeed it.......2007-05-29

this book was AWSOME i had to read it for class but i loved it. plot was twisting and turning and had me hooked till the last word

Deserves 6 Stars!.......2006-02-25

I recently met Marcos M. Villatoro, the author of this series, and was compelled to read A Venom Beneath the Skin after hearing him speak. I was not disappointed, in either the book or the author. This book grabbed me on page one and kept me hostage until the very last word. The story and the writing are hard hitting yet compassionate, and the look into the multi-cultural layers of Los Angeles fascinating. Romilia Chacón is a true masterpiece as a protagonist. She is tough yet vulnerable, and her emotional and intellectual relationship with drug lord Tekún Umán is both titillating and bone chilling.

A fun read you won't feel guilty about in the morning!.......2006-01-17

I love this series. After hearing a profile of this book and author on public radio, I read Home Killings, followed quickly by Minos, and now this book. Each one is better than the last. Readers of the first two books should particularly enjoy the focus on Romilia's relationship with Tekun, the compelling villain/hero/love interest in this novel. I don't read a lot of "genre" fiction, but this book demonstrates that crime fiction can have all the complexity and character development usually associated with literary fiction.

Wow! A suspenseful, multi-cultural, feminist mystery!.......2006-01-12

From first page to last, Marcos M. Villatoro's A Venom Beneath the Skin is a suspenseful page-turner, but more importantly this fun book is also an intelligent feminist multi-cultural literary intervention.

Looking at the book from a feminist perspective, first, Romilia Chacon is a strong, yet realistic woman. For example, she is sexy (and there are sex scenes!) but her sexuality is truthful. She's both "hot" and matter-of-fact. Second, several other multifaceted females support Romilia's story. Detective Chacon is not presented as a female superhero anomaly. Finally, the males' stories may be secondary, but they too are diverse and sensitively portrayed in often surprising and nontraditional ways. This description may sound vague, but if I give details as to how these characters are multifaceted and nontraditional, it would give away some of the shocking twists!

As a multi-cultural story Villatoro's book is extremely effective. It teaches histories and cultures without being heavy-handed or didactic. I learned more about Tijuana Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, Guatemalans, various cities and political histories, and yet it never felt like I was being taught. Whiteness is also deconstructed and explained (through a here unnamed female character!) and African American and Asian American women make appearances that may be brief, but they're not tokens.

A Venom Beneath the Skin is excellent for anyone to read for a good time however what makes it a truly excellent read are the sensitive character portrayals and the socio-political framework. I'm a picky and easily offended reader, but I do love to read. I'm choosey with my recommendations, but I sincerely recommend Villatoro's book for pleasure, in the college classroom, and for reading groups.

exciting police procedural .......2005-08-26

After taking down Minos, Romilia Chacon, a Nashville Police Department detective is offered a job with the FBI in Los Angeles, which she accepts. In LA she has an affair with Special Agent Samuel "Chip" Pierce. The relationship ends when he wants more from her than she can give; they go their separate ways until one night he calls her to see if they can start anew since he is retiring. As much as she cares for him, she can not marry a man she doesn't love.

That night a man breaks into Chip's home and murders him. The evidence, markings on his chest and a poisoned dart injecting venom into his system, suggests that drug trafficker Tekun Uman, killed him because of the former agent's involvement with the woman he loves. After reviewing Chip's files and other evidence Romilia concludes that Tekun Uman isn't Chip's killer, but made to look like he did it. She has no idea who would kill Chip and why and how Tekun Uman fits into the scenario.

Who is behind Chip's death and the murders of several drug traffickers and why he wants them dead is the core of one of the most exciting storylines in a police procedural in the past year. It is hard to tell the heroes from the villains in A VENOM BENEATH THE SKIN because all wear masks to hide their true faces. Marcus M. Villatoro is a talented writer who hopefully will createmore Romilia Chacon novels.

Harriet Klausner

Average customer rating:

Just Okay
What's really Hood?!
Staying alive
Sin didn't win
My Skin is My Sin......

My Skin Is My Sin
Dejon
Manufacturer: Urban Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 193396720X

Customer Reviews:

Just Okay.......2007-08-21

This is my first book by this author.The plot of the book was a good one but unfortunately for me this was just okay.There were too many characters and the story jumped everywhere.White boy Danny was a sick individual.Pumpkin, I did feel bad for her because of her situation.Goldmine got on my nerves.Goldmine was all for self.The ending seemed rushed but I was glad to see Goldmine got what she deserved.

What's really Hood?!.......2007-07-29

This is my second book from Dejon, and I must say I loved it!! His writing style reminds me a lot of Dnald Goines who wrote that gritty, raw keepin it all the way real type of book.
There are a lot of characters in this story, and it may seem all over the place, BUT all the characters tie together in the not so happy ending of this story.
There's stripping, MURDER, drugs, betrayal and more MURDER.
I look forward to the next novel from Dejon, keep doing your thing brotha!!

Staying alive .......2007-07-29

The setting for Dejon's sophomore novel, MY SKIN IS MY SIN, is an area of Atlanta known as "Little Vietnam." Here we find Pumpkin who is living with her aunt after her mother was incarcerated on drug charges. Constantly harassed by her aunt's girlfriend, Pumpkin realizes it's time to leave after almost being molested. She moves in with her friend who introduces her to her sister, Goldmine. Under Goldmine's tutelage, Pumpkin enters the world of exotic dancing and discovers the dark side of the streets.

In the backdrop, there is a drug war brewing in Little Vietnam with some drug dealers from New York who are trying to take over the territory of the local dealers. Pumpkin and Goldmine both play a part is fueling the flames. There is also an interesting subplot which involves White Boy Danny who is the coolest white guy in the hood. Readers will be shocked this "down brotha" has a hidden agenda.

MY SKIN IS MY SIN is a plot-driven ride on the wild side. It is a graphic and gritty look at the world of fast money and dangerous living. There is no glamour or success within the pages, just a hard look at the truth. The book is very well written and the author encased elements relating to loyalty, racism and the fight to survive the mean streets. This is my first book from this author and he has captured my full attention. I look forward to future offering by Dejon.

Reviewed by Paula Henderson
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Sin didn't win.......2007-07-12

I think this book had a good premise and could have been a really decent read. Too bad it was all over the place with too many characters and too much going on. Some of the characters weren't even tied to one another. I found it to be a frustrating read--each chapter jumping to a new group of characters and a completed different setting. Goldmine abandoned her stripping for drug dealing. Pumpkin should have been the "main" character but she seemed to be overshadowed in the book. I didn't find her interesting...only ignorant and annoying. I didn't even bat a lash during the multiple killings in these pages because somewhere the story lost its appeal. I don't think I'll be reading any more books by this author. Sorry.

My Skin is My Sin.............2007-07-07

This was a good read. This was my first from Dejon, and I was impressed. It kept me interested. I give it 4 stars.

Average customer rating:

The mexican border
Elmore Leonard With Teeth
Undertones of dreams perverted by greed. Also a great story.
Good--But Not On Par With Blake's Other Work
Poetic violence, beautiful brutality

Under the Skin: A Novel
James Carlos Blake
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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In the Rogue Blood

ASIN: 0060542438
Release Date: 2004-02-03

Book Description

James Rudolph Youngblood, aka Jimmy the Kid, is an enforcer, a "ghost rider" for the Maceo brothers, Rosario and Sam, rulers of "the Free State of Galveston," who are prospering through illicit pleasures in the midst of the Great Depression. Raised on an isolated West Texas ranch that he was forced to flee at age eighteen following the violent breakup of his foster family, Jimmy has found a home and a profession in Galveston -- and a mentor in Rose Maceo.

Looming over Jimmy's story like an ancient curse is the specter of his fearsome father. Their ties of blood, evident since Jimmy's boyhood, have been drawn tighter over time. Then a strange and beautiful girl enters his life and a swift and terrifying sequence of events is set in motion. Jimmy must cross the border and go deep into the brutal and merciless country of his ancestors -- where the story's harrowing climax closes a circle of destiny many years in the making.

Customer Reviews:

The mexican border .......2007-06-27

It was alright. At first you might not catch on cause of all the spanish, but it will be well worth the read once you get further along in the book.

It was kind of short. Page numbers had nothing to do with it, it was just that the story seemed kind of short. I gave this mexican 3 stars.

Elmore Leonard With Teeth.......2003-07-14

This novel by James Carlos Blake reminds me of Elmore Leonard but tougher, maybe a little darker. Set in Texas and Mexico, it is a crime novel with the flavor of a later-day western. Since Pancho Villa appears briefly in the story it can be considered an historical western, but why quibble? On the back of the hardback, there is a quote from The Washingston Post about another of Mr. Blake's books but speaking of his work in general. "He knows in his bones," the Post reviewer declares of Mr. Blake, "that violence is at the heart of American history." Huh? Did this reviewer skip World History 101? The bloody tapestry of European history, woven with pogroms, inquisitions, psychotic rulers, incessant religious wars and ethnic cleansing, makes American history look like a Manhattan cocktail party. What we are talking about here is conflict. A novel without conflict is hardly a novel at all. Conflict resolution is at the heart of any story. Mr. Blake has chosen the crime genre for his current subject and the resolution of conflict among gangsters is -- yep, you guessed it --often violent. If you like Elmore Leonard, you will enjoy "Under The Skin".

Undertones of dreams perverted by greed. Also a great story........2003-05-13

This novel is the story of James Rudolph Youngblood, but you'll call him Jimmy Youngblood and drop the Rudolph if you know what's good for you! His father was Rodolfo Fierro, a Mexican revolutionary who ran with Pancho Villa during the decade long Mexican Revolution. Fierro was Villa's chief executionar and one day he killed 300 enemy prisoners in about 3 hours with a gatling gun. After that he crossed the border into Texas and visited a whorehouse for some much needed relaxation. He chooses a blue eyed, fair skinned prositute for the night and although neither of them can speak the other's language an undeniable and powerful connection is formed between them based soley on mutaual, instinctual, sexual desire. For reasons she does not herself understand the white prostitute, Ava, removes her contraception device during their night of sexual play and becomes pregant with Fierro's child. Fierro himslef of course left before before day break and goes back to fight the Mexican revolution and die his inevitably violent death, never knowing about his bastard son by an anglo whore. Ava, the white protstitute, decides that she wants to keep her child and agrees to marry a customer of hers, Cullen Youngblood, who keeps pestering her with the offer of marriage. At first she kept refusing but once she learns of her pregant condition she accepts Cullen Youngblood's offer on condition that she be allowed to keep the child even though it is not Cullen's. She even tells him that the child is probably Mexican. At first he is upset but decides to marry her anyway. Thus in such bizzare and unlikely cirumstances is Jimmy Youngblood brought into the world. Of course Ava does not tell anyone who Jimmy's father really is even though she secretly takes pride in the fact that her boy's father was such a notirious killer of men. Jimmy knows nothing of his mother's past as a whore and he does not even know she is his mother, he thinks his mother died giving birth to him and that Ava is his aunt. Jimmy has the brown skin of a Mexican but the blue eyes of an anglo. He grows up on Cullen Youngblood's ranch with his half brother Reuben. His life is uneventful except for the fact that he is so good at shooting it is scary. Eventually he runs into trouble with the law and is forced to run away from home and make his own way in the world. He ends up working for an Italian gangster named Rose Maceo who runs all organized crime, gambling, prositution, bootlegging, etc. in Galvaston County, Texas. The novel mostly takes place in 1936. Jimmy is the chief enforcer for Rose Maceo, he is the number 1 assassin for the organization. Jimmy is always beating, crippling, or killing someone but it is always someone who deserves it. His life changes when he encounters a beautiful young Mexican girl, Daniella, who herself is on the run from a rich but evil Mexican hacienda owner. This Mexican hacienda owner, Ceaser Cavalres, kidnapped Daniella from Texas and married her in Mexico on his extensive estate. At first she was awed by his wealth and agreed to marry him but she soon realizes that she is nothing but a prisoner in a gilded cage. She escapes to America and comes to Galveston and meets Jimmy Youngblood. Meanwhile, Ceaser Cvaleres has sent his henchmen after her in order to kidnap her and bring her back to him. It does not take a genius to figure out what happens next, let the mayhem and killing begin! Some nice plot twists for Ceaser Cavalres has a connection with Jimmy Youngblood's past even a experienced and savy reader wont see coming. Lots of moral ambiguity as their is no "good guy" in this novel. Even the "bad guy" Ceaser Cavleres has his sympathic momements. See Rodolfo Fierro, Jimmy's father, might have been a genuine revolutionary fighting for the poor and opressed in a fascist society but he was also a bloodthirsty convict who enjoyed mass murder. Ceaser Cavleres might be a tyranical, elitist land owner who makes his profits off of the hard labor of the peon but even he has feelings and needs. Jimmy himself is sympathic yet he is also somewhat evil as he kills and maims people on a reguar basis. His father may have been a revolutionary but he certainly is not for he works for a pure capitalist gangster. At the same time he is not as blood thirsty as his father. Complex and belivible characters make their choices in a world not sharply contrasted in black and white but like real life is a muddle of different tones of gray. This is no sappy love story, someone dies every 10 pages or so. Not Blake's best but far from his worst.

Good--But Not On Par With Blake's Other Work.......2003-04-18

While entertaining, I found this book too similar in plot to "A World Of Thieves", Blake's last novel. Both books, moreover, are substantially shorter than most of Blake's prior outstanding works. I hope this does not mean that we can look forward to Blake cranking out short, mediocre,and formulaic books in the future in order to cash in on his reader's loyalty (ala Larry McMurtry). Nevertheless, if you like Blake (and there is very much to like) you will undoubtedly enjoy this book.

Poetic violence, beautiful brutality.......2003-02-13

Is it merely coincidence that the anti-heroes in James Carlos Blake's ultra-violent passion plays are constantly crossing state lines, fences, deserts and rivers to reach their fates?

Don't count on it. Mankind's greatest stories from Homer to Hemingway have required their heroes to cross perilous thresholds, from their safe, familiar worlds into a place that would challenge their bodies, hearts and minds. To fail is to die; to succeed is to change irreversibly.

And blood is almost always spilled. Blake has merely elevated bloodshed to a fine art.

Blake's newest contribution to historical crime fiction is "Under the Skin," a borderland noir about love and crime in Depression-era coastal Texas and northern Mexico. But the real borders it crosses are not just geographic.

The bulk of the story is set in gritty and bohemian Galveston in the first few days of 1936, but it really begins 22 years earlier, when Pancho Villa and his most bloodthirsty captain visit an El Paso whorehouse and plant the seed of destiny.

Blake was born in Mexico and raised in Texas, and is among the brightest stars in historical fiction, particularly where bad men make good stories. All his books have been set in the turbulent times between the dawn of Manifest Destiny and the Depression, wherever humans could inflict the most inhumanity on each other.

"Under the Skin" is brutal and beautiful. Blake's savage crime saga isn't driven only by the body count nor its cold-blooded cruelty. What makes this book -- and Blake's others -- truly horrific are passages of pure poetry and the haunting beauty of Blake's writing.

Few writers can skillfully blend the poetic and the perverse, as if the esoteric and animalistic sides of the brain shared an impermeable border. But as Blake has shown, borders are made to be crossed: John Gregory Dunne ("True Confessions") and James Ellroy ("My Dark Places") are among the most seasoned travelers to cross that particular boundary, but Blake lives there.

Book Description

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison brings the genius of a master writer to this personal inquiry into the significance of African-Americans in the American literary imagination. Her goal, she states at the outset, is to "put forth an argument for extending the study of American literature...draw a map, so to speak, of a critical geography and use that map to open as much space for discovery, intellectual adventure, and close exploration as did the original charting of the New World--without the mandate for conquest."

Author of Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and other vivid portrayals of black American experience, Morrison ponders the effect that living in a historically racialized society has had on American writing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She argues that race has become a metaphor, a way of referring to forces, events, and forms of social decay, economic division, and human panic. Her compelling point is that the central characteristics of American literature individualism, masculinity, the insistence upon innocence coupled to an obsession with figurations of death and hell--are responses to a dark and abiding Africanist presence.

Through her investigation of black characters, narrative strategies, and idiom in the fiction of white American writers, Morrison provides a daring perspective that is sure to alter conventional notions about American literature. She considers Willa Cather and the impact of race on concept and plot; turns to Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville to examine the black force that figures so significantly in the literature of early America; and discusses the implications of the Africanist presence at the heart of Huckleberry Finn. A final chapter on Ernest Hemingway is a brilliant exposition of the racial subtext that glimmers beneath the surface plots of his fiction.

Written with the artistic vision that has earned her a preeminent place in modern letters, Playing in the Dark will be avidly read by Morrison admirers as well as by students, critics, and scholars of American literature.

Customer Reviews:

Is Toni Morrison for Real?.......2005-12-24

The reviewer below who said "More Heat Than Light" got it partly right. This book is SO badly written you have to wonder if the author's other works were written by the same person. Not only is it sophomoric, it is gibberish. Had its author been unknown, she would surely have had to pay for the book's publication. Incredibly bad, it may at least serve as a source of hope for struggling writers who believe that only the best works are accepted by publishers.

Good, and yet a writer may not be the best critic.......2005-03-21

Toni Morrison is excellent in these three lectures. She analyzes some white American novels brilliantly and shows how the whole structure and meaning can be re-read from the presence of what she calls Africanism at the back of the mind of the author and at times in the novel itself. Her approach is far-reaching and does not only take into consideration the presence of a black person, but also the deeply metaphorical presence of a dark side in the author's imagination and novels, a dark side that informs the whole work and structures the plot and the story. She tries to explain this presence of this dark side by showing how the Europeans who fled Europe to come to America for a new start arrived with no real model to imitate, and that they had to structure their own personalities from scratch. This could only be done by finding an alter ego that will embody the « other » any person needs to build their personalities. This « other », she says, is naturally the African slave that brings together several differences that make him perfectly easy to become the object of this ego-building : social alienation (slaves), cultural and linguistic alienation (they have been torn away from their cultures and languages) and racial alienation (blacks). The last alienation makes the other two absolutely irreversible because it cannot in any way be changed or hidden. This explains the structuring power of race or rather blackness in this society whose hierarchical structure is never denied or even questioned. Yet I remain slightly unsatisfied in the absolutely uniqueness of this experience. The Europeans when they arrived found the Indians and they tried to make them subservient and even slaves. They could not do it because these Indians did not survive very long in such a position and the most enterprising ones, Cherokees, Iroquois, Seminoles, etc, learned very fast and easily conquered their autonomy and developed a viable economic system. So the Europeans turned to Africans who were rather easily turned into slaves, with no pangs of conscience for the Europeans because they were not natives, so the land was not theirs, and they were black, hence absolutely different by embodying century old fantasms and fears among Europeans who discarded black as being devilish, satanic, dirty, etc. Here we have to insist on one element that Toni Morrison discards too fast : the Europeans had to exterminate the un-enslavable Indians to get their land and then bring the Blacks to America. The Indian genocide is the primary condition for the enslavement of the Blacks. The second element is that she seems to consider the European Enlightenment justified this enslavement of the Blacks. Here I have to disagree because Monstesquieu, for one, and quite many others like Rousseau, Diderot, it is true mainly French people, rejected this approach that pretended Blacks were not human and even had no souls. This French Enlightenment actually produced the abolition of slavery by the French Revolution, even if Napoleon reinstated it later on. That would have enabled Toni Morrison to answer a question she does not ask because she has no answer : where did the abolitionists come from, where did abolitionism come from, if what she describes is the only connection with Europe ? But there is even another question. What she describes is in perfect agreement with the logic and dialectic of the « subject » as advocated by Lacan. Since she quotes Marie Cardinal she should have found out about Lacan. In absolutely any society so far (no developed class-less society has ever existed on the planet) when a subject rejects the « Authority » pole of his personality, authority that is embodied in someone else, in the « social other », that person is dominated by his impulses, positive and negative, and he becomes his only master. Then he has to rebuild this pole of his personality, and the « other » becomes the one he is going to reject. In all our societies there has been an « other ». She hints at social alienation and evokes cultural and linguistic alienation. But our societies have always found a scapegoat that became that « other » they could easily reject, enslave or even massacre : the Jews, the protestants or the catholics, the moslems, Arabs, gypsies, or even women as for that, and for some today in our lay societies priests and believers of any denomination, and our societies can even use one category of the past to build up the rejected group : fascists, nazis, stalinists, maoists, etc. The only point she has is the over-determination that color adds to this phenomenon, though Arabs or Moslems in Europe today, and for centuries in the past, qualify for that kind of racist attitude, and we all know about agism, sexism, homophobic attitudes and many others. She though has an enormous point when she says that invisibility does not solve the problem because the Blacks may be invisible in language, literature, and other politically correct discourses, but they remain visible and at times hauntingly overvisible in the minds of people. One cannot decree the end of racism with a law or a couple of anti-racist classes in school. I think that Ralph Ellison saw more and farther when he said « we have to be one and many at the same time », or when he defended democratic diversity in society and in each social or racial group of this society.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Selling Out Huck -- And Kissing Up To Scarlett.......2004-12-31

It's not surprising that a black feminist author would want to trash the "dead white guys" who made American literature. What is interesting is the phony way Toni Morrison wants to hang racism solely on white men, never on white women. She spends page after page trying to dig up dirt on masculine writers like Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway, while entirely ignoring the far more poisonous racism of white women like Margaret Mitchell and Edith Wharton.

Toni Morrison feels threatened by Huck Finn -- enough to trash him good -- and not at all threatened by Scarlett O'Hara. This is interesting. After all, Huck Finn risks his life to set a black man free, while Scarlett is an unrepentant slaveowner who feeds off black suffering like a parasite. So why is it that Scarlett gets a pass while Huck gets jumped on like a white jogger in Central Park?

Perhaps the problem is that Mark Twain isn't really attacking racism so much as he's attacking respectability. Twain suggests that it's the hunger for wealth, status, comfort, and respectability that causes people to mistreat others -- and that well-bred Widow Douglas is no better than white trash Pap Finn.

What Morrison resents is not that Twain is too tough on Nigger Jim, but that he's too tough on the Widow Douglas. It seems clear that Morrison doesn't want to be free in the sense that runaway Jim is free -- that is, to be able to come and go as she pleases and think her own thoughts. Secretly, she wants to be "free" in the way that Widow Douglas and Scarlett O'hara are free. She wants the life of luxury and privilege that the white ladies she secretly admires have always had. She'd rather pal around with rich white "ladies" like Mary Gordon (who is under the Barnard veneer the worst sort of shanty Irish bigot) than with trash like the black men now serving in Iraq. And she's perfectly willing to sell the trash down the river to do it, be they white or black.

Leave the reducing for the experts.......2003-07-22

If Morrison is playing in the dark, then indeed there are those who are angry in the light, so to give a negative reduction of what morrison was clearly stating about how blacks are viewed speaks in high volume, besides i dont know of many japanese who pinpointed out black ppl to enslave them............. even if they did have three eyes, two mouths, or whatever else. lol Another prime example that denial always ends with a bad term......... More emotional baggage disguised as constructive critism..........yawn....................

More Heat than Light.......2002-05-12

Playing in the Dark is a revelation, but not the one intended by its author. What is revealed mainly is just how close to hopeless race relations in this country have come to be. Here we have a writer of nearly undisputed stature, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, who yet cannot summon objectivity on the subject of race, and who offers what seems essentially a bit of personal venting disguised as a serious academic proposal. Not that there isn't an interesting idea at the core of the book, but it's offered up as far more grand than it is, and with such thorough disingenuousness that the reader's main focus is changed very early on from an evaluation of her idea to a voyeuristic obsessing about Ms. Morrison's indecent exposure. Why would she let this book be printed?

The author's claimed intention is stated relatively plainly: "...to examine the impact of notions of racial hierarchy, racial exclusion, and racial vulnerability and availability on nonblacks who held, resisted, explored, or altered those notions." (Page 11.) But much of the book reads for all the world like the work of a sophomore who has learned that her instructor fancies Martin Heidegger and who has checked out a translation of Being and Time to serve as a model for her first essay. Here's a fairly typical example: "For excellent reasons of state - because European sources of cultural hegemony were dispersed but not yet valorized in the new country - the process of organizing American coherence through a distancing Africanism became the operative mode of a new cultural hegemony." (Page 8.) This is the writing of a Nobel laureate? Heidegger's writing was required, it seems to me, by his inaccessible subject; by comparison, Ms. Morrison's subject is elementary.

This is not to say that the author doesn't occasionally reach the levels of creative expression for which she is justly so well known, it's just that in this work her gift seems impotent against her anger. Try though she does to disguise her feelings ("My project rises from delight, not disappointment." Page 4.), it doesn't work, and its failure manifests itself in the oddest ways ("It was not simply that this slave population had a distinctive color; it was that this color "meant" something.... One supposes that if Africans all had three eyes or one ear, the significance of that difference from the smaller but conquering European invaders would also have been found to have meaning." Page 49. Presumably the Japanese would have been, racially, even less appropriate as slave owners).

It seems, finally, that it is Ms. Morrison who is playing in the dark. She senses it, but she can't find the words to say it.

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