In this collection of essays long and short, the hugely controversial critic and author of Notes of a Hanging Judge gives us a refreshingly iconoclastic view of race in American culture and society. Whether Crouch is writing about the U.S. Constitution as blues, or jazz (Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis), he is always incisive and provocative.
The All-American Skin Game, or Decoy of Race
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Always brilliant, ever-controversial, and very often surprising, Stanley Crouch offers trenchant essays on topics including jazz (he was for many years the jazz critic for the Village Voice), American literature, gangsta rap, modern American films and the issue of race. Crouch may startle with some of his opinions, but the clarity of his prose and the intelligence of his arguments ensure that the reader will understand why he holds his outspoken opinions.
From Publishers Weekly
In speeches, essays and reviews from publications like the New Republic, Crouch (Notes of a Hanging Judge) offers eloquent, pungent takes on racial politics, literature, film and music. The author made his name as a jazz critic, and he invokes jazz to proclaim that our society's "multiple miscegenations" are proof and source of enduring vitality and renewal. Thus, he has no truck with racial balkanizers or those who claim rapsters as the soul of black authenticity. A disciple of Ralph Ellison, he hails the recently departed writer as "a citizen of this nation" and argues that black filmmakers must develop a more nuanced American vision. Crouch's deconstruction of Miles Davis, his sympathy for Quentin Tarantino, his celebration of novelist Leon Forrest?all make good reading. So what's missing? Crouch's view of a practical politics to engage and enhance his oft-invoked democratic vistas.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Politically-incorrect and passionate: Crouch hard to ignore.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The All-American Skin Game, or Decoy of Race: The Long and the Short of It, 1990-1994 (Paperback)
Crouch has a long history as a politically incorrect commentator on the vexed questions of race & victim politics. From what he calls "the Afrocentric hustle" to the real "race card" played in the O.J. Simpson trial; a stunning suite of essays in praise of Ralph Ellison; and how the Constitution is like the blues, I found my self in passionate agreement & furious dissent - often within the same sentence. For pure verve, style & energy Crouch is possibly the only writer who stands with Camille Paglia as a thinker who is hard to like but impossible to ignore.
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the long and the short of it,
By
This review is from: The All-American Skin Game, or Decoy of Race: The Long and the Short of It, 1990-1994 (Paperback)
american's of all ages and colors should feel indebted to Mr. Crouch for writing some of the most interesting commentary on our american cultural scene. it is because crouch understands so well the basic promise and opportunity of american life that he can weave such wide-ranging and often disparate opinion without losing touch with the reality of the culture. most importantly, crouch establishes himself as part of the great triad of negro americans - along with the novelist albert murray and trumpet virtuoso wynton marsalis who seek to recommit americans to the power and complexity of our national music: jazz. this can only be done by tossing some left hooks at our great national embarrassment: namely the nihilism and materialism of modern popular music, especially rap music. the fact that this music has been co-opted by white suburban kids shows that it has long been a bankrupt and impotent force whose only purpose is to further depress the culture for the enrichment of a few. crouch is calling on americans of all stripes to turn their back on the 'electronic judgement day' of the mass media and the self-serving race-hustlers of the academic and literary establishment and rededicate the culture to jazz and literature based on the 'tragic optimism' that has always been at the heart of jazz/blues music and american culture. count me in.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great,
By
This review is from: The All-American Skin Game, or Decoy of Race: The Long and the Short of It, 1990-1994 (Paperback)
Crouch continues to prove beyond any doubt to be an individual with the highest standard of literary precision. His insight into the human condition and clearness of thought are peerless in American correspndence.Ken Mask, MD
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