Flesh and the Devil [Hardcover]

Kola Boof (Author), Said Musa (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2004

By turns...erotic...melodramatic...violent...and (sniff) "LITERARY"...Kola Boof's 1995 Arabic novel finally arrives in the hands of the people she wrote it for...the Black Americans...thanks to Egyptian poet/activist Said Musa's winning translation.

Billed by the publisher as: "essentially the story of the Black Americans"...the novel unfolds like an tempestuous, languid snake dance, both in Africa and the United States..."abruptly" spanning several thousand years in the passionate, uncontrollable longing between one black man (Prince Shango Ogun) and one black woman (Princess Ife Ife). Encompassing everything from slavery to ancient homosexuality to women being raped by the Moon...the novel begins during West Africa's Story of Creation and from there shows off the thriving kingdoms of West Africa before moving on to the Atlantic Slave Trade and finally...to modern day Black Americans in Washington, D.C. and Sag Harbor--at which point the dark skinned African Prince and Princess have now become "light skinned" Americans named Shane Roberts and RooAmber Childress--both married to white people. It's a sensuous, melodramatic, brutally VIOLENT novel made high pitch by showy characters like the glamorous Queen Ambi, the heroic King Katanga, Shane's modern day "white wife" Rosaria and RooAmber's tender homosexual protector in both ancient and modern times--Dinari--who has a romance of his own.

The book is not as literary as Boof's now classic short story collection "Long Train to the Redeeming Sin", which has recently gone back into print, but as an early work it showcases both her campy qualities and her anger "undistilled" (Watch Out!). Only Kola Boof can remind one of Susan Sontag, Jackie Collins, Toni Morrison and Jacqueline Susann all at the same time.

Kola Boof acknowledges in the book's touching AFTERWORD that she is not a West African but a North African woman from Sudan, and that it's her experience being raised by Black Americans in Washington, D.C. that moved her to write a book about their ancestors and the GREAT LOVE and NOBILITY that the Black Americans come from.

Still, as a "Kola Boof book", it's bound to cause controversy. It was refreshing but breath-stopping, for instance, to read detailed accounts of the American slave trade from an African woman's viewpoint.

Well, I'm off to visit the book's enchanting Pink Lake in Senegal. Can't wait to see it.

--Ivan Richards, Editor

Editorial Reviews

Review

Fascinating historical facts and a strong love story. The second half of the book is KILLER! -- Ebony Sisters Romance Newsletter

Kola Boof brings to mind the hellraising days of Alice Walker and Nikki Giovanni. -- The New York Review of Fiction

Kola Boof writes the way Whitney Houson sings!!! The second half of the book...rocked...my...world. -- Daryl Sean, Limits Magazine

From the Publisher

At last...a slave novel by an African woman writer...that sends out a powerful message about how most West Africans fought against the slave trade and how those efforts have since been ommitted from the history books. **A sexy black love story to boot.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 361 pages
• Publisher: Door of Kush (January 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971201978
• ISBN-13: 978-0971201972
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #822,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Egyptian-Sudanese-American novelist and poet KOLA BOOF is the author of several provocative books including The Sexy Part of the Bible, Flesh and the Devil, Long Train to the Redeeming Sin and Virgins In the Beehive. Her writing has appeared in Harper's and the story collection Politically Inspired. Her autobiography, Diary of a Lost Girl, was published in 2006. She has been interviewed by MSNBC, FOX News, and CNN; and has been featured in TV Guide, Time, the New York Post, and the New York Times. She lives between Harlem and Southern California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mexican Brother Loving This Book!, January 29, 2005

By 

Latino Brother in Chino Hills (Chino Hills, Ca.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flesh and the Devil (Hardcover)

I had the pleasure of listening to Kola Boof's interview on KPFK radio in Los Angeles yesterday and I went down to ESO WON books and bought a copy of "Flesh and the Devil" and read it in one night. It's sublime.

I was not familiar with West African culture to this extent previously, but after reading this book and after hearing Queen Kola talk about her life, I consider myself truly intrigued and infatuated with her. The book does have some grammatical errors in the text that I thought were too large to overlook, so I gave it four stars for that reason. However, this novel about Shane and RooAmber is a riveting and beautiful story about black lovers and about the beauty and worth of Africans and African-Americans as a people in general. I enjoyed the way Kola Boof writes her "love scenes" in particular and I thought she is very bold the way she writes about men. The color complex was touched on unsparingly and I applaud her for being brave enough to do that. I look forward to more of Kola Boof's work.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When I Think of Great Literature, July 4, 2005

By 

Swept Away (MountRoyal Academy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flesh and the Devil (Hardcover)

DANCING IN THE LAND OF DREAMS.
Out of the blue, a daringly provocative new voice.

Now that we've passed the year 2000, it's time for us lovers of Black literature to begin considering that our old favorites like Maya Angelou, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison will soon no longer be with us, that they will become LEGENDS and that it will be time for new voices and new faces to inherit the runner's baton and carry literature into the next century.

This is the SECOND TIME that I've read and reviewed "Flesh and the Devil", but I just have to reiterate that one of the most magical and unexpected of those new voices is the gifted and totally original African beauty from Sudan, KOLA BOOF.

I can't say enough about the beauty and wonder I experienced while traveling the worlds within "Flesh and the Devil". The book is nothing less than astounding, an artifact of one unique author's belief in true love, in the power of heritage and tradition and in the humanity of black folks. Not since "Song of Solomon" have I felt so touched and swept up in the odyssey of such a passionate story and such larger than life characters. And topping it all off is the braven audaciousness of its regal author---her breasts bare as she poses like an ancient African Goddess on the back cover of the book. Her smile literally blessing and welcoming the reader, to know themselves.

The book is life affirming and needed.

Some writers make RAIN. Some writers just whine about the weather.

Kola Boof is a rainmaker.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 10, 9, 8, 7...."Take a Deep Breath", January 29, 2005

By 

BORED by SOME Books (Syracuse, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flesh and the Devil (Hardcover)

REVIEW/5 stars
FLESH AND THE DEVIL by KOLA BOOF

Shaking my head. Astounded.

I didn't expect to like this book after I saw the author TOPLESS on the back cover. Maybe, I have to admitt, I am not used to African type images like that. But the minute I started reading the book, I was just blown away.

This book is so hard to describe. It's a ROMANCE love story covering thousands of years and it's extremely rare, because it convincingly depicts a Black Man and a Black Woman being DEEPLY in love. Their relationship is nothing like what we have here in America TWEEN brothers and sisters. The book also makes you think of "dark black" beauty in a whole new way, because it magically describes the way black people's hair, noses, lips and bodies look to African people without WHITE MEDIA conditioning.

For that alone, I would like to see every black person in America read this book. The story was good, the writing is very poetic and unpredictable, the author is more interesting in real life than any of her books and the book actually has a happy ending--although I didn't like the ending.

I give it 5 stars for just literally blowing me away. Kola Boof also has a book called "Long Train to the Redeeming Sin" and a poetry collection called "Nile River Woman". I have not read them all the way through, but I have read enough of them to know that she is like--TOTALLY MAJOR in the next generation. She is so much more than just a writer. She is like an activist who is speaking for the Black Women of the world, especially the DARK SKINNED dark women.