Customer Reviews

Flight to Canada

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ah poor Ishmael Reed! Doubly overlooked because he's a truly literate African-American writer AND more so because he's a postmodernist.

This outrageously wonderful book manages to dissect and skewer both America's past and present with an off-beat sense of purpose. Merely my second foray into Reed's body of work, he's rapidly climbing up my All Time Favourite Author list. I suppose this won't appeal to everyone in the John Grishman/E. Lyn Harris/Harry Potter set, but Flight to Canada does what great art should - challenge the beholder.

Reed tackles everything from the Civil War, Lincoln, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the grand ol' south, the nature of slavery and slaves and demands the reader to push aside common held beliefs and take a fresh look at this much-studied (and much-rehashed) juncture of American History.

Bottom line - a hip and funny read that'll make you think. What more d'ya need?

this work is one of the most brilliant books i have ever read. I have read kafka, dostoyevsky, hesse and dick among others. This book is playfully original and comical at the same time. Ishmael
Reed has taught me more about the civil war that anyone else has.
the blurring of fact and fiction was not confusing at all. The characters were alive and believable. I thought his depiction of the period was right on in a comical way. this is a book all african americans who appreciate literature should read. what a writer. I love raven quickskill!!![.]

This book was used, but the condition was like new. The book is a great satirical look at race relations, as well as a look at the true meaning of slavery. Came quickly, thank you!

"Flight to Canada" was one of the required reading for one of my literature classes. One debate that came up regularly during class discussions was whether Canada is used by Reed as a literal place or a metaphor as a "state of mind". There are solid arguments for both based on the text.

For me, it became clear how fuzzy our history lessons were in grade school. We were taught how slaves escaped to Canada. But that's where the story usually ends. Happily Ever After in Canada. Ishmael Reed reminds the reader that there is more to the story.

Ah poor Ishmael Reed! Doubly overlooked because he's a truly literate African-American writer AND more so because he's a postmodernist.

This outrageously wonderful book manages to dissect and skewer both America's past and present with an off-beat sense of purpose. Merely my second foray into Reed's body of work, he's rapidly climbing up my All Time Favourite Author list. I suppose this won't appeal to everyone in the John Grishman/E. Lyn Harris/Harry Potter set, but Flight to Canada does what great art should - challenge the beholder.

Reed tackles everything from the Civil War, Lincoln, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the grand ol' south, the nature of slavery and slaves and demands the reader to push aside common held beliefs and take a fresh look at this much-studied (and much-rehashed) juncture of American History.

Bottom line - a hip and funny read that'll make you think. What more d'ya need?

It seems this book is quite the rage for modern American literature classes in universities today. I actually read it for American Literature to 1865 (it was assigned in tandem with Uncle Tom's Cabin), and it is currently on the reading list for the modern course. And I really can't understand why. The previous reviewer wrote that Mr. Reed was "doubly overlooked because he's a truly literate African-American writer AND more so because he's a postmodernist." I would disagree. He's overlooked (I hadn't heard of him before my English class) because, quite simply, he cannot write. Was this supposed to be humorous? I don't think I cracked a smile. Moreover--and here the other reviewer was close--his postmodernism just doesn't fly, because contrary to their opinions, there IS objective truth, as recent events have clearly demonstrated. Mr. Reed is fond of blurring the lines, quite explicitly, between fact and fiction. If all that's the case, who's to say the neo-Marxism of which Mr. Reed seems to be so fond is not merely fiction? Not an enjoyable read at all, especially not VERY poorly written scenes dealing with sexuality. This is certainly not a book I would have read unless assigned (and writing the paper for it was most assuredly like pulling teeth), and I don't feel it has a place on university reading lists, for it is representative of neither American literature nor of good writing. We need to go back to the basics when authors questioned the order of things without denying Truth itself.