From Publishers Weekly
These excellent short stories will introduce the late Dumas, who was killed in 1968 at the age of 33 by a New York City transit police officer, to a wider audience as a profoundly gifted and intelligent author. His settings range from the small towns of the rural South to the explosive streets of Harlem in the late 1960s. The civil rights activist imbues his stories with myth and folklore, rightful anger and delineations of the inequities that exist for blacks in America. The author's invocation of the ethos of his people lends an honesty to the writings on racial tensions, yet never lapses into narrow-mindedness, and his trenchant rendering of pain, love, religious and family life is universally appealing. His rhythmic, eloquent style is both arresting and unique in its capacity to drive home the prophetic messages that inform his prose. From the young Southern boy named Fish-hound in the eerie "Ark of Bones"who is told by an old Noah-like man, "Son, you are in the house of generations. Every African who lives in America has a part of his soul in this ark"to the teenage narrator of "Strike and Fade"a powerfully sketched glimpse of inner-city turmoil, who proclaims, "I'm hurtin too much. I'm lettin my heat go down into my soul. When it comes up again, I won't be limpin"Dumas never fails to capture the spirit and collective consciousness of his beloved people. Portions of this book were previously published in Ark of Bones, Rope of Wind and Jonoah and the Green Stone.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
$9.95. f Dumas, a novelist and short story writer, was "accidentally" shot and killed by a policeman in 1968. This collection, bringing together previously published and unpublished pieces, represents the variety, quality, and texture of his prose. Dumas richly depicts the lives of rural and urban black Americans , giving equal consideration and depth to the complexity of Sixties political activism and the truths of folk knowledge. His attention to language is a sustained exploration of how different forms of English can convey diverse versions of lived experience and knowledge, unsettling conventional categories of value. Mollie Brodsky, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick,
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
