Now in paperback, "rich and engaging" (Emerge) short stories on African Americans and the law in the tradition of Derrick Bell and Richard Wright. Now available in paperback, The Monkey Suit is David Dante Troutt's "impressive" debut (Kirkus Reviews), a collection of short stories inspired by historic legal cases involving African Americans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Monkey Suit addresses issues ranging from Jim Crow segregation ordinances to warrantless private property searches in stories the Washington Post calls "quietly devastating." Troutt brilliantly combines legal scholarship with literature in a book that Claude Brown calls "truly a work of genius."
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
In this unique collection, which reveals African American history as a relentless struggle for civil rights, Troutt (law, Rutgers Univ.) fictionalizes ten legal cases, including Powell v. Alabama (1932), the principal Scottsboro Boys case; Buchanan v. Warley (1917), the first challenge to the constitutionality of segregation; and Mapp v. Ohio (1961), in which warrantless searches were deemed unconstitutional. Most of these finely crafted short stories read well, though the opening piece, "Glow in the Dark," does not; it is told in dialect, which weighs it down. Other stories transform the legal cases while assuming an individual vitality that bodes well for reading. Recommended for public libraries and for all African American studies collections.?Fannette H. Thomas, Essex Community Coll., Baltimore
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
In 10 powerful short stories, Troutt traces both the brutal history of the African slave and the African American struggle for civil rights. While following the tradition of "legal storytelling" practiced by Derrick Bell (see p.952^-53) and Richard Delgado, Troutt's collection stretches the genre almost to pure fiction. The work is shaped by law, to be sure, but the characterizations and compelling narrative style move the material away from legal formalities and to the lofty humanism of fine fiction. The skill with which Troutt, a writer disguised as a law professor, renders horrific experiences will remind some readers of Richard Wright's work. In occupying the interior worlds of the victims, Troutt makes their brutal circumstances poignant, and they themselves become more human as their tormentors become more monstrous. Mercifully, in the last story, "Monkey Suit," the mother firmly reminds her son (and the traumatized reader) that times have changed, that "this ain't then." For people familiar with the law, four of the stories reflect Supreme Court cases: the Scottsboro travesty in "For Love of Trains"; warrantless searches in "Bitch, Son of a Bitch"; segregation ordinances in "The Bargain"; and the constitutionality of a Reconstruction-era statute in "Never Was." None of the 10 stories mentions the doctrines they represent; most of them posit a viewpoint on racial inequity that will not soon be forgotten by readers. Bonnie Smothers
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Possibly the best written short fiction of this era.,
By
This review is from: The Monkey Suit, and Other Short Fiction on African Americans and Justice (Hardcover)
Troutt has accomplished his stated goal in grand style. He has given life to people who always get lost in the intricacies of the legal system. He has given them culture, voice and heart. In the process has done an extraordinary job of conveying the complexities of African American cultures. His writing verges on poetry.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderfully written, timely, thought-provoking,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Monkey Suit, and Other Short Fiction on African Americans and Justice (Hardcover)
Just a first-rate collection of fiction, the right measure of subtlety, sharp, insightful. Readers who liked this book will love Swiss Movement by Vaughn A. Carney, which is alternately hilarious and tragic.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling, powerful and unique,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Monkey Suit, and Other Short Fiction on African Americans and Justice (Hardcover)
David Dante Troutt presents a brilliant collection of short fiction involving African-Americans and the law. The points of view are unique and compelling, and Mr. Troutt's prose is lyrical and accomplished. A stunning achievement, not to be missed.
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