The Multicultiboho Sideshow: A Novel [Paperback]

Alexs D. Pate (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 2001

In this provocative and searing satire, young, unpublished, African American author Ichabod Word captures and holds hostage unsuspecting law officer Bloom. Icky proceeds to regale Bloom with a rambling tale of anger and woe about Dewitt McMichael, a benefactor of artists of color who is now a garbage bag-wrapped corpse in the corner of his living room. Even if it proves to be his last, desperate act on this earth, Icky is determined to vent in full the bizarre circumstances that led to the latter's demise -- a mind-boggling chronicle of power, immorality, money, political stratification, racial discrimination, brilliant creation, and desecration.

Alternately sobering and screamingly funny, Alexs D. Pate's The Multicultiboho Sideshow is a blistering and remarkable work that spares nothing and no one.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ichabod "Icky" Word, an ambitious young African-American writer and the protagonist of Pate's (Losing Absalom) inventive tale of crime, art, politics and black rage, needs to be heard. To gain his brief moment in the limelight, Word lures Bill Bloom, a white lieutenant with the Minneapolis Police Department, to his apartment and immediately takes him captive. Strapping the fat, battle-weary, middle-aged detective in a chair with duct tape, Word reveals the purpose of his bizarre hostage scheme, beginning a rambling, fragmented story about the powerful cultural and racial forces that have brought him to this pass. Complicating matters is the police barricade of the apartment, not to mention the garbage bag-wrapped presence of the corpse of Dewitt McMichaels, a man who was once an influential cultural maven with the power to make and break careers in the multicultural art world. Though the setup seems contrived at first, Pate effectively explores each man's personal history and emotional state, shifting adroitly from voice to voice and suffusing the dialogue with humor and irony. Veteran police officer Bloom takes a truthful measure of his faltering marriage, dead-end job and lackluster life. Meanwhile, Word describes his dealings with the circle of art-world friends he calls his "multicultiboho tribe," all of whom may or may not be implicated in McMichaels's murder. With time running out and nervous police snipers on nearby rooftops, the mystery of the murder is slowly unraveledAand Word and Bloom ultimately gain a realistic understanding of each other that civil rights laws could never mandate. Though his exuberance sometimes gets the better of him and translates into sloppy prose, Pate combines elements of a classic whodunit with the best qualities of stinging social satire, venturing beyond formula and genre. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Ichabod Word is a struggling African American writer in Minneapolis who is in the running for a "genius grant," competing against four other artists of color. When the foundation executive who will select the recipient turns up dead in Word's apartment during a meeting with the contenders, Word calls the police, ties up the officer who comes to investigate, and proceeds to tell him the entire story of the origin and results of the crime. Word is a loquacious fellow, and his monologue about the death (along with riffs on racism, jazz, and the artistic process, among other topics) makes up nearly the entire novel. Unlike the run-of-the-mill mystery, there is very little violence and no sex; all of the tension develops from the reader's need to discover how the loathsome executive died. There are flaws in the premise, especially in the motivation for kidnapping the investigator, but overall, Pate has effectively manipulated the mystery genre to fit his own quite fascinating ends. George Needham --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (August 21, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380800411
• ISBN-13: 978-0380800414
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,428,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trying to make a point, January 11, 2002

By 

Candace "ccottrel" (Valey Stream, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Multicultiboho Sideshow: A Novel (Paperback)

The story begins like an episode of Law and Order or the Firm. Ichabod (Icky) Word has a Minneapolis police officer tied up in his living room and a dead body lying in the corner.

So this is crime fiction, right?

Wrong...

This tale brings together the issues of racism, art, and, most importantly, power. Five lucky artistes have been chosen as finalists to receive a tremendous grant promoting artists of color. The five, a Native American sculptor, a black female painter, an Asian poet, a black male mystery writer, and most surprisingly, a white female jazz saxaphonist. They are the multicultis. But something goes terribly wrong at one of their artist parties.

So what does this have to do with the fact that Icky has a policeman tied up? Who is the dead man and WHY is he dead?

These are all questions that you may ask yourself while reading. These are all questions that will be answered.

Pate brings these characters to life with a vibrance that rivals the classics. His prose is flowing if not conversational, and the novel tells a story that we all need to hear. His use of symbolism paints a picture of the world the world through the eyes of the multicultis. This story left me breathless and enlightened.

---Candace

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fabulous satire, November 1, 1999

By 

Susan Sencer ([e-mail]) (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Multicultiboho Sideshow (Hardcover)

From the moment I started to read this novel I was immediately captivated by the unfolding story. Ichabod Word is a compelling character and his take on the art world and funding is hilarious. But more important is the way in which this book brings a lot of different races and cultures into a conversation about race.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just good reading, a good time., November 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Multicultiboho Sideshow (Hardcover)

Alexs Pate has crafted one of the finest novels I've had the pleasure of reading in quite some time. From its shocking beginning to its climax, I found myself totally engaged with the story and its characters. I'm looking forward to reading more of Pate's work.