Oxherding Tale [Paperback]

Charles Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1995

One night in the antebellum South, a slave owner and his African-American butler stay up to all hours until, too drunk to face their wives, they switch places in each other's beds. The result is a hilarious imbroglio and an offspring -- Andrew Hawkins, whose life becomes Oxherding Tale.

Through sexual escapades, picaresque adventures, and philosophical inquiry, Hawkins navigates white and black worlds and comments wryly on human nature along the way. Told with pure genius, Oxherding Tale is a deliciously funny, bitterly ironic account of slavery, racism, and the human spirit; and it reveals the author as a great talent with even greater humanity.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A work of courage and compassion, virtuosity and intelligence."

-- The Village Voice

"I laughed. I cried. I thought. I marveled. Oxherding Tale is a beautiful book. Its language is extraordinary, its writing is crisp, clean, smooth, even in its complexity, and terribly affecting. It is masterful craft of the highest order."

-- August Wilson

"A wonderfully funny, erotic, bittersweet story....Johnson presents a fable about racial difference and...[he] doesn't make light of the load, but makes the burden of its telling sweeter with Dickensian twists of plot and with outrageous characters.

-- Chicago Sun-Times

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Charles Johnson's books include the National Book Award-winning novel Middle Passage, Dreamer, and Africans in America. He is currently the Pollock Professor of English at the University of Washington.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Plume (August 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452275032
• ISBN-13: 978-0452275034
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,508,871 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A new approach to an old tale, April 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Oxherding Tale (Paperback)

This novel moves African-American literature beyond African American, and ironically by way of it's oldest from, the slave narrative. Using his strong philosophical background in eastern religions and texts, Johnson appies Bhuddist and Taoist ideas of the self to deal with the concept of race in America. This book operates on many levels, some we've seen before in African American texts, which he uses as a backdrop for his transcendence of the slave narrrative's limitations. Incorporating these eastern influences into the novel sheds new light on the search for racial identity, and gender identity of the biracial chimera that narrates the tale. Johnson keeps the many ideas and happenings of the novel from being overbearing with a wonderful humor. The combinations of texts, and cultures make the reader reevaluate the very concept of race, and its history in America. An enlightening and very entertaining read, I highly reccommend it. (I save 5 stars for classics)