From Publishers Weekly
Ray Parker, confined to an insane asylum, has trouble deciding just who and where he is. The faces and voices of nurses and guards transform into those of key people from his past, particularly his late friend Tommy Rollins, a black activist. Rollins worked hard for the black liberation movement in the '60s, as excerpts from his journal as well as Parker's unreliable memories suggest. According to Parker's recollections, which often resemble drug-induced hallucinations, Rollins was betrayed by Parker, also black, then an agent provocateur serving the so-called "Intelligence Community"--the FBI, CIA, etc. Parker also lived in Rollins's house, slept with his woman and, some thought, killed him. This disjoint string of bizarre episodes and nightmarish flashbacks obscures both the plot and Frye's ideological underpinnings. Even the imagery is fragmented: various body parts are vividly described as they are severed from their owners, and characters' names allude heavily although obliquely to jazz figures (e.g., Ray Charles, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins). This first novel is extremely political, but so muddled that its specific agenda never emerges.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The third volume in a series designed to provide a forum for black writers, this novella offers a frightening, if initially confusing, account of the turbulent Sixties as seen through the eyes of Raynard Parker, whose work as a black agent hired to manipulate and defuse the activities of his own people during the black liberation movement have driven him to self-loathing and madness. A brilliant collage of images from Parker's past, this first novel is tautly written, offering authentic power and a despairing picture of an America in which blacks are given no chance to survive with human dignity.
- Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, Mo.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, Mo.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
