Customer Reviews

The Portable Promised Land: Stories

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Oh WOW! Toure's The Portable Promise Land is summed up in one word, WOW - Wonderful One of a kind Writer!

This book of short stories is a trip into an alternate world where man's automobile systems are designed for Stevie Wonder (and that is not a bad thing), a church gathers in a Kentucky Fried Chicken building (Oh what a commentary), people are bound to stay in the playground of the blasé, and break ups are out in the open (no room for gossip here).

This collection of eclectic stories takes a real reader on a ride of renewed interest in creative writing with messages. In the land of relationship novels (which are not a bad thing) this book is refreshing. Toure is a truly talented writer with a lot to say. His stories are not only clever and entertaining but they require that you think while reading. He really challenges himself in his writing with word choices and word play. In his story "A Guest", he tells one story in short simple sentences that all begin with "A". His story "The Break-up Ceremony" (which I suggested that a friend put in an anthology he created for his writing class) is an interesting view of a public ceremony announcing the break up of a relationship. This was one of the best stories in the collection.

My angst with this collection of stories is he strays from prose into listings. Although they are appropriate for his thematic scheme, I felt they took away from the flow of the book. Also some of his stories have so many layers that re-reading may be necessary (but I guess that is not always a bad thing). My true rating would be a 4.5 but since halves are not offered I do not feel it generous to give it a five. This is a highly recommended read.

Kotanya
APOOO BookClub

The Portable Promised Land is portable laughter, portable epiphany, and a portable good time. I brought it up to my roof and read some of it aloud to my roomate. I read one story to my boyfriend. This book wanted, begged even, to be shared aloud. I laughed at Toure's caricatures of black urban life (the redundancy of fast food fried chicken chains in Brooklyn), at his crazy imagination (an enormous preacher jumps into the air and hovers fifty feet above his congregation) and at the strokes of linguistic genius that elevate a story from the merely entertaining to a seriously sweet read. I also like that his "Afrolexicology" list includes "Vodou" - spelled according to proper Haitian Creole.

I bought this book for the story "Solomon's Big Day" which I heard read on NPR and was totally taken with and stayed in my car to hear the end of. The story is a great description of a young boy's creative spirit and his close call with fame. Though clearly fiction, it's not that far off from what I imagine to be reality.

Then, there's the rest of the book and all the other captivating stories! Touré's ability to create a mood and draw me in is like going on a series of mini-vacations to other worlds. I'm so pleased to know of his existence and will track his future work.

Oh my...so many stories ...so many different voices...
even though the author was what I would call "tripping"..he hit the nail on the head....over and over again. And yes the writing is brilliant...It's one of the best books I've read in a long time...enjoy...

Breathtaking and brave are two words that came to mind to describe the writing style of author of this book while reading these gratifying, imaginative, humorous and inspirational short stories. Not since Paul Beatty's "White Boy Shuffle" (and more recently Zadie Smith's "White Teeth") have I laughed so hard and out loud absoring fiction. The brilliant thing about "The Portable Promised Land" is that it affectionately challenges you to consider devastating realities that you sometimes don't want to face while you're cracking up! Sort of the way Richard Pryor did in his stand up routines. My favorite thing about most of the stories is that they were so colorful and easy to visualize. A stunning example of this is Right Revren Daddy Love's ascension into hell. They would even make for great bedtime stories.

Some of the stories character's are a wee bit underdeveloped -- seemingly the author was out of place taking on particular personalities -- but his passion and exuberance makes that easily forgivable. I look forward to more fiction from Toure. I feel right at home reading his work.

I've been reading Toure's by-line for years and was excited to hear about his work of fiction. The book was more than I ever expected. His style is lyrical, refreshing, funny, at times even hilarious, and smart. His characters leap off the page. He's got an incredible imagination. The collection is strong and awesome for a summer read.

I read the first two stories in the bookstore "Steviewondermobile" and the second one about the Chruch of Kentucky Fried Souls and I thought they were fun and hilarious and refreshingly colorful. So I bought the book but the rest of them were no where near as good and many times bordered on boring. I wanted to like this book because I was laughing so hard at the Kentucky Fried Souls, but it was like he repeated the same ideas over and over again in increasingly less interesting ways. THis book did however sell out in my bookstore and I think its because the cover art is as entertaining as the Kentucky Fried Souls story. Is that story, however funny or colorful, worth the price of the book? Not really.

This collection of stories is cool, funky, daring, avant-garde, retro, funny, true and live...I had such a great time reading.

Now I'm not really a fan of magic realism. In fact, every other book I've tried to read in the genre I've never finished. This collection was actually not so bad. The stories take place in Soul City, a urban black utopia of sorts. Some of the stories left me a bit bored, but others were good. I got the chance to meet Toure and he read some of the stories that will be in his next book which centers around more residents of Soul City. I'll be sure to pick it up because it seems like he is only maturing as a writer.

in fact, that's what this collection reminds me of: the fact that the busiest room at the party is always the kitchen, where people gather to swap their stories, their brags, their recipes and innuendo. contrary to some fairly short-sighted reviews i've read, i think the variety of styles here -- from fable to focused narrative, from folktale to lexicon -- serves the overall purpose very well indeed. toure's not trying to define an experience down; he's trying (and succeeding) to open it up. it requires monster resources of imagination and guts to pull something like this off, and on the basis of what i've read here, i'm ready for the full soul city treatment. quality goods, ya'll.