Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down by Ishmael Reed
177 pages
Published 1969
Read from January 3 to January 4
Rating: ★★★★ out of 5
A postmodern sockdolager of the Black Arts movement, an aggressively far-out horse opera and "Hoo-Doo Western," complete with genre-aware characters and a villainous turn by the neo-social realist gang. The racial deconstructionism here remains as biting and relevant as it was almost fifty years ago. The gender and sexual attitudes that no doubt provided much of the humor upon its publication have not remained so fresh. Apparently portraying military leaders and politicians as simpering homosexuals in drag was something of A Thing in late '60s social parody (though, admittedly, my only other experience with this comes from Monty Python, so I'm hardly the most knowledgeable commentator here). Similarly, clouds of casual misogyny choke out most of the few female characters in the book. The one exception is the too-brief appearance of Zozo Labrique, "charter member of the American Hoo-Doo Church," in the opening chapter; the rest of the women here, so far as I could tell, are portrayed as nymphomaniacs, whores, and petulant nags. Not at all different from more "mainstream" (White male) fiction written at the time, which makes it interesting how a particular social arts movement can so boldly attack the assumptions of the status quo in one direction, and fall in with "mainstream" assumptions in other areas.
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