Ishmael Reed's electrifying first novel zooms readers off to a land they have never heard of, a crazy, ominous kingdom called HARRY SAM--a never-never land so weirdly out-of-whack that only reality itself could be stranger. Venturing into this risky realm of a thousand contradictions is the quixotic Bukka Doopeyduk, a crusading, liberal fellow who is eager--if not always ready--to face the dangers of life. And dangers abound. Jousting and colliding with a macabre carousel of cops and beatniks, Elks and Black Muslims, he suffers a series of cockeyed misfortunes--maddening, saddening, and wildly uproarious. The Free-Lance Pallbearers fires a volley of savage torpedoes at the world's absurdities. Its rollicking language and blasphemous humor hide a merciless message.

Freelance Pallbearers

Literature & Fiction

Ishmael Reed

United States

A Bard Book, Avon Books

Mumbo Jumbo

AVON.

The Terrible Twos

Literary

Avon/Books

Chappie Puttbutt, a Black professor at the overwhelmingly white Jack London University, finds himself the head of his department and, drunk with power, sets out to settle old scores

Japanese by Spring

Scribner

The Classic Freewheeling Look at Race Relations Through the Ages Mumbo Jumbo is Ishmael Reed's brilliantly satiric deconstruction of Western civilization, a racy and uproarious commentary on our society. In it, Reed, one of our preeminent African-American authors, mixes portraits of historical figures and fictional characters with sound bites on subjects ranging from ragtime to Greek philosophy. Cited by literary critic Harold Bloom as one of the five hundred most significant books in the Western canon, Mumbo Jumbo is a trenchant and often biting look at black-white relations throughout history, from a keen observer of our culture.

Brilliantly portrayed by a novelist with "a talent for hyperbole and downright yarning unequaled since Mark Twain", (Saturday Review), this slave's-eye view of the Civil War exposes America's racial foibles of the past and present with uninhibited humor and panache.
Mixing history, fantasy, political reality, and comedy, Ishmael Reed spins the tale of three runaway slaves and the master determined to catch them. His on-target parody of fugitive slave narratives and other literary forms includes a hero who boards a jet bound for Canada; Abraham Lincoln waltzing through slave quarters to the tune of "Hello, Dolly"; and a plantation mistress entranced by TV's "Beecher Hour". Filled with insights into the political consciences (or lack thereof) of both blacks and whites, Flight to Canada confirms Reed's status as "a great writer" (James Baldwin).
"A demonized Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book that reinvents the particulars of slavery in America with comic rage". -- The New York Times Book Review
"Wears the mantle of Baldwin and Ellison like a high-powered Flip Wilson in drag...a terrifically funny book". -- Baltimore Sun

Flight to Canada

Black and beautiful Loop Garoo Kid performs lariat tricks in a circus, but when they arrive in Yellow Back Radio, they're surprised to find all the adults have been run out of town by the children

Yellow Back Radio Broke Down

Comics & Graphic Novels

Graphic Novels

Scribner Paper Fiction

Chappie Puttbutt, a Black professor at the overwhelmingly white Jack London University, finds himself the head of his department and, drunk with power, sets out to settle old scores

Contemporary

Allison Busby

Best Poems: Advanced Level

Children's Books

Carl Sandburg

Naomi Shihab Nye

emily-bronte

Marge Piercy

Gwendolyn Brooks

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Donald Justice

Emily, Dickinson

William, Blake

Denise Levertov

Robert, Browning

Robert., Herrick

William. Shakespeare

Edgar-Allan-Poe

maya-angelou

N, Scott

Robert, Frost

Anne Sexton Percy

Jamestown Pubns

Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ishmael Reed. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Ishmael Reed