'A great writer' James Baldwin

'Part vision, part satire, part farce ... a wholly original, unholy cross between the craft of fiction and witchcraft' The New York Times

A plague is spreading across 1920s America, racing from New Orleans to New York. It's an epidemic of free expression, carried by black artists, and its symptoms are an uncontrollable urge to dance, sing, laugh and jive. The state will stop at nothing to suppress the outbreak, but, deep in the heart of Harlem, private eye and Vodum priest Papa LaBas has other ideas - and, possibly, the key to everything. A freewheeling, explosive blend of jazz, ragtime, ancient myth, magic and conspiracy thriller, this anarchic postmodern classic is a satire for our times.

Mumbo Jumbo Reviews

Ishmael Reed's extraordinary and expansive collage novel [is] a conduit for his surging torrent of interrelating arguments about race, religion, history, music and literature ... it reminds readers of the charged relationship between medium and message, issuing an avant-garde challenge to read and to think as innovatively as they way in which the novel is written. Mumbo Jumbo is urgent, imaginative, hilarious, and deeply attuned to the exigencies of social and cultural capital. -- Rona Cran * Times Literary Supplement *
A dazzling classic ... exhilarating ... like jazz, the novel feels improvisatory and ambitious [...] It is a funny book about conspiracy theories that nonetheless feels serious and true. A philosophical and ingenious American race satire -- Guardian

About Ishmael Reed

Novelist, poet, playwright, songwriter, essayist, activist and MacArthur genius, Ishmael Reed has been a major figure in American letters for the past four decades. His ground-breaking literary output has inspired generations of artists and writers - from Thomas Pynchon, Paul Beatty, and Colson Whitehead, to 2pac, George Clinton and David Murray - and he is widely recognized as one of the great American writers.

Reed was born in 1938. He grew up in working-class neighbourhoods in Buffalo, New York, attended Buffalo public schools, and the University of Buffalo. He taught at Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and, for thirty-five years, at the University of California Berkeley. He lives in Oakland, California, where he teaches at the California College of the Arts.

Additional information

Sku

GOR008715423

ISBN 13

9780241305812

ISBN 10

0241305810

Title

Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed

Author

Ishmael Reed

Series

Penguin Modern Classics

Condition

Used - Very Good

Binding type

Paperback

Publisher

Penguin Books Ltd

Year published

20170706

Number of pages

224

Prizes

N/A

Cover note

Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.

Note

This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us