Word: reed
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Sons, had a splendid production starring Tom Hulce at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum in 1988. Walker's work certainly travels. Although Escape was originally set in Toronto, Lewis' staging makes it feel entirely American, from the opening moment, when a battered TV onstage starts blaring The Donna Reed Show, to the snarling climax, when at least four people are pointing weapons at one another...
Just when it seems he has run out of people to lampoon, Ismael Reed addresses his newest novel to the university, pointing the finger at political correctness, Old School traditionalists, Black-male-bashing feminists and every conceivable brand of -centrism in existance...
...Reed's irony swings into full force as Japanese administrators entrust Puttbutt with increasing power, which he promptly (ab)uses to get even with his arrogant colleagues. The Humanities are consolidated into one department which is reduced to the size and budget of ethnic studies, and Classicists who haven't published work in years are terminated unless they agree to teach freshman composition in Yoruba. Puttbutt's progression sheds light on issues of inconsistency which confront Blacks in positions of nominal authority as he begins to realize the destructiveness of alighning himself with any of Jack London's nationalist camps...
...novel poses a challenge to Black neo-conservatives--not because there is no role for conservatism in African-American politics, but because such conservatism has thus far succeeded only in addressing a clicheed set of 'problems' within the Black community. Reed offers incisive commentary on white establishments such as the media and publishing which have managed to present only one side of issues like the Los Angeles riots or the debate of Afocentrism. More importantly, Reed questions the manner in which Black conservatives contribute to such practices by constricting their own views to fit the popular mold...
...Reed also manages to write himself into the text, often using the novel as a sounding board for opinions that wouldn't otherwise be published. Early on he clarifies his stancwe toward feminism, referring to allegations from Ms. magazine that he was the first to label Black feminist writers traitors to the race, stating that "Ringleader Ismael Reed has never called anybody a traitor to anybody's race and not only hasn't opposed black women writing about black male misogyny but has published some of it." The test abounds with similar interjections which add to the anti-novel effect...