It is a mistake to see any one black writer as representative of the "black experience" (whatever that is), and it is even a greater mistake to pin a label on a writer like Ishmael Reed. His name is appropriate—he is a genuine maverick. As a critic of American culture, he has taken on smug feminists, omniscient white scholars (who know Negro literature), and con men of all colors, creeds, and sexes…. As a writer (poet and novelist), Reed belongs to no "school" of Afro-American art, and he has managed to be maligned, with equal intensity, by white and black critics alike…. Although the satire in his novels is frequently outrageous (he delights in using the comic strip as a literary device), it can also be subtle—even sneaky. Reed is constantly reminding America of skeletons in her closet, and while his method is often that of the minstrel show, his message is sometimes a pie in the face when you are not looking.
[Shrovetide in Old New Orleans] is something different for Reed: a collection of essays, interviews, book reviews, self-appraisals and appraisals of others. Actually, Shrovetide is an apologia pro vita sua in the guise of a tossed salad….
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