[Reed] has emerged as one of the more promising and prolific of the current young black writers in America. [Shrovetide in Old New Orleans] (articles, reviews, open letters, speeches and interviews) seems to represent everything that Reed has ever published. Such over-inclusion (some less worthy material) must relate to Reed's calling this collection "an autobiography of my mind starting in about 1970."

In his introduction Reed answers those critics who have called his fiction "muddled, crazy, incoherent" by explaining that his mind and method are multi-media oriented and by describing himself as a controversialist: "Stir things up a bit. Wake America from its easy chair and can of beer." Reed's aggressive polemical style, his attack upon American racism, his defense of a black esthetic and his opinions of white critics as bad judges of black writing have not endeared him to the white literary establishment…. Reed's often offensive tone...