FLIGHT TO CANADA

by Ishmael Reed ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 27, 1976

Reed is an expert stylist with a fine sense of timing; here he fuses history, fantasy and political reality with ragtimed syncopation. He broods that Harriet Beecher Stowe took the story of Josiah Henson, a slave, and transformed it into Uncle Tom's Cabin; his ruminations about slavery and property keep popping like firecrackers, raising questions about motivation, appraising the Civil War and its aftermath. Ostensibly this is a story about three escaped slaves, particularly the poet Raven Quick-skill, his master Swille, and the better known personalities of Abe Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. Raven undertakes to write the story of Uncle Robin, a prototypical Tom, this time giving Credit where it's due. But Reed is never working on one level and in the allusions to Camelot, helicopters, and bugging devices you know he ain't just whistling Dixie. Innuendos abound and anything can be a target--Bloomingdale's, Columbia professors, the New York literary establishment. Cryptic and chaotic, this has a sassy swagger as well as its own inner logic.

Pub Date: Sept. 27, 1976

ISBN: 0684847507

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1976

Categories: FICTION