ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR MISUNDERSTANDING

by Robert Gover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 23, 1962

College sophomore age, nineteen; morals, upper middle class, three-car-family variety retreats from personal tragedy (three flunked exams, cancelled date) to a Negro house of ill repute. There he makes acquaintance with a fourteen year old colored prostitute named Kitten. J.C. (the initials are real, by Gosh) is out to enlarge his education in ""functional anthropology"", while Kitten, strictly business, seeks an ""invessment"" to provide her with a steady extracurricular living. In alternate chapters they recount their personal various of the weekend--its consumer and its production aspects. Kitten speaks the truest Negro argot, obscene and incomprehensible to the ears of J.C., son of the chairman of the town's Obscenity Board, while his outrageous pomposity and service morality are just too high fainting and ""dumb"" for Kitten. Absolutely each perseveres in his aim, and the misunderstanding, financial and human, becomes horrendous. (J.C. didn't expect to pay for an apartment weekend; after all, he'd always ""thought America was such a decent country"".) The author calls it a ""made up, but his carleatures speak so convincingly and vividly for themselves that the bawdy subject matter serves as a more far-reaching comment on American ""moral and unmoral"" society. Over long on ribaldry, over-drawn on caricature perhaps but still saleable and enjoyable...for liberal adults (chronologically measured) only.

Pub Date: Oct. 23, 1962

ISBN: 1933435348

Page Count: -

Publisher: Grove

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1962

Categories: FICTION