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From National Book Award–winning author, Charles Johnson, comes a wonderful mythic novel, part slave narrative, part comedy, part myth—first published in 1982 this phenomenally imaginative work marries Johnson's knowledge of philosophy, religion, race and history.
One night in the antebellum South, a slave owner and his African American butler stay up to all hours until, too drunk to face their wives, they switch places in each other's beds. The result is a hilarious imbroglio and an offspring—Andrew Hawkins, whose life becomes Oxherding Tale.
Through sexual escapades, picaresque adventures, and philosophical inquiry, Hawkins navigates white and black worlds and comments wryly on human nature along the way. Told with pure genius, Oxherding Tale is a deliciously funny, bitterly ironic account of slavery, racism, and the human spirit—and it reveals the author as a great talent with even greater humanity.
One night in the antebellum South, a slave owner and his African American butler stay up to all hours until, too drunk to face their wives, they switch places in each other's beds. The result is a hilarious imbroglio and an offspring—Andrew Hawkins, whose life becomes Oxherding Tale.
Through sexual escapades, picaresque adventures, and philosophical inquiry, Hawkins navigates white and black worlds and comments wryly on human nature along the way. Told with pure genius, Oxherding Tale is a deliciously funny, bitterly ironic account of slavery, racism, and the human spirit—and it reveals the author as a great talent with even greater humanity.
3 Reviews
3.5
Alfia
Created 8 months agoShare
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“Quirky take on the slave narrative written in the 1980s by a Buddhist philosophy nerd. Reminded me of a more imaginative Siddhartha - both earthier and more ethereal - at turns full of pathos, geekiness, humor, and horror. Often beautiful and imaginative use of language. In the author's introduction (which does not include spoilers) he lets us know that this was his passion project, and publishers resisted it for a long time. You can see why, with all the philosophical references and the outsize use of obscure and neologistic language; it doesn't fall into an easily marketable niche. There is some snapping at the publishing industry in the book too. Would definitely read more by him.”
Real Person
Created over 1 year agoShare
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Lexi Smith
Created about 11 years agoShare
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About Charles Johnson
Charles Johnson is a novelist, essayist, literary scholar, philosopher, cartoonist, screenwriter, and professor emeritus at the University of Washington in Seattle. A MacArthur fellow, his fiction includes Night Hawks, Dr. King’s Refrigerator, Dreamer, Faith and the Good Thing, and Middle Passage, for which he won the National Book Award. In 2002 he received the Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Seattle.
Other books by Charles Johnson
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