So it’s hard to categorize this novel, and in discussing the plot, or conceit, not only doesn’t explain anything much about the novel, but actually makes it seem much more banal than it really is. I tell AP Literature (and I would be fired for teaching this one….not really, but maybe), that irony and tone are absolutely the most important factors in understanding fiction. In this book, the tone is everything. The story is about a young Black woman from Philadelphia whose mother is Black […]
My Hero
If you didn’t know any better, you might think that Fran Ross’ Oreo was a brand new hip novel from a humorist with a brilliant future ahead of her. It’s intellectual and witty and funny as hell. Yet Fran Ross (1935-1985) wrote and published this gem in 1974, her one and only novel newly reissued by New Directions Publishing. Her views on race and women’s rights are timeless; setting up her story as a modern day version of the myth of Theseus (and the Minotaur […]