Ishmael Reed, Sunday April 10th at 12 p.m.

ISHMAEL REED Reads & Discusses His New Novel JUICE!

Sunday, April 10th at 12 p.m.

Book Signing & Sale To Follow

Free & Open To The Public



For a writer whose sensibility has always tilted toward the surreal and experimental (Nathanael West was an early and important influence), whose political incorrectness has been so brazen, his public feuds with other writers (pre-eminently feminists) so frequent and bitter, and his critique of white America so relentless, it might seem astonishing that he's been as lavishly feted by the very establishment and in the very mainstream he typically excoriates.

In his latest book, Juice! (Dalkey, Apr.), Reed holds his mirror up to the media coverage of trials—and especially its portrayal of black and Latino men—as his protagonist Paul Blessing becomes obsessed with the coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial and spectacularly unravels.

"Not only has the media become instrumental in deciding elections, but they now decide criminal cases. It's essentially a spare all-white jury that convicts people even before the first witness is sworn in. This doesn't happen anywhere else in the world," he says. "My book is a playful pastiche, but it raises serious reasonable doubt of O.J's guilt."