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One in the Crown
Journeys series
Author: Ishmael Reed |
Oakland is a blues city, brawling
and husky . . .
Often overshadowed by San Francisco,
its twinkling sister city across the
Bay, Oakland is itself an American wonder.
The city is surrounded by and filled
with natural beauty—mountains
and hills and lakes and a bay—and
architecture that mirrors its history
as a Spanish mission, Gold Rush outpost,
and home of the West’s most devious
robber barons. It’s also a city
of artists and blue-collar workers,
the birthplace of the Black Panthers,
neighbor to Berkeley, and home to a
vibrant and volatile stew of immigrants
and refugees.
In Blues City, Reed takes us on a
tour of Oakland, exploring its fascinating
history, its beautiful hills and waterfronts,
and its odd cultural juxtapositions.
He takes us into a year in the life
of this amazing city, to black cowboy
parades and Indian powwows, to Black
Panther reunions and Gay Pride concerts,
to a Japanese jazz club where a Lakota
musician plays Coltrane’s “Naima.” Reed
provides a fascinating tour of an un-tamed,
unruly western outpost set against the
backdrop of political intrigues, ethnic
rivalries, and a gentrification-obsessed
mayor, opening our eyes not only to
a singular city, but to a newly emerging
America.
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From Publishers Weekly
Novelist and critic Reed (The Freelance Pallbearers; Mumbo Jumbo) tours
historic districts and homes, and attends parades, festivals and performances,
to discover the "many worlds within Oakland," a city with "one
of the most ethnically diverse populations in the country... [and where]
identities are blurred." Reed's treatment is part homage and part
rant (mostly against Mayor Jerry Brown and his "elegant density" plan
to gentrify the downtown area with hi-tech businesses). The author has
reason to be frustrated: "Classical buildings and traditional landmarks
are being leveled and replaced by vertical trailer parks that seem to
be thrown up overnight"; but some of his comparisons are a bit extreme,
as when he likens the dot-com generation to the exploitative 1849 Gold
Rushers: "California has never recovered from the damage caused by
these earlier invaders... and their treatment of the California natives
must rank as one of the cruelest episodes in human history." The
book's best parts come from transcribed interviews, such as author Malcolm
Margolies's description of a pre-development Lake Merritt and David Hilliard's
stirring Black Panther legacy tour. But Reed's own language vacillates
from bland ("I attended the annual Black Cowboy parade. Attendance
was up over the previous parade") to venomous ("the black upper
class is kept out of sight, lest some white Americans lose their self-esteem,
whose foundation is the myth of black inferiority, their psychological
Prozac"). This slender volume, while filled with facts, dates and
a variety of cultural events, doesn't live up to the "husky and brawling" swagger
of the city Reed describes.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. |
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$16.95 (hardcover)
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