Busted in New York and Other Essays
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ISBN10: 1250758130
ISBN13: 9781250758132
Trade Paperback
416 Pages
$19.00
CA$25.99
In these twenty-five essays, Darryl Pinckney has given us a view of our recent racial history that blends the social and the personal and wonders how we arrived at our current moment. Pinckney reminds us that “white supremacy isn’t back; it never went away.” It is this impulse to see historically that is at the core of Busted in New York and Other Essays, which traces the lineage of black intellectual history from Booker T. Washington through the Harlem Renaissance, to the Black Panther Party and the turbulent sixties, to today’s Afro-pessimists, and celebrated and neglected thinkers in between.
These are capacious essays whose topics range from the grassroots of protest in Ferguson, Missouri, to the eighteenth-century Guadeloupian composer Joseph Bologne, from an unsparing portrait of Louis Farrakhan to the enduring legacy of James Baldwin, the unexpected story of black people experiencing Russia, Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight, and the painter Kara Walker. The essays themselves are a kind of record, many of them written in real-time, as Pinckney witnesses the Million Man March, feels and experiences the highs and lows of Obama’s first presidential campaign, explores the literary black diaspora, and reflects on the surprising and severe lesson he learned firsthand about the changing urban fabric of New York.
Reviews
Praise for Busted in New York and Other Essays
"[Pinckney] reveals himself to be a skillful chronicler of black experience in literary criticism, reportage and biography."—Lauretta Charlton, The New York Times Book Review
"Darryl Pinckney’s latest literary compilation places a historical lens on the most pivotal moments in black America. From his examination of race relations during Barack Obama’s presidency to his nuanced analysis of the Black Lives Matter movement, Mr. Pinckney’s vast knowledge and critical dexterity make him one of the most vital intellectuals of our time."—Candace McDuffie, The Christian Science Monitor
"Fiercely intelligent essays, reportage, and reviews from the award-winning novelist and nonfiction writer . . . A deeply satisfying, beautifully crafted collection of work by a writer of uncommon excellence and humanity."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"This beautifully written collection of essays by fiction and nonfiction writer Pinckney, longtime contributor to the New York Review of Books, covers a wide range of topics while still creating a cohesive, thoughtful experience for readers. He reflects on experiences, struggles, and accomplishments of black Americans today and historically, exploring the many complex ways people have been impacted by and have responded to racism . . . Though the subject matter is vast, the author’s voice is consistently engaging throughout."—Sarah Schroeder, Library Journal
BOOK EXCERPTS
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SLOUCHING TOWARD WASHINGTON
1
People, black and white, say that the throngs of upstanding black men at the Million Man March showed a picture of the Black Man different from what the nation is accustomed to. Because...
About the author
Darryl Pinckney; Foreword by Zadie Smith
