Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights | Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights

At a glance:

Author: Susan Straight
First Published: 1994
Type of Work: Novel
Time of Work: The 1990’s
Setting: Rio Seco, a fictional Southern California city
Principal Characters: Darnell Tucker, Brenda Batiste, Charolette Tucker, Louis “Birdman” Wiley, John “Red Man”, Zelene Marie “Granalene” Dupree, Mr., Roscoe Wiley, Donnie, Victor, Leon, Vernon, Gasanova, Trent King, Juan, Josh Fricke
Genres: Long fiction
Subjects: African Americans, Family or family life, Racism, Social issues, Poverty or poor people, Substance abuse, Unemployment or unemployed workers, Death or dying, Drug addiction or addicts, Drug trafficking or dealing, Firefighting or firefighters
Locales: California

Aquaboogie: A Novel in Stories (1990), winner of the Milkweed National Fiction Prize, introduced readers to Rio Seco’s Westside, a ghetto whose residents speak a black patois as redolent as barbecue and gumbo. I Been in Sorrow’s Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots (1992), a much-praised novel spiced with other varieties of the patois, took a Gullah woman from South Carolina’s Lowcountry to the Westside. Blacker than a Thousand Midnights, featuring more of the rich patois, resumes the Westside saga (including previous characters) by examining the situation of...

Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights | Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights

At a glance:

Join eNotes