Reed's writing style matured greatly between The Free-Lance Pallbearers (1967) and Mumbo Jumbo. Critical response generally reflected this assertion, although a few critics felt that "the full-blown explication of Neo-HooDoo dulled the devilishly humorous cutting edge of the two previous novels." The characters are more complex in Mumbo Jumbo than in Reed's earlier works. In The Free-Lance Pallbearers the contradictions some characters displayed made them seem inconsistent. In Mumbo Jumbo, the characters all display contradictions but are drawn in such...
Source: Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction, ©2001 Gale Cengage. All Rights Reserved. Full copyright.
(The entire page is 100 words.)
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