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The Essential Clarence Major: Prose and Poetry
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About The Essential Clarence Major: Prose And Poetry
Product Description Clarence Major is one of America's literary masters. He has published numerous books, from novels to poetry and short story collections. Among his many accolades, he was a finalist for the National Book Award and a Fulbright scholar and received the PEN Oakland/Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award. His work has been featured in many literary journals, newspapers, and magazines, including the New Yorker, the New York Times, and Ploughshares.Whether you've known Major's work for decades or are new to his singular style, The Essential Clarence Major offers a thrilling overview of an exceptional career, from his early groundbreaking fiction to his most recent poems. Included here are excerpts from Major's best novels, a selection of his finest short stories and poetry, more than a dozen thought-provoking essays, a taste of his autobiography. Award-winning playwright, novelist, and screenwriter Kia Corthron introduces the collection, artfully illuminating Major's importance as one of the foremost and original voices in contemporary American literature. Review "Major has long been recognized by scholars of African Americanliterature; yet, unfortunately, this quirky but highly engaging authoris far less well known by general readers. This anthology of hisfiction, nonfiction, and poetry should help to rectify the situation.Selections from his experimental novels, such as Reflex and BoneStructure and My Amputations, are included and can spark readers to read the works in their entirety. But the real surprises here are among theshorter works. The story "My Mother and Mitch," for example, is anintriguing sketch of an interracial couple. There are also insightfulessays on literary luminaries James Baldwin, Richard Wright, and William Faulkner, as well as major's reflections on writing and painting,another medium in which he has excelled. In addition, there is anilluminating excerpt from Major's memoir. Finally, there are selectionsfrom his poems. "Hair" and "The Slave Trade: View from the MiddlePassage" are two that particularly stand out. A short but insightfulforeword by author Kia Corthron (The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter)makes an excellent introduction to this underappreciated writer.VERDICT: Recommended for all libraries with substantial collections ofAfrican American and contemporary American literature."--JacquelineParascandola, LIBRARY JOURNAL STARRED REVIEW---------------------------------------------------------------------------"In this gathering of short stories, novel excerpts, essays, an excerptfrom a personal memoir, deeply moving poetry, Major speaks through manynarrators, realistic and fanciful, young and old, male, female andundefined, discussing far-ranging times and places. Each personalityengages the reader in a different way, sometimes hilarious, sometimesthoughtful, sometimes tough, sometimes sad...For me the greatestdiscovery was Major's essays...a vast spectrum of subjects...Each piecesparkles, perfectly cut and polished...His compassionate unsentimentaland sense of justice are always focused on individuals, no matter whatcolor they are, no matter what culture they come from...His magicallanguage surrounds us not only with new insights into beauty, but alsowith a wider understanding of our human relatedness."-- JULIA FREY,artist, poet, art critic, professor-----------------------------------------------------------------------"During lock-down, I've been reading The Essential Clarence Major. This is a major retrospective--there is a lot to indulge in and choose from poetry, prose, essays and memoir and an excellent preface by Kia Corthron...It was through his paintings that I firs discovered Clarence Major, so it's been fascinating seeing him in this wider context and linking the visual with the literary...It's both a sobering and an uplifting experience to wander through the gallery of his [Major's] mind."--MARY J. OLIVER "...forty years of formal vitality, whileremain
