OCTOBER 2021 - AudioFile
No wonder Hanif Abdurraqib’s collection of lyrical essays—thoughtful, beautifully written, and intelligently performed by JD Jackson—is a finalist for the National Book Award. In five related movements, “Performing Miracles,” “Suspending Disbelief,” “Matters of Country/Provenance,” “Anatomy of Closeness/Chasing Blood,” and “Callings to Remember,” Abdurraqib focuses on Black life, Black performance, and Black exceptionalism. Jackson delivers each small gem with as much delight as there is anger and pain behind the words. In portraits of such Black luminaries as Josephine Baker, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Dave Chappelle, Beyoncé, and more, rage and compassion combine in an inspired stream of consciousness. Abdurraqib is a poet whose reflections offer a compelling look at Black performance in white America, and Jackson’s narration gives it that extra something that will keep listeners listening. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 01/18/2021
In this staggeringly intimate meditation, essayist and poet Abdurraqib (Go Ahead in the Rain), chronicles Black performance in American culture. Broken into five “movements” consisting of essays, fragments, and prose poems, Abdurraqib weaves cultural analyses with personal stories. “On the Certain and Uncertain Movement of Limbs” captures Whitney Houston’s performance at the 1988 Grammy Awards (“And I will tell you what I know, and what I know is that Whitney Houston could not dance”). In “On Going Home as Performance,” Abdurraqib commemorates Michael Jackson on the night of his death in a club where “there wasn’t enough space for the bodies to do anything except dance.” Abdurraqib shines a light on how Black artists have shaped—and been shaped by—American culture: he outlines Josephine Baker’s life as a performer and a spy, and examines the “magical negro” trope and “the laughter of white people” through performances by Dave Chappelle and magician Ellen Armstrong. Abdurraqib addresses his commentary to readers both alive and dead, referring to “my dearest dancing ancestors,” “magically endowed problem solvers,” the “non-Black reader or scholar of history,” and a “dearly departed band of brothers,” and his prose is reliably razor-sharp. Filled with nuance and lyricism, Abdurraqib’s luminous survey is stunning. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
To call [Hanif] Abdurraqib anything less than one of the best writers working in America, and to call this book anything less than a masterpiece, would be doing him, and literature as a whole, a disservice.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Hanif is one of the most exciting writers of his generation.”—Los Angeles Review of Books
“Abdurraqib sees performance as a site of radical questioning, experimentation, and dream-making. This book is not a work of theory. It is sensual.”—Vulture
“Poignant . . . Abdurraqib has written an important book on the transformative power of . . . love.”—The New York Times
“Hanif Abdurraqib’s genius is in pinpointing those moments in American cultural history when Black people made lightning strike. But Black performance, Black artistry, Black freedom too often came at devastating price. The real devil in America is America itself, the one who stole the soul that he, through open eyes and with fearless prose, snatches back. This is searing, revelatory, filled with utter heartbreak, and unstoppable joy.”—Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf
“Hanif Abdurraqib has a way of taking slices of our cultural landscape, examining them, and transforming them into observations and analyses that leave me underlining the entire page. In A Little Devil iIn America, Abdurraqib brilliantly braids together history, criticism, and prose so stunning that it makes you want to read every word out loud just so you can hear its music. Everything Abdurraqib writes is a must-read, but this is his best yet. It is one of the most dynamic books I have ever read.”—Clint Smith, author of Counting Descent
“A rapturous exploration of Black genius . . . Whether heralding unsung entertainers or reexamining legends, Hanif Abdurraqib weaves together gorgeous essays that reveal the resilience, heartbreak, and joy within Black performance. I read this book breathlessly.”—Brit Bennett, author of The Vanishing Half
“Abdurraqib is one of the most brilliant writers I’ve ever read. A Little Devil in America needs to be on every bedside table, every high school and college desktop—in this age of revolution, this is that one book that everyone needs to read. Pure genius. I’m not trying to get at even some of the brilliance Hanif gets to with this book—there is just too much. From Black exceptionalism to Josephine Baker to old heads—he brings it and clarifies it, then shapes it into every bit of medicine we need right now.”—Jacqueline Woodson
“Staggeringly intimate . . . Filled with nuance and lyricism, Abdurraqib’s luminous survey is stunning.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Social criticism, pop culture, and autobiography come together neatly in these pages, and every sentence is sharp, provocative, and self-aware. Another winner from Abdurraqib.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Library Journal
★ 02/01/2021
Poet, essayist, and cultural critic Abdurraqib (Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest) studies the impact of Black performers throughout U.S. history, sharing his own poignant stories along the way. Inspired by Josephine Baker's extraordinary life and her self-proclaimed title of "little devil in America," Abdurraqib pens respectful, heartwarming essays that reflect on other giants in music, television, cinema, and even magic. From intense dance marathons to afternoon sock hops, from the funerals of Michael Jackson and Aretha Franklin to games of spades to barroom brawls, he examines the feeling of invisibility that haunts so many Black Americans. He scrutinizes ways in which Black artists subverted racial stereotypes, such as Josephine Baker's banana skirt performance, which tackled the assumption of Black people as primitive and made it "so absurd that it circled around to desire." The author also calls out the use of blackface and the sanitization of race relations in today's films and laments the exploitation of violence against and by African Americans. VERDICT Told with humor and grace, Abdurraqib's stories will inspire and provoke thoughtful meditations on how Black lives matter in all areas of life and art.—Lisa Henry, Kirkwood P.L., MO
OCTOBER 2021 - AudioFile
No wonder Hanif Abdurraqib’s collection of lyrical essays—thoughtful, beautifully written, and intelligently performed by JD Jackson—is a finalist for the National Book Award. In five related movements, “Performing Miracles,” “Suspending Disbelief,” “Matters of Country/Provenance,” “Anatomy of Closeness/Chasing Blood,” and “Callings to Remember,” Abdurraqib focuses on Black life, Black performance, and Black exceptionalism. Jackson delivers each small gem with as much delight as there is anger and pain behind the words. In portraits of such Black luminaries as Josephine Baker, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Dave Chappelle, Beyoncé, and more, rage and compassion combine in an inspired stream of consciousness. Abdurraqib is a poet whose reflections offer a compelling look at Black performance in white America, and Jackson’s narration gives it that extra something that will keep listeners listening. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2020-12-22
A thoughtful memoir rolled into a set of joined essays on life, death, and the Black experience in America.
Black women, it’s been said, saved American democracy by delivering their votes to the Democratic Party in 2020. Poet, essayist, and music critic Abdurraqib is having none of it. “Black people—specifically Black women in this case, are not here in this country as vessels to drag it closer to some moral competence,” he writes. Later, he adds, “it occurred to me that Black women were simply attempting to save themselves.” The point is well taken. The chapters open with flowing stream-of-consciousness introductory passages—e.g., “I was the only one in the Islamic Center on Broad Street who got to stay up & watch the shows on MTV that came on after my parents cut out the lights & went up to bed & it was only me & the warmth of an old television’s glow & the DJs spinning C+C Music Factory for people in baggy & colorful getups”—and then settle in to tightly constructed, smart essays—in this case, about the history of marathon dancing, the exhilarating contributions but tragic life of Soul Train host Don Cornelius, the deaths of both his mother and Aretha Franklin, and numerous other subjects. In another essay, Abdurraqib considers the concept of the magical negro and the unenviable role of being the Black friend who provides an escape route for White racism. Here, comedian Dave Chappelle figures prominently, having become a huge draw for Comedy Central precisely because it gained a huge White audience: “Chappelle got to be everyone’s Black friend for a while,” writes the author. “The one that stays at a comfortable enough distance but still provides a service.” Social criticism, pop culture, and autobiography come together neatly in these pages, and every sentence is sharp, provocative, and self-aware.
Another winner from Abdurraqib, a writer always worth paying attention to.