The Terrible Twos

Paperback
Price: $11.95 $9.56 Save $2.39 (20%)

The Terrible Twos is a wickedly funny, sharp-edged fictional assault on all those sulky, spoiled naysayers needing instant gratification—Americans. Ishmael Reed's sixth novel depicts a zany, bizarre, and all-too believable future where mankind's fate depends upon St. Nicholas and a Risto rasta dwarf named Black Peter, who together wreak mischievous havoc on Wall Street and in the Oval Office. This offbeat, on-target social critique makes marvelous fun of everything that is American, from commercialism to Congress, Santa Claus to religions cults.

Details

ISBN-10 1-56478-226-3

ISBN-13 9781564782267

Publication Date Sep 1999

Nb of pages 192

Dimensions 5.5 x 8.5 in.

Onix

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Reviews

Press Reviews

New York Daily News

"The general effect of The Terrible Twos is that of being taken on a short, wild drive through a nightmare landscape, with a madman at the wheel. Only after the ride is over do you realize how much fun it all was."

New York Times

"Reed has been revising the authorized edition of American history in all his novels, to give the ghosts a chance to talk, and in The Terrible Twos he achieves a kind of jive transcendence .

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Cincinnati Enquirer

"Packed tight, like a snake in a can. What springs out at the reader is a story full of colorful characters, bizarre incidents, crazy plot turns and an author both amused and angered by a society as senseless as silly putty."

Saturday Review

"Ishmael Reed . . . has been called the best black writer in America today. His mastery of crosscutting techniques and his extravagant inventiveness keep the madness on the boil and help disguise

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New York Review of Books

"Reed's gift is for the outrageous, for giving vivid expression to cultural controversies very much in the air . . . He is one of the most underrated writers in America. Certainly no other

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Washington Post

"His mind is one of the great creations of this era . . . He's beautiful!"

Nation

"Reed follows modern masters as diverse as James Joyce and Alain Robbe-Grillet."

Library Journal

"The Terrible Twos moves from satire to farce as Reed takes current American politics to ultimate conclusions . . . [The author's] fragmented style permits several simultaneous plots and a hilarious interchange of characters as the plots overlap."

Publishers Weekly

"This satirical fantasy by playwright, poet, essayist and novelist Reed is incredibly energetic and imaginative . . . The action is madcap, with touches of A Christmas Carol merged with Rastafarian mythology."

Quotations

"Reed's muse barks so wildly in The Terrible Twos that it unraveled the silk in my Edmund Wilson pajamas."

-Tom Robbins

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