Doom Fox

by Iceberg Slim

Book Overview

"Iceberg Slim was true to where he came from. He ruled the streets of Chicago for twenty-five years and he chose not to write about what he didn't know. He knew pimping. He knew hustling. He knew the streets. . . . Two decades after he wrote it, Doom Fox remains fresh to the game. What he calls 'The Life' is still the same roller-coaster ride it's always been." --from the introduction by Ice-T

Propelled by the story of Joe "Kong" Allen and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802135889
• ISBN13: 9780802135889
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Doomed To Glory

Is the only title I feel adequately descibes my feelings towards Slim's last book The book is doomed, for nothing this good can help but get co-opted by the Man somewhere down the line. White Power Freaks (and that's a much bigger category than the Klan) will surely rip it off sometime. It's a glorious book wherein the greatest "surprise fighters" are: two women, and one gay guy-- Reba, Dottie, and Pretty Melvin. Here I'd say I'd surely go along with Deborah and get Peter Muckley's Iceberg Slim: The Life As Art to read as a companion piece to Fox, just to help see how great this work in particular, and Slim in general, truly are. Though, mostly, for me, Lit. Crit. is foolish hype, I go along with Thumper on this one; "truly deep". When I first read Doom Fox, I simply couldn't get over the brittle, hard writing, every phrase a left jab. Here were all the great Slim types in one compact, "coruscating" volume: the Pimp (and just watch how he burns); the Black Muckety-Muck; the twisted killer cop; the Religious Shark; and, as always, the "bitter sweet ghetto". The prison scenes are superlative and the Nazis therein are more threatening today than even in Slim's time; now they rule the White House. Melvin is an especially complex character who grows and transforms right along, becoming almost a Malcolm X by story's end. Rebecca and Dottie form the Black (staying) Power matrix. Poor Kong is doomed by his great heart, but there is glory flashed in the sheer telling of his tale. Doom Fox is the history of African-American experience in the 20th century... (and beyond?) It is a blues masterpiece which, as time will prove, is doomed, like its best characters, to posthumous glory. It is also the best presented, best printed, best proofed, and best rounded out of all Slim's books. Please, read it, even if you do not buy it, Muckley's work ditto.

A real account of life's twists and turns.

Even if you can't directly relate to the characters in Doom Fox, you can relate to the themes of searching for a better life, for happiness and for love. All of the characters in this book have a story. Slim's graphic details put you right on the roller coaster with them. At first I was a little taken aback by his language because you begin to wonder if it's necessary but as I read on, I realized it is totally necessary! It's one of the things that makes this story so tangible. His descriptiveness also makes it a easy to picture the rooms, the houses, the alleyways and the people and dramas that take place there. I judge a book on many things but one of the most important is whether or not I feel attached to the characters once I finish it; the same way I do when I watch an outstanding film. Doom Fox was definitely one of those books.

One of the best

This man comes second to the one and only Donald Goines. I love going into their worlds and becoming the people in there books. All I can say about this book is that it is just as good as all the rest. R.I.P

An unearthed if a bit unpolished treasure.

DOOM FOX by Iceberg Slim is well worth reading. In my opinion, it was every bit as satisfying a read as PIMP or TRICK BABY or MAMA BLACK WIDOW. This, despite the fact that it was written in 1978 and never before published, most likely making it a found novel, without benefit of polish.The people in DOOM FOX don't talk in anybody else's voice but their own. And i found Slim's ear to be just as finely tuned as in any of his other books. There is nothing fake about this book. And i think it's very possible to write fiction and not be fake, although it's rare. Iceberg Slim has not lost his touch for that, here.The characters speak from their own, often broken, hearts. They are looking for love. They look up alley-ways and in the lair of a junkie con artist and in eyes that are looking somewhere else, maybe while pledging fidelity. What they find, is something else altogether.So, what is the Kirkus reviewer objecting to ? Sex ? Does he/she think the author invented it ? 'Language' ? Same deal.The book is a document of characters reaching out for some kind of happiness before their final breath.Personally, i enjoyed spending time with them, because i could believe them; because they were real.Who could ask more of a book than that ?