Oxherding Tale

by Charles R. Johnson

Book Overview

One night in the antebellum South, a slaveowner and his African-American butler stay up to all hours drinking Madeira and playing cards. Finally, too besotted to face their respective wives, they drunkenly decide to switch places in each other's beds. The result is a hilarious imbroglio and an offspring, Andrew Hawkins, whose life becomes the Oxherding Tale, a deliciously funny, bitterly ironic account of slavery, racism, oppression - and the African-American...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802150519
• ISBN13: 9780802150516
• Release Date: October 1991
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.

Customer Reviews

One of the Great Books

THis is one of the great books written in the recent past. Even if you don't have an affinity for the subject matter, the story is beautifully written, and every word appears to have been crafted. The mechanics of the writing are perfect. Read it if you ever aspire to become a writer, or read it simply for the story. You won't be disappointed.

A new approach to an old tale

This novel moves African-American literature beyond African American, and ironically by way of it's oldest from, the slave narrative. Using his strong philosophical background in eastern religions and texts, Johnson appies Bhuddist and Taoist ideas of the self to deal with the concept of race in America. This book operates on many levels, some we've seen before in African American texts, which he uses as a backdrop for his transcendence of the slave narrrative's limitations. Incorporating these eastern influences into the novel sheds new light on the search for racial identity, and gender identity of the biracial chimera that narrates the tale. Johnson keeps the many ideas and happenings of the novel from being overbearing with a wonderful humor. The combinations of texts, and cultures make the reader reevaluate the very concept of race, and its history in America. An enlightening and very entertaining read, I highly reccommend it. (I save 5 stars for classics)