The Terrible Twos. Ishmael Reed
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Praise for
THE TERRIBLE TWOS
“Ishmael Reed…has been called the best black writer in America today. Reed’s mastery of crosscutting techniques and his extravagant inventiveness keep the madness on the boil and help disguise this novel’s essential commitment to savage social criticism…. This is matchless comic invective. Ishmael Reed is a one-of-a-kind writer.”
—Saturday Review
“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 contemporary black writer has used the language and beliefs of folk culture so imaginatively, and few have been so stinging about the absurdity of American racism.”
—New York Review of Books
“His mind is one of the great creations of this era…. He’s beautiful!”
—Washington Post
“Reed follows modern masters as diverse as James Joyce and Alain Robbe-Grillet.”
—The Nation
“Reed’s muse barks so wildly in The Terrible Twos that it unraveled the silk in my Edmund Wilson pajamas.”
—Tom Robbins
“A great writer.”
—James Baldwin
“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.”
—Library Journal
“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.”
—Publishers Weekly
BY ISHMAEL REED
ESSAYS
Writin’ Is Fightin’
God Made Alaska for the Indians
Shrovetide in Old New Orleans
Airing Dirty Laundry
NOVELS
Japanese by Spring
The Terrible Threes
Reckless Eyeballing
The Terrible Twos
Flight to Canada
The Last Days of Louisiana Red
Mumbo Jumbo
Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down
The Free-Lance Pallbearers
POETRY
New and Collected Poems
A Secretary to the Spirits
Chattanooga
Conjure
Catechism of D Neoamerican Hoodoo Church
PLAYS
Mother Hubbard, formerly Hell Hath No Fury
The Ace Boons
Savage Wilds
Hubba City
ANTHOLOGIES
The Before Columbus Foundation Fiction Anthology
The Before Columbus Foundation Poetry Anthology
Calafia
19 Necromancers from Now
Multi-America: Essays on Cultural War and Cultural Peace
THE TERRIBLE TWOS
ISHMAEL REED
Copyright © 1982 by Ishmael Reed
First Dalkey Archive edition, 1999
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Reed, Ishmael, 1938-
The terrible twos / Ishmael Reed. — 1st Dalkey Archive ed.
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-1-56478-226-7
1. United States—Politics and government—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3568.E365T4 1999
813’.54—dc21
99-35665
CIP
This publication is partially supported by grants from the Lannan Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
Dalkey Archive Press
Illinois State University
Campus Box 4241
Normal, IL 61790-4241
visit our website at: www.dalkeyarchive.com
DEDICATION
For Bill Cook, James Earl Jones, Jerry Lieber, George
Clinton, Brian Whitley, and the late Charles Davis, without
whose patronage this book would not have been possible.
WASHINGTON (UPI)—Confirming what many people already felt in their bones, the Commerce Department reported Sunday the rain-poor winter of 1980–1981 produced a slew of records and near records for the nation and nearly half the states.
Contents
A Past Christmas
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
A Future Christmas
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36