Platitudes (Northeastern Library of Black Literature)

by TreyEllis (Author), Bertram D . Ashe (Foreword)

New
Paperback
2003
$26.68

Trey Ellis's uproariously funny debut novel Platitudes, first published in 1988, takes on conflicts within the African American literary community. Dewayne Wellington, a failing black experimental novelist, and Isshee Ayam, a radical feminist author, collaborate on Dewayne's latest sexist comedy. Alternately telling the story about the coming of age of Earle and Dorothy-two black middle-class teenagers, sex-starved in New York City-the battling writers sneak ever, and dangerously, closer to reconciling their literary disputes. This edition of Platitudes also includes The New Black Aesthetic, a groundbreaking essay by Ellis that appeared in the journal Callaloo.

Synopsis

Trey Ellis's uproariously funny debut novel Platitudes, first published in 1988, takes on conflicts within the African American literary community. Dewayne Wellington, a failing black experimental novelist, and Isshee Ayam, a radical feminist author, collaborate on Dewayne's latest sexist comedy. Alternately telling the story about the coming of age of Earle and Dorothy-two black middle-class teenagers, sex-starved in New York City-the battling writers sneak ever, and dangerously, closer to reconciling their literary disputes. This edition of Platitudes also includes The New Black Aesthetic, a groundbreaking essay by Ellis that appeared in the journal Callaloo.

$26.68

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Publisher: Northeastern University Press
Published: 01 Oct 2003
ISBN 10: 1555535860
ISBN 13: 9781555535865

Media Reviews

A stunning first novel. Blending the genres of the epistolary and satire, Ellis has produced a novel at once socially engaged and artistically fresh, hilariously funny and intellectually compelling. His is a major talent and this is a wonderful read. -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Author Bio

Trey Ellis is a professional novelist and screenwriter. In addition to Platitudes, he has written the highly acclaimed novels Home Repairs and Right Here, Right Now, as well as several screenplays, including The Inkwell and The Tuskegee Airmen. He lives in Santa Monica, California. Bertram D. Ashe is Associate Professor of English at the College of Holy Cross. He lives in Worcester, Massachusetts. Richard Yarborough, editor of the Northeastern Library of Black Literature, is Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles.