Banjo

by Caryl Phillips (Introduction), Claude Mc Kay (Author)

New
Paperback
2008
$9.26

Lincoln Agrippa Daily, known to his drifter cohorts on the 1920s Marseille waterfront as 'Banjo', passes his days panhandling and dreaming of starting his own little band. At night Banjo, Malty, Ginger, Dengel, Bugsy, Taloufa, Goosey, and even Jake of Home to Harlem prowl the rough waterfront bistros, drinking, looking for women, playing music, fighting, loving, and talking - about their homes in Senegal, the West Indies, or the American South; about Garvey's Back-to-Africa Movement; about being black. When Ray, a writer, joins the group, it triggers his rediscovery of his African roots and his feeling that, at last, he belongs to a race,?weighed, tested and poised in the universal scheme?.

Synopsis

Lincoln Agrippa Daily, known to his drifter cohorts on the 1920s Marseille waterfront as 'Banjo', passes his days panhandling and dreaming of starting his own little band. At night Banjo, Malty, Ginger, Dengel, Bugsy, Taloufa, Goosey, and even Jake of Home to Harlem prowl the rough waterfront bistros, drinking, looking for women, playing music, fighting, loving, and talking - about their homes in Senegal, the West Indies, or the American South; about Garvey's Back-to-Africa Movement; about being black. When Ray, a writer, joins the group, it triggers his rediscovery of his African roots and his feeling that, at last, he belongs to a race,?weighed, tested and poised in the universal scheme?.

$9.26

Save:$1.43 (13%)

Quantity

Temporarily out of stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Publisher: Serpent's Tail
Published: 04 Dec 2008
ISBN 10: 1846686342
ISBN 13: 9781846686344

Media Reviews

An unforgettable picture of waterfront life in Marseilles * The Nation *
A vigorous and full-blooded piece of writing...extraordinarily well done...packed with incident * Times Literary Supplement *
This lively, invigorating read paints a vivid picture of 1920s France. -- Amina Taylor * Pride *
[A]n interesting and vibrant piece of writing which has withstood the test of time. -- Steve Andrew * Morning Star *
Banjo deals with race, politics and African identity but never in a heavy-handed way...Fascinating stuff. -- Doug Johnstone * The List *
A picaresque, politicised novel pulsing with life -- Claire Allfree * Metro *

Author Bio

Claude McKay travelled to New York from Jamaica in 1912. In addition to his novels Banjo and Banana Bottom, he is perhaps most widely remembered for his poems, of which the most significant collection is Harlem Shadows (1922). James Weldon Johnson remarked that Claude McKay's poetry was one of the great forces in bringing about what is often called the 'Negro Literary Renaissance.' McKay completed his autobiography, A Long Way from Home, in 1937. He died in 1948.