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An African-American blues musician and blue-collar worker, Manfred Banks confronts the trials of family, friends, racism, and the lure of the bottle in early 1950s Chicago. Reprint. AB. "Amazon.com Review
Clarence Major is an avant-garde novelist, short-story writer,and poet known for his bold experiments with language and style. Whatmany don't know, however, is that Major can be a fine storyteller,capable of bringing his formidable talents to more conventionalnarrative forms as in this novel. This is the story of Manfred Banks,a blues musician in the early 1950s. We follow Man, as he's nicknamed,as he tries to woo his estranged wife, Cleo, as he struggles to make aliving playing his music in Chicago, and then leaves for Omaha, wherehe finds work in a steel mill, and a weekend gig playing in abar. When Cleo rejoins him things look as if they are finally comingtogether, but this is the kind of man for whom the blues line "ifit wasn't for no luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all" waswritten. Major has written a fine, compelling novel, with language andcharacters as rich as the blues songs that are its inspiration. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Major Talent
Excellent from cover to cover. Takes you inside the mind of a hard-luck blues musician in 1950. Clarence Major's way with words is nothing short of astonishing.

A shot of blues
Why is this out of print?Excellent read.I'm looking for more of his novels.

Poor Drunken Hearted Man
Bluesman Manfred Banks is trying to pursue his dream of being a singer and harmonica-player while living up to his responsibilities as a husband and father. Complicating his efforts to walk the straight and narrow are his addiction to booze (the "dirty bird") and the sometimes destructive influence of his friend and musical partner Solly. In describing Man's struggles with both the racist society that attempts to strip him of his dignity and his own inner demons, the author demonstrates his mastery of a rich and poetic prose style that is steeped in the sound and imagery of the blues. This is a fine evocation of African-American life in the American midwest in the middle of the twentieth century. ... Read more

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poetry on author's mixed African/Zuni heritage ... Read more

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A lively and unique collection of words and phrases used by the Black community in the United States. ... Read more

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First published in 1969 in severely abridged form, Clarence Major's powerful first novel is now available in an unexpurgated paperback edition that restores the full text of his critically acclaimed and controversial work.

All-Night Visitors is the riveting, erotic, and compelling story of Eli Bolton-orphan, college dropout, Vietnam veteran, and sexual voyager-as he struggles to establish a meaningful self-identity in a chaotic and bigoted world. ... Read more

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127 Pages ... Read more

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Contains a comprehensive collection of African-American slang throughout history, and the entries include date of arrival into the language, clear definitions, cross-references, and more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Don't Jive Talk me Juba...I know the Slanguage!What about you?

This book by Clarence Major is a must have for all cultural groups who want to stay up to date with Afro-Am Slanguage.

Why is that important?Because as our economy expands knowing how to understand and use the slanguage makes you a social threat to those who are ignorant of it.With the ability comes the freedom to go from the Hood to the White House without missing a beat.

And with the awareness of young white children expanding because of the growing epidemic of Hip-Hop suburban parents need to get up on top of it in order to know what in the world their children are saying.

As a matter of fact due to the impact of Hip-Hop language the slanguage has expanded.Now what you don't know keeps you locked out to the point where you're an outsider.But if you want to stay in step tune into this book.

This dictionary is well put together with a great deal of history behind every word.Clarence Major's input in the introduction further preps you for the expansive nature of the African-American culture. Whether you're into expanding your knowledge of language, slanguage, idioms or language development you need to acquire this book and expand your understanding of the history behind Black Slang words.So Juba, what you goin' do?Have me tell you what everyword means? or are you going to step out and take your own life by the horns.

Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE

Searched High and Low!Fantastic!
This is one of the best books ever on African American language.And yes, it is a language.The French experiemntal writer Raymond Federman challenged me to write a piece that would be densely and mentally impregnable to anyone but African Americans as American and English Colonies can be to other races.It succeeded on many levels.One, it was a fantastic story and two, it got me to use this book as source for finding new words/terms and as a reference to checking what I already knew.
Thsi book is invaluable to the scholar of language.I spent the last 2 years patiently hunting for this book as it is out of publication.I actually bought it at twice the cover price because it is that good.There is no higher that I can recommend this book.As the tapestry of language is art, this would be one of Picasso's treasured brushes.

Educational AS WELL AS extreamly entertaining
This book is by far the funniest book I've ever peered into. It gives comprehensive definitions, origins, time-periods, and in-context sentences of 99% of African American derived slang.

Educational.Entertaining.

It is explicit language but it is not at all gratuitous. 5HUGE stars. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Clarence Major, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 2967 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

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Poet, novelist, essayist, editor, anthologist, lexicographer, and painter, Clarence Major is one of the most challenging, prolific, yet underappreciated contemporary African American artists. This collection combines poetry, prose, and art by Major with critical essays by leading scholars that showcase Major's aesthetic movement across literary, cultural, and political boundaries and illuminate the complex relationship between the artist's writing and painting.

Although Major's artistic vision is grounded in the historical experiences of black and Native American peoples, he boldly experiments with crossing boundaries of all types. His use of different narrative voices is evidence of what editor Bernard Bell calls Major's "double consciousness" as an African American artist.

This collection highlights the breadth of Major's work, his transformation into a postmodern artist, and the hybrid voices of his literary and visual productions. By presenting Major's poetry, novels, and paintings alongside critical interpretations of these works, this book makes possible a long-overdue examination of a multitalented artist. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from African American Review, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2005. The length of the article is 740 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Clarence Major. One Flesh.(Book Review)
Author: Robert Butler
Publication: African American Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 39Issue: 1-2Page: 251(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on September 22, 2008. The length of the article is 316 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Clarence Major. My Amputations.(Brief article)(Book review)
Author: Daniel Garrett
Publication: The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2008
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: 28Issue: 3Page: 186(2)

Article Type: Book review, Brief article

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

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For over forty years, Clarence Major (b. 1936) has engaged several artistic and literary pursuits, garnering acclaim for his paintings, edited anthologies, poetry collections, essays, and novels.

His work within literature ranges from his popular dictionary of slang, Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang (1994), to such experimental novels as Emergency Exit (1979), Reflex and Bone Structure (1975), and My Amputations (1986). He has gained a reputation as one of America's most visionary and experimental African American writers.

In Conversations with Clarence Major, the author comments thoughtfully on the diverse nature of his work. Major explores his influences, the methods he applies to the different types of writing he does, and his childhood in Atlanta and Chicago's South Side.

The same openness and curiosity that make his work so various and rich allow Major to focus on and respond to each interviewer's concerns. Journalists, scholars, and show hosts pose questions about particular works, about the different ways Major creates, about his teaching of writing, about his views of nature, and about youth.

In interviews from 1969 to 2001, Major transforms every interview into an encounter that informs him as well as the interviewer. His interest in the dynamic nature of language and life emerges in several discussions. "If language didn't change, it would die," he says in a 1994 interview. "It has to constantly change and evolve even if we're speaking at a small, secret level. It has to grow. Words are like organic things--they don't just go on. Some are reborn in different form."

Featuring a previously unpublished interview with the volume's editor, as well as conversations with such notables as Larry McCaffery, Conversations with Clarence Major shows how the mind of an enormously talented and multifaceted artist works while conveying a sense of the generosity and optimism that keep Clarence Major experimenting and learning.

Nancy Bunge, a professor of American thought and language at Michigan State University and the author of Finding the Words: Conversations with Writers Who Teach, has been published in Black Warrior Review, Poets & Writers Magazine, San Francisco Review of Books, the Washington Post, and American Poetry Review, among others. ... Read more

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Who's Who among African Americans provides biographical and careerdetails on notable African American individuals, including leaders from sports, the arts, business, religion and more. ... Read more

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Featuring Bebe Moore Campbell, Eric Jerome Dickey, Toni Morrison, Stanley Crouch, Julie Dash, Trey Ellis, E. Lynn Harris, Gloria Naylor, Clarence Major, Jamaica Kincaid and others. ... Read more