When a work of art has this balance between horror, humor, and well-crafted story-telling it can only elevate the politics.Īll too often the political art piece - whether it be a painting, movie, or book - hits one note and one note only, which in turn softens the "message" and causes us to feel as though we've been shamed into believing something we shouldn't be so stupid NOT to believe. (There's a similar brilliant mischievousness happening in Jordan Peele's cinematic masterpiece, "Get Out".) What sets "The Ways of White Folks" apart is how, even amidst the horror, Hughes never loses his sense of humor. (Think Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and Stephen King's "It".) That's right HORROR not only as reality, but also as genre. I place this book with some of the greatest collections of all time, including Bernard Malamud's "The Magic Barrel". "The Ways of White Folks" is the best short story book nobody's ever read.
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