Synopses & Reviews
Beautiful, high-stepping Yoruba of Harlem is invited to the annual cotillion thrown by African American high society of Queens. Caught between the indifference of her father, the excitement of her social-climbing mother, and her prodigal boyfriend's militancy, Yoruba persuades her sister debutantes to challenge the aging doyennes in one of the most sidesplitting scenes in American literature.
Nominated for a Pulitzer in 1972, Killens's uproarious satire captures the conflicts within black society in the 1960s. The Cotillion is the fourth title in Coffee House Press's acclaimed Black Arts Movement series.
John Oliver Killens was born in Macon, Georgia in 1916. Co-founder of the Harlem Writers Guild, he taught at Howard and Columbia Universities. His other novels include And Then We Heard the Thunder, and The Great Black Russian.
Synopsis
Fiction. African American Studies. THE COTILLION is a biting, uproarious staire that captures the conflicts between activists and social climbers within black society in the 1960s. To her mother's delilght, beautiful, high-stepping Yoruba of Harlem has been invited to participate in the cotillion that is thrown annually by the African American high society of Brooklyn. Caught between the sardonic indifference of her father, the excited determination of her social-climbing mother, and her prodigal boyfriend's militancy, Yoruba ultimately persuades her sister debutantes to shock the aging society doyennes in one of the most sidesplitting scenes in American literature. THE COTILLION is the fourth title in Coffee House Press's acclaimed Black Arts Movement Series.
Synopsis
A hilarious, biting satire of militants and social climbers in 1960s Harlem and Queens.
About the Author
Alexs D. Pate's debut novel Losing Absalom received a Minnesota Book Award and was named Best First Novel by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Additional novels include the New York Times best-seller Amistad, Finding Makeba, The Multicultiboho Sideshow, and West of Rehoboth. Pate, born in Philadelphia, now teaches at the University of Minnesota.