Sign-In
Cart
Every Boy Should Have a Man
Hardcover
FantasyGeneral FictionLiterary Fiction
Currently unavailable to order
Please enter your email and a message will be sent to you when this product becomes available on our website.
ISBN13: 9781617751622
Publisher: Akashic Books, Ltd.
Published: May 7 2013
Pages: 192
Weight: 0.65
Height: 1.00 Width: 5.80 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
Awards: Hurston/Wright LEGACY Award
An imaginative and honest epic, weaving together biblical stories, fantasy, poetry, and fairy tales with a touch of realism . . . Allen asks us to question the assumptions, -isms, and contradictions of the modern world . . . Recalling the humanitarian concerns of Octavia Butler's Fledgling and the poetry of Ovid's Metamorphosis, this book will appeal to readers of literary fiction and fantasy. --Library Journal
A riveting, poignant satire of societal ills, with an added dose of fantasy, Every Boy Should Have a Man takes place in a post-human world where creatures called oafs keep humanlike mans as beloved pets. One day, a poor boy oaf brings home a man whom he hides under his bed in the hopes his parents won't find out. When the man is discovered, the boy admits it is not his--but the boy is no delinquent. Despite the accusations being hurled at him, he's telling the truth when he says he found the man aimlessly wandering in the bramble. Nevertheless, he must return the man to his rightful owner. But when the heartbroken boy comes home from school one afternoon, he finds wrapped up in red ribbon a female man with a note around her neck: Every boy should have a man. You're a fine son. Love, Dad.
Thus begins Every Boy Should Have a Man, Preston L. Allen's picaresque journey into uncharted territory in earth, sky, and firmament. With echoes of Margaret Atwood and Jack and the Beanstalk, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Octavia Butler's Kindred, it traces the story of the boy and his three mans, Brown Skin who is not his, the tragic Red Sleeves who has no voice, and her quick-witted daughter Red Locks whose epic journey takes her from the backbreaking drudgery of the mines to the perils of the battlefield to the savagery of cannibalism.
Oafs and mans each gain insight and understanding into one another's worlds, and the worlds that touch theirs--ultimately showing that oafs and mans alike share a common humanity. Filled with surprising twists and turns, the novel is in part a morality tale that takes on many of today's issues including poverty, the environment, sexism, racism, war, and religion, all in lighthearted King James prose.
1 different editions
Also available
Also in
Literary Fiction
Elizabeth Spencer: Novels & Stories (Loa #344): The Voice at the Back Door / The Light in the Piazza / Knights and Dragons / Stories
Spencer, Elizabeth
Hardcover
Philip Roth: Novels 1973-1977 (Loa #165): The Great American Novel / My Life as a Man / The Professor of Desire
Roth, Philip
Hardcover
John Updike: Novels 1978-1984 (Loa #339): The Coup / Rabbit Is Rich / The Witches of Eastwick
Updike, John
Hardcover
The Patrick Melrose Novels: Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother's Milk
St Aubyn, Edward
Paperback