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dem
Novel by William Melvin Kelley Originally
published in 1967, dem is a classic of the Black Arts Movement. This surrealistic
satire lays bare the convoluted and symbiotic relationship between whites and
blacks. Coffee House Press is pleased to bring back into print this widely unavailable
work. Upper
middle-class Manhattanite Mitchell Pierce is convinced he has it made. With advancement
at work, an attractive wife, and a comfortable apartment, he has achieved the
1960s version of the white man's American dream. Slowly but surely that dream
becomes a nightmare, and Mitchell can't seem to wake up. Did he really find his
boss's wife and children dead in an upstairs bedroom of their suburban home? Did
his wife really become pregnant after a brief fling with their black maid's boyfriend? Mitchell
and his wife enact the twists and turns of human relationships in this startling
novel about the intersections of race, class, sex, love, and marriage. Notable
as a satiric portrayal of white characters from an African American perspective,
this milestone achievement tugs at our ability to suspend disbelief and forces
us to re-examine stereotypes from the past and current images in America's racial
divide. Coffee
House Press's Black Arts Movement Series is supported by a grant from the Lila
Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund.
Click
here for Reading Group Guide
Novels
available in the Coffee House Press Black Arts Movement
Series:
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