Works
Flight to Canada
In this sharp, wildly funny slave's eye view of the Civil War, with myth-bending ingenuity, Reed merges history, fantasy, political reality, and high comedy as he parodies the fugitive slave narrative: the slave-poet Quickskill flees to Canada on a nonstop jumbo jet; Abe Lincoln waltzes through slave quarters to the tune of "Hello Dolly"; the plantation mistress lies in bed watching the "Beecher Hour" on TV. Flight to Canada's preposterous episodes leap out from the pages of history to reveal a keen sense of American's past and present.
Mumbo Jumbo
It is the 1920s in New York City and an epidemic known as Jes Grew is sweeping the nation--a dancing plague, irresistible, joyful, and undeniably Black. Naturally, the powers that be are having none of it. A repressive conspiracy is operating in the shadows, and it's dead set on squelching Jew Grew and its Carriers--Black artists and musicians--by any means necessary. Now, with the very liberation of Blackness at stake, just one man, Detective PaPa LaBas, has the know-how required to save it. ... as Reed writes, "Mumbo Jumbo" suggest that there is something about Black culture, whether it be rock and roll, hip-hop, or "wokeness," the current Bogey Thing, that causes unrest."
Japanese By Spring
Benjamin "Chappie" Puttbutt, a black junior professor at overwhelmingly white Jack London College, lusts after tenure....He's a dismal failure, though, and is due to be replaced ...but his tutor, Dr. Yamato, who promises to teach him Japanese by spring, suddenly becomes the school's new president when the Japanese buy Jack London College. Puttbutt finds himself the boss of his once supercilious department and, drunk with power, sets out to stir things up and settle old scores. More twists of fate await him, and before long he is unwittingly embroiled in a plot to assassinate the Japanese emperor.