A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance Paperback – 24 Mar. 2022

DAMN this writer has flair. And literary skill. And delicate sensitivity. And the incredible mind to dextrously weave together endlessly rich cultural references with his own stories. I drank this collection in so deeply, I didn't want it to end. It's not often that I pause in the middle of a book and think "I'm in the presence of greatness" but I felt like this multiple times reading this. 100% would recommend.Also, it's funny and tender as well as being razor sharp, deep, intelligent, profound. loved it.

I loved this book and didn't want it to end.

The subtitle of Hanif Abdurrraqib's book is 'In praise of Black Performance' which might imply this is in some sense a general history Afro American culture, but it is, in fact, a far more personal memoir which whilst certainly taking its themes from a diverse range of artistic material from icons like Aretha Franklin, Josephine Baker and Whitney Houston to rather lesser known ones like the black magician Ellen Armstrong or even to an essay on the card game spades much favoured by the black community is, above all, a meditation on what it is to be black in America today and over the last few decades. The author always relates his famous subject's struggles, fears and aspirations to his own weaving their great performances to moments in his own life such as his reaction to the death of Aretha Franklin and how he responded to her passing by viewing the Amazing Grace documentary about her life in a cinema in Pasadena. At times, I found this a challenging read not least because many of the cultural milestones that Abudurraqib highlights are not part of my own experience-I didn't grow up watching Soultrain or take a great interest in why parts of the black community booed Whitney Houston at the Grammy awards or know the contribution of Missy Clayton on The Stone's classic 'Gimme Shelter'. And that is, of course, the point-this is a personal view of nuggets of American and world culture seen from a sharp, sassy and perceptive black viewpoint and I felt at the end of the book that not only that I had learnt a lot, but also had looked through the eyes of another however imperfect my understanding of what I saw might be. Abdurraqib's language is a stimulating mix of the street and poetry fueled by a wide knowledge of culture in its broadest sense. This is a book I would recommend to those who, like me, would not necessarily order it as a matter of course and if you do so you will find yourself looking at performers familiar and unfamiliar from another angle which is never a bad thing and at times essential.

With its highly ambitious scope, this is a remarkably well written and interesting book. I received an advanced reading copy which missed out the couple of quotes I see are now at the outset in the 'Look Inside This Book' feature on Amazon and which really key into my understanding of 'A Little Devil in America':'If you are not a myth whose reality are you? If you are not a reality whose myth are you?' - Sun Ra.'Think of our lives and tell us your particularized world. Make up a story.' - Toni Morrison.Had I been aware of these quotes when reading the book, I very likely would have come to the thoughts I had about it much sooner.Hanif Abdurraqib can write, that's for sure. Is it simplistic to say this is one of the best recent books I've read? Or one of the best books I've ever read? Because it is. To let you in on the secret that I'd like this review to show even an ounce of the worth I believe this book has so you'll want to place it in that online basket?The author is by turns poetic, journalistic, intimate. These different narrative styles made me think 'Who is he really?' I hadn't heard of Abdurraqib before I read this book but Amazon's online description tells me he is black and Muslim. As the book progresses, the adoption of different narrative voices to describe his truth starts to reflect the content of the book in a most fascinating way. One major theme of the book is performance and with the book the author creates both a performance and a story of his own and builds a stage upon which different black dramatis personae appeared before me, like phantoms, in no particular order - Michael Jackson, Blackface, Josephine Baker, Duke Ellington, Whitney Houston - and in a way in which I'd not exactly seen them before, because here the cultural commentator is black. And this is a very significant thing - because so often the writers about culture of any kind have not been black, even if the makers of that culture, especially in the C20th and beyond have been.I was left in no uncertainty by the close of the book that black may encompass a massive and complex variety of elements and can throw up a huge number of characters, as many in fact and more than the phantoms of all those black performers who the author introduced to his stage, the book whose images grew for me increasingly sharper as Hanif Abdurraqib threw his spotlight on them. The motif of performance - with performance itself being hyper-real, a 'mirror up to nature' that's not quite natural - provides a superb counterpoint for the author's narrative about events in his own life. And altogether this is an irresistible and compelling amalgam of black realities - some of which are universal realities - myths and shadows. Culture, in its permanent state of flux, contributes to the lives of us all. If its rapidly evolving landscape interests you, you should read read this book.

Pretty much 👍🏻 I’m not the target audience for this book but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying it and learning from it. Just really interesting and beautiful stuff written here. Can’t wait to read more from this author.

I finished A Little Devil in America today, but I am going to have to re-read it because Abdurraqib is a poet, and I got lost in all the transcendence more than once. If you like Rob Sheffield, give this a try. And if you love Black music, this is for you. And if you winced at Green Book, this is totally for you. It's a great book for long-game readers to have on hand in the car as it is a collection of essays. And thinking in between essays and rolling ideas around only makes this book more powerful.Give a listen to Brene Brown's Unlocking Us podcast episode with the author on Spotify.

Thank you so much for writing this, Hanif. This book is moving, empowering, ground shaking, discomfort inducing (in an important way), lyrical, brilliant and so many other things. This book is transformational. Do yourself the favor and give this a read!

An honest conversation about a human experience I will never truly understand but I now will never be able to forget. I felt as he felt though I haven’t lived as he’s lived. This book almost caused me to forget there were words on the page. I felt like I was watching or rewatching moments in time, like an uninvited guest.

Heard about this book from Brené browns podcast and this book is exactly as described on that episode: art. Pure art. This book pushed me in all of the best ways. What a necessary read.