Blackass is a novel by Nigerian author A. Igoni Barrett. It was released in the United Kingdom and Nigeria in 2015, and 2016 in the United States. It received mixed reviews.[1][2][3]
Plot summaryBlackass is a story about a young Nigerian Furo Wariboko,[4] who wakes up on the eve of a job interview to discover that he has transformed into a white guy overnight. As he adjusts to his new appearance, he meets Arinze, who offers Furo a far more lucrative job than he expected.[5]
ReceptionThe Financial Times called Blackass "strange (and) compelling, (...with) something to tell us all", and explicitly compared it to Kafka's The Metamorphosis.[3] Writing in The Guardian, Helon Habila lauded Barrett for "his ability to satirise the ridiculous extents people, especially Lagosians, go to in order to appear important."[2] Claire Fallon for the Huffington Post found the novel to be "blunt (and) transparently written", but also "subtle (and) circumspect."[6] Aaron Bady of Okayafrica stated that it is "the most unapologetically Nigerian book that American publishers have published in a long time".[7]
In 2016 Blackass won the People's Literature Publishing House and the Chinese Foreign Literature Society's 21st Century Best Foreign Novel Award.[8] It was nominated for the inaugural FT/OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices Awards,[9] the 2017 PEN Open Book Award,[10] the 2015 Kitschies Golden Tentacle Award,[11] and the inaugural Nommo Award for Best Novel.[12] In 2017 it was nominated for a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in the debut fiction category.[13][14]
References- ^ Schaub, Michael (6 March 2016). "An Audacious Transformation Bogs Down In 'Blackass'". NPR. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
- ^ a b Habila, Helon (14 August 2015). "Blackass by A Igoni Barrett review – a cocktail of Kafka and comedy". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
- ^ a b Day, Jon (14 August 2015). "'Blackass', by A Igoni Barrett". Financial Times. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
- ^ "Blackass | Graywolf Press". www.graywolfpress.org. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ Ponce, Pedro (13 September 2016). "Book Review: Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett". The Los Angeles Review. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ Fallon, Claire (4 March 2016), "The Bottom Line: ‘Blackass’ By A. Igoni Barrett", HuffPost Arts and Culture.
- ^ Bady, Aaron (10 March 2016), "A. Igoni Barrett’s “Blackass” And The Afropolitan Debate", Okayafrica.
- ^ "年度最佳外国小说”先睹为快" Archived 2019-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, Xinhua News Agency, 2 April 2017.
- ^ "Emerging Voices Award Longlist Announced", OppenheimerFunds, 16 June 2015.
- ^ "2017 PEN Open Book Award", PEN America, December 2016
- ^ "2015 Kitschies Short List" Locus Online, 22 February 2016.
- ^ "2017 Nommo Awards Shortlist", Locus Online, 4 April 2017.
- ^ "Hurston Wright Foundation Announces 2017 Legacy Awards Nominations", MahoganyBooks Blog, 30 June 2017
- ^ "Hurston/Wright Foundation | A. Igoni Barrett", Hurstonwright.org.
