The Sexy Part of the Bible
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From the author of Long Train to the Redeeming Sin, “the most jubilant celebration of black African beauty so far seen in the English language” (The Boston Globe).
Following in the footsteps of her idols Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, Kola Boof asserts her own literary prowess with a chilling sociopolitical love story.
Set in modern West Africa, Europe, and the United States, and featuring the kind of heroine readers rarely get to encounter in popular culture—beautiful charcoal-skinned Eternity, a spirited and diabolical young African hellcat whose life is stigmatized by a heart-stopping secret—The Sexy Part of the Bible is an erotically astute novel filled with mystery and adventure.
Enveloped in the arms of a domineering Fela Kuti–type rap star and revolutionary named Sea Horse Twee, Eternity finds herself miraculously surviving several African rebellions—and in the interim, she powerfully unmasks the science of cloning, which becomes a powerful metaphor in the story.
“From the malignant forces of racism and sexism to corruption and cloning, Boof catwalks her way through a shrewdly satirical, erotic, and suspenseful novel of defiance.” —Booklist
“Boof has written a novel with the histrionics of daytime drama, boldly sensuous and savvy about the dangers of post-colonial politics.” —Time Out Chicago
“Boof spins surrealism, sci-fi, racial politics, feminism, religious debate, postcolonial theory, and more into a thought-provoking, suspenseful novel that manages to keep intriguing characters afloat in a roiling sea of crazy rhetoric.” —Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Boof (Diary of a Lost Girl) spins surrealism, sci-fi, racial politics, feminism, religious debate, postcolonial theory, and more into a thought-provoking, suspenseful novel that manages to keep intriguing characters afloat in a roiling sea of crazy rhetoric. In the fictional nation of West Cassavaland, teenage Eternity watches an older European scientist die from drinking poison. This "tall Ron-Howard-as-Richie-Cunningham-from-Happy-Days" white man is her "true love," the man who took her virginity, her "Father." It turns out that he and Eternity's "mother" cloned her from the DNA of Orisha, an activist who was murdered by their community for urging young people to stop bleaching their skin. Initially blamed for her scientist "father's" death, Eternity flees to the West, where she becomes a supermodel and deals with memories of Orisha's life growing ever more vivid. Returning to West Cassavaland, she gets involved with King Sea Horse Twee, a rapper so popular that he runs for president. Eternity's mantra of incest-as-love is extremely troublesome, as are the depictions of skin bleaching, polygamy, domestic violence, and cloning that Boof (born in Sudan) laces throughout. Although sections feel rushed, there's a lot to ponder.
