The Terrible Fives

Ishmael Reed continues his forty-year prophetic book project, The Terribles. Characters introduced in The Terrible Twos (1982) and The Terrible Threes (1989) are back. They include Rev. Clement Jones, JFK, Jr. who is actually Hobbomock, the Quinnipiac shape-shifter, Pres. Hatch, Termite Control, whose real name is Luke Lockett. A Necrophiliac and an Odin worshipper, Termite Control (Lockett), is the leading presidential candidate. With the decline of the Christian Church in America, are Americans ready to elect someone who wishes to replace the English language with Old Norse? And who wants to tear down the Washington monument and, in its place, build a golden statue of the Norse god? Is the fashion industry in trouble as bear skin replaces suits and hats with horned helmets? Does the rest of the world believe that America has lost its mind? Ishmael Reed again brilliantly reveals lays bare a country where truth and fiction always trade places. My Flight to Canada traces Reed's literary career spanning 60+ years, his writing and fighting, his relationship with literary figures including James Baldwin and Toni Morrison and the reasons for his own literary "flight to Canada."