{"product_id":"the-system-of-dantes-hell-9781617753961","title":"The System of Dante's Hell","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Much of the novel is an expression of the intellectual and moral lost motion of the age . . . the special agony of the American Negro.\" --\u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"A fevered and impressionistic riff on the struggles of blacks in the urban North and rural South, as told through the prism of \u003cem\u003eThe Inferno\u003c\/em\u003e. . . . Other writers addressed race more directly, but for all its linguistic slipperiness, Baraka's language conveys the feelings of fear, violation, and fury with a surprising potency. A pungent and lyrical portrait of mid-'60s black protest.\" --\u003cem\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith a new introduction by Woodie King Jr.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e This 1965 novel is a remarkable narrative of childhood and youth, structured on the themes of Dante's \u003cem\u003eInferno\u003c\/em\u003e: violence, incontinence, fraud, treachery. With a poet's skill, Baraka creates the atmosphere of hell, and with dramatic power he reconstructs the brutality of the black slums of Newark, a small Southern town, and New York City. The episodes contained within the novel represent both states of mind and states of the soul--lyrical, fragmentary, and allusive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAmiri Baraka\/LeRoi Jones\u003c\/b\u003e (1934-2014) was the author of numerous books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. He was named poet laureate of New Jersey by the New Jersey Commission for the Humanities, from 2002-2004. His short story collection \u003ci\u003eTales of the Out \u0026amp; the Gone\u003c\/i\u003e (Akashic Books) was a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Editors' Choice and won a 2008 PEN\/Beyond Margins Award. He is also the author of \u003ci\u003eHome: Social Essays\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBlack Music\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eTales\u003c\/i\u003e, among other works.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Akashic Books, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50525020094738,"sku":"9781617753961","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_7c98ebdb-5283-4ac4-a00a-6579b1fd307f.jpg?v=1731199267","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-system-of-dantes-hell-9781617753961","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}