Genius B-Boy Cynics Getting Weeded in the Garden of Delights

by Adam Mansbach

"Adam Mansbach is our generation's literary ambassador to jazz . . ."-William "Upiski" Wimsatt. Adam Mansbach is the founding editor of the award-winning hip hop journal Elementary and currently performs with both jazz and hip musicians. He is also the author of Shackling Water, a novel called "reminiscent of Baldwin's, Ellison's and Baraka's ways of creating new rhythms with new ways of dancing words and attitudes"-Robert G. O'Meally. ". . . still undeciphered by/ codecracking specialists// & that dusty pile of bam's/ party vinyl with the labels/ all steamed off// it's all in aisle seven/ of the same government warehouse// where Indiana jones/ dropped off the ark . . ."-from "notes from under sound."

Genres: Poetry

108 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

About the author

Adam Mansbach is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Go the Fuck to Sleep, as well as the novels Rage is Back, The End of the Jews (winner of the California Book Award), and Angry Black White Boy, and the memoir-in-verse I Had a Brother Once. With Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel, he co-authored For This We Left Egypt, a finalist for the Thurber Award for American Humor, and the bestselling A Field Guide to the Jewish People. Mansbach's debut screenplay, for the Netflix Original BARRY, was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and an NAACP Image Award, and he is a two-time recipient of the Reed Award and the American Association of Political Consultants' Gold Pollie Award, for his 2012 Obama/Biden campaign video "Wake The Fuck Up" and his 2020 Biden/Harris campaign ad "Same Old," both starring Samuel L. Jackson. Mansbach's work has appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times Book Review, Esquire, The Believer, The Guardian, and on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, The Moth Storytelling Hour, and This American Life. His next novel, The Golem of Brooklyn, will be published by One World in September.

Reviews

[Abigail Munson · Rating 5 out of 5]

gr8
also: recitatif is the mood of this collection.

[Demetria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the title. Mansbach is a gifted writer and he offers a pretty good range of poems in this collection. Everything from romance to weed to the education system are touched upon. Some of the pieces seem like they are really better suited to spoken-word than being part of a printed collection, but the book is definitely worth picking up.