Page 12
Career & Education
March 25, 2015
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
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Author’s Book Reading
Novel brings
up issues of
addiction and fear
J aMondria h arris
The broken shadows of the
black American Dream is the set-
ting of James Hannaham’s new
novel “Delicious Foods” (Little
Brown), bringing up issues of ad-
diction and fear.
The novel follows the descent
of an African-American fami-
ly into the bare horror of the af-
terlife of slavery in its modern
attachments to the black body.
Hannaham’s darkly satirical com-
bination of allegory, magical real-
ism, and southern gothic drives a
love triangle between a widowed
mother, her wayward son, and her
addiction to crack.
The journey takes them to a
drug rehabilitation work camp
that resembles a slave plantation,
where both are subjected to multi-
ple forms of violence that attempt
to physically and emotionally
strip from them what little sense
of their own humanity they have
left.
The love between mother and
son binds them in an inexorable
orbit around and into places of
intense degradation. “Delicious
Foods” resonates with a sharp, in-
cisive love honed ever sharper and
finer by struggle.
by
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baths, all over hair cuts, tooth brushing,
nail trims, soft claws, flea treatments, mud
baths, and ear cleaning. We also have health
care and grooming products to keep your
pet clean in between visits.
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926 N. Lombard
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503-283-1177
Tuesday-Saturday 9am-7pm
Monday 10am-4pm
Yo dawg is gonna look like a show dawg
and your kitty will be pretty.
James Hannaham
James Hannaham, whose first
novel, ‘God Says No’, was hon-
ored by the American Library As-
sociation, will be at Powell’s City
of Books on Wednesday, March
25 at 7:30 p.m. to give a free read-
ing. He will open up for questions
and answers afterwards.
Jamondria Harris is a Port-
land poet and artist. She is the
founder of the Portland’s Afro-fu-
turist art collective, Solar Throat.