Mosquito [Paperback]

Bury those easy-to-read Black romance books. Mosquito is where African-American literature is heading as we approach the twenty-first century.--E. Ethelbert Miller,EmergeIf you're acquainted with the lyrical tug of Alice Walker'sThe Color Purple, then you'll find something familiar and compelling about the narrative voice in Gayl Jones's newest novel,Mosquito. . . .Mosquito'svoice is melodic, direct, and so conversational that it hooks us immediately and makes us surrender fully to the narrative. . . . To be sure, these observations crackle with wit and a joyful, almost child-like candor.--Quinn Eli,Philadelphia Inquirer

Gayl Jones is the black writer we all want to be when we grow up . . .Mosquitois Gayl Jones unbound, but certainly not untethered nor without her still prodigious storehouses of language, craft, and storytelling prowess. --Greg Tate,Voice Literary Supplement

Mosquitowill amuse and confuse and instruct and pique and exhaust you. Sometimes the anecdotes are so good you call up friends to share them. There are a hundred times you want to shout, 'Right on!' --Sandra Scofield,Chicago Tribune

Most apparent and most surprising, is Jones's sense of humor. When she's at her best, her sly, subversive wit echoes Ishmael Reed at his most sarcastic. --Jabari Asim,Washington Post Book World

Undoubtedly a literary tour de force. --James A. Miller,Boston GlobeGayl Jones was born in Kentucky in 1949. She attended Connecticut College and Brown University; she has taught at Wellesley and the University of Michigan. Her critically acclaimed books includeCorregidora, Eva's Man, White Rat, Song for Anninho, Liberating Voices: Oral Tradition in African American Literature, andThe Healing, a National Book Award finalist.US