As I make my way through the shortlist for next monthās Tournament of Books, I picked up Fran Rossās OREO, knowing only that it was first published in 1974, almost immediately forgotten, and republished in 2015 by @newdirectionspublishing.
On its surface a retelling of the myth of Theseus starring bi-racial Christine Clark - the titular nicknamed Oreo - as she makes her way to New York City to meet her long-distant father. For the uninitiated, Ross has written a slap-dash version of the myth in the back of the book, naming the corresponding characters here.
Going deeper than surface level, though, OREO is a witty, nuanced, and at times hilarious satire of culture in the 1970s. It dives into the Theseus myth, and even forty years later, the narrative of the myth transposed into a twentieth-century setting feel not just tangible but relevant.
In an adaptation of his 2015 introduction in the New Yorker, Danny Senza writes,
As in the best satire, nobody in āOreoā is safe; nobody is spared. The humor is low at times, scatological and plain silly, and the humor is high, sophisticated wordplay and clichĆ©s flipped on their heads. Ross is a hard sell for February, Black History Month, and a hard sell for March, Womenās History Month. Hers is a postmodern text; it is a queer text; it is a work of black satire; it is a work of high feminist comedy; it is a post-soul text. Her novel is multifaceted and multilingual, making it an awkward presence on the landscape of American fiction, where āethnicā literature can be put in kiosks like dishes at a food fair, and consumed just as easily.
I donāt think I would have picked up OREO if it hadnāt been for the 2016 Tournament of Books; in fact, I donāt know that it would have crossed my sight. This is a perfect time for this book to have come back into print, not just for reasons listed above but for how the cultural narrative in the US has continued to shift, even in the last year since this introduction was written.
You donāt really see this kind of work being published broadly in this decade, for a variety of reasons, so hereās hoping OREO can carve out a niche in 2016 that it wasnāt able to in 1974. I highly recommend picking this up - itās a quick read, but one that will make you think and make you laugh.
