In
the wee hours of the morning, Clay Robinette, formerly
a disgraced reporter, now a happily married, happily
tenured black professor, is awakened by a phone call.
The
caller is Reggie Brogus, a famous black militant who,
after a mysterious seven-year exile, remade himself
into a fire-breathing conservative professor. There's
a dead body in Reggie's office, and he's sure it's the
work of government agents looking to frame him for his
radical past. He needs help, trusting Clay's wry sense
of humor and famous cool head to get him out of trouble.
But Clay, dragged out of his bed into the winter night,
recognizes the victim -- Jennifer Wolfshiem, a.k.a.
Pirate Jenny, Clay's student and, for a brief time,
his mistress. Knowing he too might be implicated in
Jenny's death, Clay tries to cover up his knowledge
of the murder: he gives Reggie a ride out of town, goes
home and gets back to bed, and falls asleep as though
the whole episode was a nightmare. But when he wakes
up in the morning, his life slowly, inexorably begins
to fall apart.
Dragged
into the investigation in spite of himself, Clay knows
he must unmask the killer before he becomes the prime
suspect. Was Brogus the killer after all? Was the murder
indeed linked to the FBI and a long-ago counter-intelligence
operation? Or is the killer someone closer to home,
with a sterling reputation and a hidden sadistic streak?
Part whodunit, part social satire, If 6 Were 9
is a funny, fast-paced thriller filled with vibrant
characters, unexpected plot twists, and provocative
ideas about the complexities of race and politics in
America.
Reviews:
 "Jake
Lamar's new novel, If 6 Were 9 , is a page-turner
of a murder mystery with a clear, breezy style. The
book is also a wicked black comedy in both senses of
the phrase -- it's both caustically funny and a shrewd
take on racial politics. Twists abound, satiric wallops
are doled out, the plot zips along like an airport novel
-- and glowing at the center of it all is a core of
hope: we can rise above the absurdity of racial divides
if we can all just ease up and get a bit more real."
-- New York Times Book Review
January 28, 2001
"Jake
Lamar has written a novel which effectively captures
the racial and political complexities of post-Civil
Rights America in a way that federal commissions, documentaries,
and a thousand newspaper editorials have not. Lamar
is, indisputably, one of the master writers of his generation.
And If 6 Were 9 deserves a place alongside
Native Son and Invisible Man as a truly American saga
seen through the lens of the black experience."
-- Kevin
Powell, Editor, Step Into A World: A Global Anthology
of the New Black Literature
"Once
again, Jake Lamar, the master of conspiracy theory,
has produced a story filled with strong, colorful characters,
dialogue and revelations so fully developed and haunting
you'll need to question how much is truth and how much
fiction to enable a good night's sleep."
-- Trisha Thomas, author
of Nappily Ever After
"If
you want to know what the last decades of American social,
cultural, racial tensions might feel like as lived in
the life and the heart of a bright, sensitive, sensible,
but by no means unbewildered and unwounded fictional
black man, then read If 6 Were 9, a splendid
book."
-- C.K. Williams, Pulitzer
Prize-winning author of Repair
|
