Soul City

Rating:
Summary: oh man...
Review: so i`ll have to assume then that how Rolling Stone shifted to continue to the ridiculous waste of time it has *evolved* into isn`t offensive enough. now we have to have this dreamette presentation modelling from one of the chairs that sit in Rolling Stone`s offices (or is Rolling Stone more of an idea *wink* *wink* & don`t have a physical locale).

yes this feller has created a steviewonderous place of hiphop pimped out chocolate bunnies (or something like that) time tripping in a cultural retrospective of A GUY WHO MUST WORK AT ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE cruising down (read it - i aint making this up) Richard Pryor Way. there`s Satchmo Street & Mojo Road too. there`s a municipal election. Chocolate City Magazine sends journalist Cadillac Jackson on the soul train to cover the above mentioned election. turns out he wants to detail the fluttering beautiful heart of Soul City once off the train. gosh. it`s like a beautiful dream inside a beautiful dream where all the dreamers are beautiful. man. oh man.

no i`m not a cynical burn-out. i still smoke herb. and i would suggest that may be the problem here. Toure - you should have consulted the herb for this man! that`s why it landed short & to the side. hey - i think that`s right. please, light one up the next time for start your word processor. thanks.
the genius of Richard Pryor would demand better.


Rating:
Summary: souless city
Review: "The saddest thing in life is wasted talent"

"Soul City" had potential While the idea of an autonomous Black nation has been visited before, I believe the concept is rich enough subject to be explored further. With allusions being made to Marquez's Macondo, I was hoping that someone would finally do justice to the complexity of the black community. To my great dissapointment (but not suprise) toure fails to capture this complexity. The reader is subjected to a 184 pages of weak metaphors, terrible name choices, and terribly underdeveloped characters. I guess my biggest complaint is that if you are concerned with creating a living, breathing city of soulful people, it must as prerequisite have soul. Instead, it is a collection of lifeless stereotypes that fail to develop over the course of the narrative. I understand that "Soul City" is supposed to be a satire, but where im from, that's not an excuse to be lazy with character development. Personally, I think there should be a special place in hell for writers's who think names like coochie poontang and, jigaboo shampoo are clever.
For what "Soul City" lacks in content, It could easily pull a "Tuff" and salvage itself with witty dialogue and intelligent prose. Sadly, the characters rarely, if ever talk to each other. This leaves the reader to follow Toure's narrative for the majority. While he occasionly strikes gold,(the sermon scene in particular) more often than not, the prose is simply unhip and forced. Everything is painted in broad brushstrokes and very little in the way of nuance or complexity is captured. I get the impression that "Soul City" is written by an outsider looking in for outsiders looking in. Toure simply runs into the limits of his own talent and is unable to capture the essence of a soulful people

Rating:
Summary: (3.5) Soulful fabulism
Review: Cadillac Jackson is in Soul City to cover the debates in the upcoming mayoral election, where even partying is political. But deep in his heart, Cadillac dreams of writing the definitive book on this mecca of soul, where everything of color is glorified. Unfortunately, Cadillac can't seem to find the words for the larger-than-life spirit of Soul City, a phenomenon impossible to contain between the covers of a book.

Emperor Jones, mayor for the last 12 years, is preparing to step down, a situation that requires considerable ceremony and, of course, partying. The newly elected mayor will then determine the kind of music played in Soul City for the foreseeable future. Citizens must choose wisely between candidates: the Jazz Party's Coltrane Jones, the Hip Hop Nation's Willie Bobo and Soul Music Party's Cool Spreadlove.

Eavesdropping in The Biscuit Shop the next day, Cadillac makes a date with the DJ, Mahogany Sunflower, a fine woman in Jimmy Choo's who hates interviews but never turns one down. With Mahogany's help, Cadillac tours Soul City, but is unable to write a word to explain all that he has seen in the magical place. If Soul City was a utopia, words would flow; but, like life, there are two sides to the City, the beautiful and the ugly. Without inkling where to begin, Cadillac is wordless in a place that cries out for vivid description, the essence of Blackness, not just a silly parody of the culture.

In Tour's metaphorical Soul City, a series of fables illustrate a culture that embraces joy, rhythm, belief in God, passion, a painful history, an appreciation of sexuality, social commentary and cutting edge style that others seek to emulate, but never quite capture. Regardless of how they are exploited, tempted or seduced, the bottom line is a moral code based on love and respect for tradition and family.

This grown up fairy tale is built on solid ground, as Toure joyfully embraces the culture that makes his life so bountiful. No pale imitation of reality, Soul City is a blast of fresh air, inside a world that feels everything, pain, sadness and joy, but chooses the brightest colors, the hippest music and the loudest shout of "Amen". Luan Gaines/2004.



Rating:
Summary: exhilarating allegorical tale
Review: Chocolate City Magazine sends journalist Cadillac Jackson on the soul train to write a short piece on the mayoral election in Soul City. Though his assignment is expected to last three days, Cadillac has ambitions that only residents of the City would have; he plans to write the definitive book on the city with more Mojo than any other in the world. In his opinion others have tried to explain the heart of Soul City, but all have failed.

Cadillac observes the mayoral race in which the parties serve up their musical platforms, but also sees the undercurrent of antagonism between the rivals in what is the supposed African-American utopia. He sees, hears and tastes the true culture and feels his heart go into palpitations when he meets resident Mahogany Sunflower. However, as Cadillac falls in love, he also realizes evil is undercutting the value of being a black man as thugs, like serpents in Eden, and a billionaire business bogie threaten the well being of the proud black culture tearing at the soul that makes Soul City dance to its own drummer.

SOUL CITY is an exhilarating allegorical tale that satirizes racial stereotypes through hyperbole. The effervescent well written story line contains an intriguing comparison of a pure "cornbread" society through the eyes of a white toasted outsider. Ironically, the overstatement jabs the message into the reader's face without the swift subtly of A Modest Proposal, but also hooks the audience with its strong spirit to embrace difference.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: One of the best of 2004
Review: SOUL CITY by Touré
September 10, 2004

I wasn't familiar with Touré or who he is, so I read this book with a complete blank slate, not knowing what to expect. I was in for a treat! It's a story filled with outrageous characters and caricatures of people living in a town called SOUL CITY. The residents can fly, they eat magic muffins, and living several hundred years is not uncommon.

A man named Cadillac Jackson travels to Soul City to cover the mayoral election. However, Cadillac has the hardest time writing down anything, because what he sees and learns in Soul City is so hard to describe. He finds himself meeting the various residents, and through him the reader gets to meet the many larger-than-life characters that grace these pages.

The gist of this book is African American pride and a sense of history of where they have been, and where they are now. But in between all that the reader gets to walk down memory lane through a sea of pop culture that will have one laughing and smiling. It's a very short book, only 184 pages, but it could have easily been longer. I didn't want the book to end, but although it was only 184 pages, I think Toure did a good job at telling a fable about racism, about accepting others for their differences, and for appreciating one's roots and celebrating all that has come before. This book will definitely be on my top 20 list for 2004.

Rating:
Summary: A Soulful Odyssey
Review: Soul City is a perfect book for a lazy afternoon. It allows you to forget about your reality and delve into a world where music governs, the mayor is a DJ and Death is a character that's not scary. Toure is a talented writer with a keen sense of humor, and a sharp eye for detail. That's what makes Soul City a fantastical read. Even the pop culture references he makes are filled with amazing truths. Toure though sometimes gets caught up with the superficial. His best writing emerges when he digs deep and gives us a bit of his soul. It's those precious nuggets of soul, that make me rate this 5 stars but he's got to show us more of it. He's proven he can deliver humor, but ultimately it's the insight and soul that's more interesting. I'm looking forward to more of his fiction. I'm hoping he'll open up and give us more depth. Cheers to this young writer and his journey.

Rating:
Summary: Warning: Not For the Weak In Spirit
Review: Soul City is an ambitious novel written by an equally ambitious young man. In his second fictional offering, Touré employs his gift of a fertile imagination along with natural pop culturist abilities, to take the reader on a magical sojourn through the culture of black America. In this African-American utopia, named Soul City, the essence of blackness is defined through music and folklore.

There are streets named "Groove Street" and "Downhome Drive", where giant roses and violets spring out of sidewalks that thump to the sounds of whatever the Mayor happens to be spinning. For the pavements are fitted with speakers, and the Mayor's only real duty is to DJ, thus providing the town with its own ever-changing soundtrack.

But even utopias have to shed their paradisiacal qualities once in a while, and it isn't long before reality finds its way into fantasy, allowing for the more real and negative aspects of human nature to emerge. However, the cyclical tradition of life purports that what destroys can also build. The resilient powers of human nature are what see the city through a hard time, while its loving qualities are what aid in the city's resurrection.

The book is an interweaving of fables with an underlying message that is difficult to ignore. Touré plays into social and racial stereotypes as a means of highlighting the disturbing socio-political state of race in America, and a few of the characters in Soul City go further in demonstrating how some of these stereotypes are perpetuated and kept alive.

Soul City is laugh out loud funny, and while entertaining, it also manages to provoke thought within the reader. A book that can be appreciated by older and younger generations alike, Soul City is as timeless in spirit as the audience it will attract.


Rating:
Summary: My Soul Looks Back in Wonder..
Review: The first few pages of Toure's masterful new novel took me back to the first time I saw a Spike Lee movie (School Daze, 1988). It was a well-crafted, perfectly-told inside joke and I was on the inside. Like Spike Lee, Toure's world-view is not only unquestionably Black but based in the time before Blackness was so often equated with nihilistic despair.

Soul City snatched me out of my own hectic life which involves too many frequent-flyer miles and too few homemade biscuits and plopped me down in Toure's utopian vision. Interestingly, once I arrived, I had the feeling of returning to a place I had once loved but had not visited in a long time.

The best literature forces you to reexamine your life. Soul City makes me want to turn my car into a RobertaFlackmobile, crank up the volume and dance on the hood with a well-shaped Black woman until a 350-year-old grandmother tells us to " Git the ---- down from there." Toure celebrates Black culture the way I wish more of us did and arms me with renewed strength to withstand the onslaught of the diamond-studded minstrels who are turning our people into a cartoon.

I bought Soul City and Jill Scott's new CD at the same time and finished Soul City before I even removed the plastic from the CD. From me, there can be no higher praise.

Buy two copies of this book. The first is to read and reread until it is a worn as my first copy of the Portable Promised Land. Wrap the second copy in cellophane to keep as a family heirloom which your great-grandchildren can discover someday and learn why despite the drama and the hardships, African-Americans live with such joy.



Rating:
Summary: A tribute to African American history and pop culture
Review: Touré --- a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, an MTV personality and a CNN regular --- takes the reader on a wild ride while paying tribute to African American history and pop culture in SOUL CITY. Anyone familiar with the writings of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the genre known as magical realism may see this book as the African American version of it, mixing fantasy and fact, humor and melancholy. Touré takes the reader to a world where people fly and can live for centuries. It's a combination of magical realism and THE WIZ, a fable that celebrates being Black in America, from the days of slavery to today's culture of music, cars and clothing.

In chapter one, the reader is introduced to Cadillac Jackson, who is on assignment in Soul City to write a short piece on the mayoral election. His problem: how to put down in writing all that he sees and encounters on his trip to this enchanting and surreal place. All around him he hears music, he sees people dancing, and everyone is happy. Young girls playing Double Dutch fly through the air as they skip rope to the tune of a song. Vehicles are built around famous crooners. You could have a Billiemobile (Billie Holiday) or a Sinatramobile. Music is everywhere!

He meets people who are larger than life, including Granmamma, a woman who bakes biscuits filled with other people's memories and claims she has been involved in over 142 mayoral elections. If you do the math, that's a time span covering 248 years, and she's still going strong. She has evaded "Death" so that he can never catch her off guard and take her to heaven. She and a number of other citizens can boast their age in centuries, as they have all learned how to dodge the Grim Reaper, literally.

Emperor Jones is the current mayor, having been so for the past twelve years. As mayor of Soul City, his main duty to the people is being the DJ for the town. He believes in a balance of music, whereas some of his political opponents focus on only one genre, thus possibly changing the tone of the town forever. It is his job to make sure that the best person wins the election and does the right thing for Soul City.

Meanwhile, at the Biscuit shop, where the town can get their fill of Granmamma's wonderful magic biscuits, Cadillac meets Mahogany Sunflower for the first time. When Mahogany and Cadillac become an item, word gets around, and the town is worried that the two may decide to procreate.

Mahogany knows that, because he's not from Soul City, he and his children will not have the gift of flying, and it is crucial to the town's welfare that she continue on the tradition of giving birth to children who know how to fly. She is allowed only to marry someone from Soul City. Mahogany knows better than to get involved with an outsider, but Cadillac feels that their differences should not break up their love. If Mahogany does get pregnant with Cadillac's child, will she be dooming Soul City forever? Their relationship, as well as the elections and the new mayor, Spreadlove, take the book in a different direction where the city is in peril, and it's up to someone to save it.

Through this fantastic tale of love and life in a city that loves its music, Touré intersperses snippets of pop culture from as far back as the 1940s and through the 1970s and beyond, making one want to laugh, smile, or nod in recognition. He has written a brilliant tale full of wit and fast-paced humor, with characters who are bigger than life. But Touré also writes about the roots of Black America, represented by one segment of the population of Soul City that is living the life of a slave for a month. Citizens of Soul City willingly partake in this tradition to better understand their slavery roots, to better appreciate the life they have today. It is a sobering part of this novel that brings the reader back to reality. Touré does an excellent job at writing a book that will entertain and, at the same time, give one a sense of history and pride.

--- Reviewed by Marie Hashima Lofton ([e-mail])

Rating:
Summary: This was published?
Review: Truman Capote once dimissed the work of Jack Kerouac by saying, "That's not writing, that's typing." I have searched thesauruses in vein trying to find a gerund that makes even TYPING sound accomplished in comparison to this drivel. That trees were harvested to provide the paper for this trainwreck should keep both the author and the publisher--a firm that should know better--awake at night. Shameless.