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An Unruly Anthology of Black American Humor
by Damon Young
From the Thurber Prize-winning author of What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker comes a pioneering collection of Black humor from some of the most acclaimed writers and performers at work today.
A critic explores the paradox of finding community in "the dozens" while grieving. A violent town ritual causes an all-too-familiar moral panic. An email thread between friends on why we need an updated Green Book but for public toilets. All across the nation, "Karens" become illegal overnight. These are just a few of the hilarious worlds contained in Damon Young's groundbreaking anthology featuring the best, funniest, and Blackest essays, short stories, letters, and rants.
With words that roast, ignite, and burn while connecting to and coalescing around a singular thesis, That's How They Get You emphasizes how and why Black American humor is uniquely transfixing. This is a mixture of not just observational anxieties and stream-of-consciousness lucidities but also acute political clarity about America. Edited and with an introduction by Damon Young, the critically acclaimed author of What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker, the collection features new material from an all-star roster of contributors, including Hanif Abdurraqib, Mahogany L. Browne, Wyatt Cenac, Kiese Laymon, Deesha Philyaw, Roy Wood Jr., and Nicola Yoon.
"Young has a wicked sense of humor and a vast vocabulary of invective, both of which are put to good use in this anthology... . Funny bones, raised fists, scorching insights into the biz, delicious insults, and much more are to be had here." —Kirkus Reviews
"A pioneering collection." —The Millions
"A buoyant, beautiful book bursting with big names, big guffaws, and big emotions. Laugh out loud funny? Please. I busted my goddamn gut. Humor—in all its many forms—is one of God's great gifts, and it is on fine, kaleidoscopic display in this triumphant, artful collection." —Isaac Fitzgerald, New York Times bestselling author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts
This information about That's How They Get You was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Pittsburgh writer Damon Young's debut memoir, What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays (Ecco), won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Damon is also a founder of the culture blog Very Smart Brothas and was a contributing columnist for The Washington Post Magazine, a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, a columnist for GQ, and the creator and host of the Crooked Media podcast Stuck with Damon Young. Currently, he is the inaugural writer-in-residence at the University of Pittsburgh's David C. Frederick Honors College.
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