Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down by Ishmael Reed
"Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down," a novel by Ishmael Reed, presents a surreal and satirical tale set in the Old West, combining elements of Hoodoo folklore with themes of power and rebellion. The narrative follows the Loop Garoo Kid, a trickster figure embodying the spirit of Hoodoo, as he and his circus drama unfold in the town of Yellow Back Radio. The children of the town, armed and rebellious, have expelled the adults, prompting a confrontation with the circus performers, who retain a sense of childlike wonder.
As the story progresses, the adults scheme against the children, leading to chaos and violence. The Loop Garoo Kid faces various adversaries, including rancher Drag Gibson and a posse of gunslingers, ultimately invoking Hoodoo magic to combat their threats. The tale serves as a commentary on race, power dynamics, and the complexities of American identity, woven with humor and magical realism. Through its vivid characters and engaging plot, Reed invites readers to reflect on societal issues while entertaining with an imaginative narrative. The novel is notable for its exploration of African American culture and its critique of historical narratives, making it a significant work in contemporary literature.
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Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down by Ishmael Reed
First published: 1969
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Satire
Time of plot: Early nineteenth century and twentieth century
Locale: Town of Yellow Back Radio in the western United States
Principal characters
The Loop Garoo Kid , a black cowboy and a Voodoohoungan Drag Gibson , a ruthless and powerful rancherChief Showcase , a Native American leaderBo Shmo , leader of the posse sent to hang LoopBig Lizzie , a saloon owner in Yellow Back RadioTheda Blackwell , U.S. Secretary of DefensePete the Peek , a U.S. congressmanMustache Sal , Loop’s former lover, now Drag’s wifeSkinny McCullough , Gibson’s ranch foremanPope Innocent , Roman Catholic leader
The Story:
The Loop Garoo Kid, a trickster god of the Hoodoo religion, appears incarnated as a circus cowboy in the Old West. His circus is about to play in Yellow Back Radio, its last town for the season, when the children of the town—all armed—surround them. The children had run the adults out of Yellow Back Radio and are about to do the same to Loop’s troupe, until they realize that these adults are not normal adults; circus performers, they find, still have a bit of child in them.
The circus performs for the children. Meanwhile, the town’s adults are holed up at Drag Gibson’s ranch outside town. They sign the town over to Gibson in return for his promise to slaughter the children. After the circus performance, Jake the Barker beguiles the children with tales of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola; they all decide to go off searching for it. Before they can, however, Gibson’s men arrive, shooting everyone in sight. Loop rides off to draw their fire.
Stuck in the desert, Loop has to shoot his horse for food. Bo Shmo and his posse of neo-social realists find him and bury him in sand up to his neck. They smear his face with jam so that he will be eaten alive by insects. Loop is rescued by Chief Showcase, a high-tech American Indian who drops from the sky in a homemade helicopter, scares off Bo’s gang, and revives the hero with a canteen filled with champagne.
Meanwhile, Gibson’s men return to the ranch and report the slaughter of the children. Just when he is most confident, Gibson hears a mysterious voice and sees a pair of giant black hands at the window. He shoots at the reanimated collection of various animal parts—his wife—and calls in the local doctor to make her death legitimate with a certificate. In a desert cave, Loop performs Hoodoo rituals to send curses on Gibson and his men.
The next morning, Mustache Sal, Gibson’s soon-to-be wife, arrives by stagecoach and seduces the ranch hand who had been sent by Gibson to meet her. She retires to her room, then Loop, her former lover, appears in her mirror and chides her for abandoning him. He brands her abdomen with the image of a hell bat. Gibson’s men, scared by Loop’s curse, which is killing their cattle, are about to leave, but Gibson bribes them to stay by offering shares of the ranch.
Explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark consult with Gibson about subduing the Indians. Big Lizzie meets the ranch hands, the marshal, and the Reverend Boyd in her saloon, called the Rabid Black Cougar, and warns them about Loop’s powers. Suddenly, Loop appears, disarming all the gunslingers with his whip and leaving the men scared and quivering. The marshal concedes defeat and leaves town.
The morning after her wedding to Gibson, Sal announces to the ranch hands that she is now in charge of the ranch because her husband had died in the night. She had put arsenic in his milk the night before. Gibson suddenly appears, alive, and orders Sal thrown into the swine pit. He then calls in a famous racist gunslinger, John Wesley Hardin, to go after Loop, but Loop sends a python after Hardin, who subdues him.
Meanwhile, Field Marshal Theda Blackwell and U.S. congressman Pete the Peek conspire to stop Loop and to thwart President Thomas Jefferson for his sympathy for blacks. Chief Showcase interrupts their deliberations, pretending to befriend them, and gives them cigars. Blackwell and Pete offer Chief Showcase three states if he helps them destroy the town of Yellow Back Radio. Chief Showcase visits the dying Gibson, but Gibson recovers quickly when he receives a letter from Pope Innocent, announcing a papal visit.
The pope’s visit to Yellow Back Radio is a grand celebration that quickly turns to a plot to defeat Loop. Pope Innocent explains the nature of Hoodoo to the ranch hands and gunslingers. He tells them that the key to bringing Loop down is removing the talisman, a mad dog’s tooth, from around Loop’s neck. Ranch foreman Skinny McCullough bribes two of Loop’s flunkies to steal his talisman, and Gibson’s men find him. They take him to the guillotine, but before they can execute him, two children whom Loop had rescued from the massacre at Yellow Back Radio come to the rescue. The older citizens turn against Gibson, who falls into the swine pit and is devoured.
Bibliography
Boyer, Jay. Ishmael Reed. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Press, 1993. A fine general introduction to Reed’s literary themes. A pamphlet-sized booklet of fifty-two pages in the Boise State Western Writers series. Includes a bibliography.
Dick, Bruce Allen, ed., with Pavel Zemliansky. The Critical Response to Ishmael Reed. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999. A collection of reviews and articles, including the editor’s interview with Reed. Includes four items on Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down: three exchanges between Reed and critic Irving Howe and an article by critic Michel Fabre.
Fabre, Michel. “Postmodern Rhetoric in Ishmael Reed’s Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down.” In The Afro-American Novel Since 1960, edited by Peter Bruck and Wolfgang Karrer. Amsterdam: Gruner, 1982. Identifies Reed’s rhetorical techniques in the novel. Reprinted in Bruce Allen Dick’s The Critical Response to Ishmael Reed (1999).
Flota, Brian. A Survey of Multicultural San Francisco Bay Literature, 1955-1979: Ishmael Reed, Maxine Hong Kingston, Frank Chin, and the Beat Generation. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2009. Places Reed in the context of a half-century of San Francisco ethnic and multicultural literature.
McGee, Patrick. Ishmael Reed and the Ends of Race. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997. McGee looks at Reed’s refusal to meet expectations associated traditionally with African American writers, and he examines Reed’s use of satire and his antagonism toward political correctness.
Martin, Reginald. Ishmael Reed and the New Black Aesthetic Critics. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988. An analysis not only of Reed’s literary theories in the context of late twentieth century African American aesthetics but also of how critics in that movement have treated his fiction.
Mvuyekure, Pierre-Damien. The “Dark Heathenism” of the American Novelist Ishmael Reed: African Voodoo as American Literary Hoodoo. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2007. Defines Reed’s novels as postcolonial writings characterized by neo-hoodoism. Demonstrates how Reed transforms the English language and debates about colonialism into discourses about self-empowerment and self-representation, reconnecting African Americans with Africa.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗, ed. A Casebook Study of Ishmael Reed’s “Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down.” Chicago: Center for Book Culture, 2003. A collection of four essays that analyze Reed’s novel from several perspectives, including that of African Voodoo and American jazz.