{"product_id":"testify-9781597090452","title":"Testify","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA brave, brilliant debut about the African-American experience in the American Midwest. A contemplation of race, masculinity, religion, and class, \u003ci\u003eTestify\u003c\/i\u003e in a very personal way confronts some of the most critical issues in today's society.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA book of elegiac ambivalence, \u003ci\u003eTestify\u003c\/i\u003e's speaker often finds himself trapped between received binaries: black and white, ghetto and suburban, atheism and Catholicism. In many ways, this work is a Bildungsroman detailing the maturation of a black man raised in the crack-laden 1980s, with hip-hop, jazz, and blues as its soundtrack. Rendered with keen attention to the economic decline of the Midwest due to the departure of the automotive industry, this book portrays the speaker wrestling with his city's demise, family relationships, interracial love, and notions of black masculinity. Never letting anyone, including the speaker, off the hook, \u003ci\u003eTestify\u003c\/i\u003e refuses sentimentality and didacticism and dwells in a space of uncertainty, where meaning and identity are messy, complicated, and multivalent.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Red Hen Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/25\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781597090452\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 104\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 5.90w x 0.20d","brand":"Douglas Manuel","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36661251408028,"sku":"9781597090452","price":15.26,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_d7c87f18-a1db-4bd6-bfb8-046fdc27531b.jpg?v=1603898998","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/testify-9781597090452","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}