Percival Everett's ``Zulus'' (Permanent Press, $19.95) is a post-apocalyptic urban folk tale that plays out the sorry future of the planet. And their scopes are ambitious: respectively, the fate of the planet, the struggle for mental territory in the war between black cultures, and the fortunes of people trying to get past ``Hello'' in the quest for intimacy. Each is wrenchingly intelligent and doggedly humane. But three new books - two novels and a collection of short stories - may rearouse public attention. Endorsed by mainstream feminism, their well-deserved critical success has fueled a corresponding popular success.īy contrast, with the passing of James Baldwin, their male counterparts dangle in relative anonymity. African-American women writers - most notably Alice Walker and Toni Morrison - have long held prominent places in contemporary American fiction.
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