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Article: Incest and intertextuality in Carolivia Herron's 'Thereafter Johnnie.'
- Article from:
- African American Review
- Article date:
- March 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 African American Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies ?...
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop? (Yeats)
The affirmative reviews with which the publication of Thereafter Johnnie was announced suggest that a new vision of Western culture and its battles has entered our midst. Writing for the New York Times Book Review, John Bierhorst compares Herron's "fascinating and highly original" novel about incest in a middle-class ...