num_pages: 370
description: Upstairs Downstairs meets Parasite: The acclaimed author of The Talented Ribkins deconstructs painful African American stereotypes and offers a fresh and searing critique on race class privilege ambition exploitation and the seeds of rage in America in this intricately woven and masterfully executed historical novel set in the early twentieth century that centers around the black servants of a down-on-its heels upper-class white family.For fifteen years August Sitwell has worked for the Barclays a well-to-do white family who plucked him from an orphan asylum and gave him a job. The groundskeeper is part of the households all-black staff along with Miss Mamie the talented cook pretty new maid Jennie Williams and three young kitchen apprenticesthe latest orphan boys Mr. Barclay has taken in to civilize boys like August.But the Barclays fortunes have fallen and their money is almost gone. When a prospective business associate proposes selling Miss Mamies delicious rib sauce to local markets under the brand name The Rib Kingusing a caricature of a wildly grinning August wearing a jewel-encrusted crown on the labelMr. Barclay desperate for cash agrees. Yet neither Miss Mamie nor August will see a dime. Humiliated August grows increasingly distraught his anger building to a rage that explodes in shocking tragedy. Elegantly written and exhaustively researched The Rib King is an unsparing examination of Americas fascination with black iconography and exploitation that redefines African American stereotypes in literature. In this powerful disturbing and timely novel Ladee Hubbard reveals who people actually are and most importantly who and what they are not.
language: English
title: The Rib King
publisher: Amistad