Dr. King's Refrigerator - by Charles Johnson (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From National Book Award-winning author Charles Johnson comes a sly, witty, and insightful collection of short stories exploring issues of race and identity.

In "Sweet Dreams," a Kafkaesque tale is set in a world where dreams are taxed--a reality that leads to a man and his dreamlife being audited. In "Cultural Relativity," a young woman falls in love with the son of the president of an African nation--but is forbidden to ever kiss him. A deeply humane story, "Dr. King's Refrigerator" offers a remarkable glimpse into Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and his refrigerator. "Kwoon" is a graceful and illuminating story about a martial arts teacher on Chicago's South Side.

Compassionate and amusing, thought-provoking and richly imagined, Dr. King's Refrigerator and Other Bedtime Stories is a wonderful and compelling collection from one of America's most beloved authors.

Review Quotes

"An ingenious psychological whodunit."

-- "Kirkus" (starred)

"In their remarkable simplicity [these stories] reach into...the African American experience with surprising freshness and the fluency of years of gathered wisdom. This book is a deeply satisfying reading adventure."

-- "Black Issues Book Review"

About the Author

Charles Johnson is a novelist, essayist, literary scholar, philosopher, cartoonist, screenwriter, and professor emeritus at the University of Washington in Seattle. A MacArthur fellow, his fiction includes Night Hawks, Dr. King's Refrigerator, Dreamer, Faith and the Good Thing, and Middle Passage, for which he won the National Book Award. In 2002 he received the Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Seattle.