System of Dante's Hell

“A fevered and impressionistic riff on the struggles of blacks in the urban North and rural South, as told through the prism of The Inferno.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
This 1965 novel is a remarkable narrative of childhood and youth, structured on the themes of Dante’s Inferno: violence, incontinence, fraud, and treachery. With a poet’s skill, Baraka creates the atmosphere of hell, and with dramatic power...