Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art (original 1998; edition 2010)

If you like reading about myths and legends or you're a anthropology lover this is a really good read. One might say the author stretches his Trickster analysis when examining actual artists, but I think it's a technique that's excellent for prompting one to really start looking at the myths and the functions they serve in both our cultures and other cultures. As you read the book you can feel the inquisitiveness of the author as well as a sense of play. He's not saying Fredrick Douglass is a trickster, but he does apply some lessons learned from looking at how people react to Tricksters and how the Trickster reacts to himself to shed some light on Douglass actions.

I read most of the book straight through and took a little longer reading the appendixes and re-reading parts of the book. A good read and I"m hoping to track down more of the author's work. ( )

Book Description: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux New York (1998). 1st Edition Hardcover Fine, dj Illustrations 417pp. Appendices, Notes, Bibliography,

Masterful non-fiction writing: A brilliantly written, funny and moving book--filled with substantial scholarship and honest about its own stakes. To tell you the truth, I was moved to write this review by the two reviews below, both of which fall pretty wide of the mark. First, this is an amazingly well-written book, and that goes for both Hyde's prose style and his winding structure. His reflections of his own project do not upstage the subject matter but rather deepen and situate it in "time-haunted history." I wonder why anyone would expect or want a book about tricksters to be linear and transparent. By this I don't mean to suggest that Hyde is exactly "performing" the trickster in his writing. He announces his approach perfectly well: Saturn dreams of Mercury. I suspect that this book will frustrate all species of lazy reader because it asks for a sustained, continuous, and thorough reading. All the chapters are rewarding individually, but they are best read sequentially. If you want to be able to look at a table of contents and pick one or two chapters by topic, find a doctoral thesis, or a utilitarian academic monograph.