Oreo

by Frances D. Ross

2015

Publication

New Directions, c1974

Status

Available

Description

A pioneering, dazzling satire about a biracial black girl from Philadelphia searching for her Jewish father in New York City Oreo is raised by her maternal grandparents in Philadelphia. Her black mother tours with a theatrical troupe and her Jewish deadbeat dad disappeared when she was an infant, leaving behind a mysterious note that triggers her quest to find him. What ensues is a playful, modernized parody of the classical odyssey of Theseus with a feminist twist, immersed in seventies pop culture, and mixing standard English, black vernacular, and Yiddish with wisecracking aplomb. Oreo, our young hero, navigates the labyrinth of sound studios and brothels and subway tunnels in Manhattan, seeking to claim her birthright while unwittingly experiencing and triggering a mythic journey of self-discovery like no other.… (more)

Media reviews

NPR

Fran Ross' Oreo is one of the funniest books I've ever read, but I've never quoted it. To do so, I would have to put quotations before the first page and then again at the last. Instead, I just use the words so many others who have been privileged to encounter Oreo use to describe it: hilarious,

uproarious, insane. But these adjectives don't do it justice either. To convey Oreo's humor effectively, I would have to use the comedic graphs, menus and quizzes Ross uses in the novel. So instead, I just settle for, "You have to read this," and from just the first page they see what I mean.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member booklove2

I adored Fran Ross's word trickery in this one. Wow, she was a smart cookie! I can't even imagine writing this book before being able to access the internet... it certainly helped to have the internet next to me while reading it! Ross throws so many different cultures into her writing, which is

probably one of the reasons it was so overlooked in 1974. I am glad it was republished. On one page, I went back to read it to see how many times I laughed and it was at least eight times. Eight laughs on one page! That deserves some credit right there. Ross rewrites the myth of Theseus and his quest to find his father to write the story of Oreo, a teen in Pittsburgh, born with an African American mother and a Jewish father. This girl is a superhero, staying tough through all the wacky situations she gets into. As the writer herself must have been a superhero. The book loses a bit of steam towards the end, but it's a must-experience book anyway. I really appreciated the "Key For Speed Readers, Non-classicists" at the back of the book which ran down the Theseus myth. I read it before beginning the narrative and it really helped connect everything to the myth. Otherwise I would have been lost. I can see this book influencing so many other books.

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9 more

LibraryThing member froxgirl

This novel, from the 1970's, by an author who died before she wrote another novel, never deserved to be lost. It's a startling version of Candide, from the PoV of a half black, half Jewish barely adolescent girl, whose custodial mother nicknames her "Oriole", which turns into the name in the title.

The creation of new words by Oreo's brother and the Yiddish slang make for a hilarious mixtape/mixture of stunning verbal swordplay, including a quiz for his peers on the woodworking skills of Jesus. There's also the fictional Whitehall, an upper middle class African American town that was recently sent up by Key and Peele in their "Negrotown" sketch - for real, they have to have read this book. Oreo's journey from Philadelphia to Harlem to find her runaway Jewish father turns into a re-telling of the life of the Greek hero Theseus. So brilliant, hilarious, and memorable that it's all quotes from here on:

"Look at that moron grin, " a wagonload of Jukes once said as they went creaking and kallikaking past the village green."

"Oreo saw Mrs. Scott drop the same teaspoon seven times. Then the woman pulled herself together and dropped a cup for a change. It was what General Mills must go through when Betty Crocker was in middleschmertz."

"As the train filled, the hardened travelers settled down into the business of Hoping My Seatmate Will Keep His/Her Trap Shut And Let Me Read The Paper to the even more fervent Hoping No Mewling Brats Are Aboard."

"He patted her hand and gave her an actor's look of fake sincerity or sincere fakery - she did not know which."

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LibraryThing member KLmesoftly

This one is satirical, something I'd compare most closely to John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. Young Christine (Oreo) is born to an African American woman and a Jewish American man (whose coupling caused quite a bit of conflict within their families), raised by her maternal grandmother

until the day she comes of age and ventures off on a parody of the Greek-mythical Hero's Quest. It's goofy, deliberately odd, and was a lot of fun to read. I'm not sure I'd recommend it - for this genre, Toole's work is better, but if you enjoyed A Confederacy of Dunces and are after more in that vein, give this a look.

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LibraryThing member anderlawlor

This is totally one of those hidden-from-history books. Fran Ross was an experimental fiction writer who also wrote material for Richard Pryor. This book hangs its narrative on the Theseus story, and is a satire maybe? definitely uses pastiche. Oreo, the kid of a Jewish father and an African

American mother, is raised by her grandparents and then goes to find her father, which is the quest. The copy I have has an introduction by Harryette Mullen, which totally worth reading.

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LibraryThing member MarthaJeanne

In the beginning I enjoyed this, but the amount of wierdness got to be too much for me. I got over half way through before giving up.

LibraryThing member Meredy

Six-word review: Broad humor, cunning wit, multicolored language.

More: This is definitely one that you have to be in the right frame of mind for. It took me a month to read 230 pages. And I have no idea why it was yes on one day and no on another. But in the end it drew a strong rating from me and

ranked as one of my top selections of 2017.

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LibraryThing member BraveNewBks

What a challenging book! I have lots of thoughts and will post a fuller review soon, but in short, I have to say this manages to combine lowbrow slapstick with erudite linguistic humor in a way I've never seen before.

LibraryThing member little-gidding

This book is like a 1970s American version of Ulysses with just as much vulgarity and just as many clever puns. This book is like Ulysses if Leopold Bloom had been a half-black, half-Jewish, wise-cracking, underaged girl nicknamed "Oreo" as a misunderstanding for "Oriole." This book is like a

shorter version of Ulysses with a slightly more coherent plot that lasts longer than one day. Like Ulysses, this book is really unlike anything else.

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LibraryThing member JudyGibson

This story was a hilarious linguistic romp within a quest. Most of the social commentary and satire were beyond me as an old white Californian, but it was a fun quick read.

LibraryThing member browner56

Christine Clark, ironically nicknamed Oreo as a toddler, is a young person on a quest. Born to a black mother and a Jewish father—a marriage that neither family approved from the beginning—Oreo has spent her life torn between two cultures, reflecting her mixed-heritage origins. She and her

younger brother also come from a broken home, having been raised in Philadelphia by their maternal grandparents following the parents’ divorce. Helen, the mother, has no interest in raising the kids, spending most of her time on the road pursuing an entertainment career. Sam, the father, just simply disappeared to New York City, cutting off all contact with the family. Determined to learn the secret of her birth, a teen-aged Oreo sets out to find her father, with only some cryptic clues he has left to guide her. Once she hits the streets of New York, Oreo’s journey turns into a true picaresque adventure involving an improbable series of events, characters, and mishaps as she tracks down the multitude of people in the phone book who share Sam’s name. Will Oreo ever find her father and how will that quest change her life?

This is the basic plot of Oreo, Fran Ross’ remarkable novel that is at once a searing social satire, a perceptive commentary on racial and ethnic identities, a brilliant lampoon of the Theseus saga from Greek mythology, and an affecting coming-of-age tale of a young woman seeking her place in the world. Written about a half-century ago, it is hard to understand how a book this creative, insightful, and outright hilarious could have languished in relative obscurity for so many years. The wordplay in the book is nothing short of masterful and it is very, very funny in many places. Of course, I found myself relying on both an online Yiddish dictionary and a reader’s guide to the Theseus myth to understand many of those jokes, barbs, and puns—Oreo’s myriad encounters on her journey do indeed parallel those of Theseus as he worked his way home—but that effort was amply rewarded. While Oreo may have been underappreciated when it was published, since its “rediscovery” a few years ago it has apparently become a cult classic and a work that has clearly influenced a new generation of literature (e.g., Paul Beatty’s equally brilliant The Sellout). That is a fitting end for a book that has been on such a lengthy quest of its own.

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