The Portable Promised Land
“An audacious and inventive debut....A mix of ancestor worship and irreverent wit.... The reader feels a bracing, biting gust of literary fresh air....Touré has a broad, idiosyncratic imagination.... His stories have a conceptual virtuosity....He not only acknowledges the ticklish no man’s land between vulgar stereotype and observable reality, he revels in it.... “Sambormorphosis” is a masterpiece of racial satire.... The Portable Promised Land is hugely enjoyable, and a spectacularly odd duck.... Buy the book.”
— Jake Lamar, Washington Post Book World
“Another Langston Hughes in the making?...Touré introduces us to Soul City — a wholly imagined utopia where magic happens and black is beautiful — in his debut short story collection.”
— Dan Santow, Chicago Tribune
“One of the best short story collections since Edwidge Danticat’s Krik? Krak! Touré anchors the volume in Soul City, a place not unlike the Land of Oz, where anything can happen and humanity reigns supreme.”
— Patrick Henry Bass, Essence
“Hip-hop culture gets both glorified and sent up, sometimes in the same sentence....Agreeably shocking, sharply perceptive, quite funny.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Touré’s writing is fresh and exhilarating.... The Portable Promised Land mixes the everyday black experience with magic realism to create thought-provoking and oftentimes laugh-out-loud selections that will surely appeal to a broad audience.”
— Mondella Jones, Black Issues Book Review
“This collection of stories, vignettes, and essays is a sharp celebration of black urban life, filled with characters at once surreal and familiar....Touré has given life in Soul City a comic edge, revealing the humor and absurdities behind the seriousness of race. Even the author’s note and acknowledgments are fun to read.”
— Ellen Flexman, Library Journal
“Perhaps staking out new ground for magical realism, Touré creates in his short stories a vibrant African American metropolis where stereotypes are reclaimed and transformed to artfully address the politics and construction of race.... These delightful works practically beg to be read aloud....Touré is a talent to watch.”
— Keir Graff, Booklist
“A comedic, sarcastic, yet serious, open look at the experiences of being black in America.... These fictional tales are rooted in what has shaped the way we talk, walk, love, fight, laugh, and live....Touré stamps The Portable Promised Land with his trademark wit and lively descriptions that ensure a funny, fast-paced, and thrilling read.... Even if you are not able to personally relate to the characters, they will still keep you turning the pages.”
— Ines Bebea, Caribbean Life
“Charismatic, riotous, and impeccably original prose.”
— Meredith Broussard, Philadelphia City Paper
“A refreshing, humorous look at African American life.”
— Crisis
“A vibrantly imagined African American metropolis.... Infused with energetic wit and ever-resilient humor, Touré’s collection of stories turns stereotypes inside out to celebrate the soulful heart of black culture.”
— Sarah Gianelli, Portland Oregonian
“As supple as a Bootsy Collins bass line thumping out a ’77 Oldsmobile, The Portable Promised Land isn’t so much a collection of stories as a freestyle riff on the ways of black folks. A mix of urban folk tales, essays, and lists, this zesty debut by Rolling Stone contributing editor Touré boasts the social provocations of a Gil Scott-Heron song, while capturing the celebratory lunacy of a four-hour P-Funk jam. Touré, long respected as a music journalist, establishes himself as a vital new voice in fiction. Popping with energy and edginess, The Portable Promised Land is an inspired ode to the methods and madness of those who know that black isn’t just a matter of race — it’s a state of mind, a state of grace.”
— Renée Graham, Boston Globe
“I’ve been waiting a long time for an African-American to write inventive, edgy, sexy, magical, whimsical, funny, and smart stories that challenge the form, stereotypes of black people, display the beauty of black speech, and in a very subliminal manner, through it all, manages to sneak in and address the politics of race in the fabulously imagined utopia called Soul City. Touré has broken new ground with this collection because he breaks all the rules, which makes it that much more refreshing. He’s a smart, edgy, risking-taking young writer, so watch him. The ride is wild!”
— Terry McMillan
“Whimsical... funny... satiric....A lively brand of social commentary.”
— Publishers Weekly
“Vivid urban folktales....A debut collection that limns with a fine confidence and cheeky humor the fabulous, the fantastical, the incantatory....In Soul City, the sublime and the ridiculous knock boots.... The stories here — with their flip-o’-the-script comeuppances and Technicolor folly — could be called morality tales. Except judgment and superiority get tossed on their butts by the vibrant, the messy, the absurd. Not that the author’s wry fondness for his characters stops him from wrestling with their contradictions.”
— Lisa Kennedy, Village Voice
“Fantastic tales.”
— BookForum