NEW BOOK PAYBACK PRESS 1997

Cooper Clarence Jr. Black. pbk Payback Press 97 086241 689 2 £6.99 "Cooper writes with a personal authority that can only be called shattering and the searing
exactness of one who has lived through the horror."
New York Hearld Tribune Black brings together three short works by one of the greatest but least known writers from post-war Afro-America. As with all of Clarence Cooper Jr’s work, the tales in Black are marked by an insistence to portray a side of American life rarely seen in print. The Dark Messenger is a short, sizzling, and highly autobiographical novel in which a reporter for a black newspaper discovers that truth and justice are overlooked in favour of the next handout from the corrupt powers that be. Yet Prince Follow and Not we Many are both sardonic crime novellas set in the worlds of the numbers racket and the black Muslins respectively.

Pharr, Robert Deane. Givadamn Brown. pbk Payback Press 97 086241 691 4 £6.99
"A wild urban fantasy with alchemical dreams and golden quests, and more excess and high-pimp couture than the wiggiest black exploitation flick"
The Kirktus Review In this wickedly dark comedy Larry ‘Giveadamn’ Brown is transformed from country bumpkin to crime kingpin when he inherits the Harlem dope and numbers empire off his Uncle Harry.
Thrown in at the deep end, he has to withstand numerous attempts by some of Harlem’s finest to wrest Uncle Harry’s rackets from his control. The offbeat cast of characters include Foxy Lady, Baby Doll and Studs, all of whom become integral to Giverdamn’s shrewd schemes to protect his turf and eliminate the competition. The ensuing madness is messy but laced throughout is a sharp-edged humour that serves to parody the self-importance of the criminal underworld. Robert Deane Pharr’s storytelling provides both incisive social commentary and a hysterically funny tale that will leave you yearning for more. "I would let white people look at the black man as he lives when the white man isn’t looking or listening" Robert Deane Pharr

Slim Iceberg. Airtight Willie and Me. pbk Payback Press 97 0 86241 696 5 £5.99
Airtight Willie and Me is a collection of six tales from the underground, all of them characterised by Iceberg Slim’s distinctive and unforgettable prose. The uncompromising , Chicago-raised, former pimp has been blowing away readers for almost thirty years now but only recently in Britain has his work been published. Airtight willie and Me gives further evidence of why the man’s work has become to be widely regarded as the epitome of street fiction. From the opening title story, in which Slim meets Airtight Willie, one of New York’s slickest con men. To Satin, a classic tale of revenge in which a heist goes badly wrong, the reader is hook into a rollercoaster ride through the badlands of urban America. Compelling always, funny sometimes, and typically bleak in their endings, Slim’s slice of life are important social documents that scorch most contemporary fiction into submission. There is no moralising bullshit, no romanticised illusions, few redeeming factors - just straight-up sawn-off shotgun blasts from the "King of the Ghetto".

Slim Iceberg. Long White Con. pbk Payback Press 97 0 86241 694 9 £5.99 "Iceberg Slim is a major creative influence on so many musicians and writers working outside the bland mainstream, both in his native America and here in the U.K. Slim always told it as it was without compromise. Too often, this major cultural icon for our times has been criminally ignored." Irvine Walsh
Iceberg Slim always kept it real. It is blatant, uncompromising and as close to the truth as you can get without going there yourself." Ice - T
"Slim belongs to the knuckleduster-in-the-face school of storytelling." The Sunday Times
"The King of the Ghetto: ' The Observer
‘Slim inspired the James Ellroy generation of the white crime writers as much as he did black rappers." Q Magazine·
"Iceberg Slim did for the pimp what Jean Genet did for the thief." The Washington Post
"Pimp is hot and frantic, a remarkable tour de forceof carnality and violence: ' The Times
‘raw, pumping, grinding and sweaty, Trick Baby was well worth cutting down a tree for." The Big Issue