Writers are charged with one thing: word usage. So when Daniel Wallace uses a word like “negro” in a title, it is exciting. Is it appropriate? Is it insulting and rude? Is it politically correct? Is it ironic? Is it historic? Should there be meetings, and protests, and apologies, and explanations, and an outcry??? Should Spike Lee and Al Sharpton be consulted?

I love the title. And I love what it’s about: a magician who disappears and spends the rest of his life trying to make himself reappear (and judging by the descriptions, there seems to be some Faust thrown in for good measure). What other professions are charged with such an impossible task as invisibility? And what if someone were to succeed in said impossible charge? And what if that person was black? And their friends circus freaks? Would it make a good book?

Now, we shouldn’t necessarily obsess over the title in lieu of actually reading the book, but titles are important. There are a lot of books out there. Which ones you end up reading have a lot to do with their titles and cover (they’re kind of like friends and lovers in that way).

Posted by: James on August 13th, 2007 at 5:02 am

Filed under: Books