A few years ago the comedian Bill Cosby addressed an issue which has long been discussed within the African American community: the responsibility of certain blacks to not behave like stereotypes. Cosby's outspokenness made public a topic that had mostly been a private one, and the discourse that followed was observed in newspapers and magazines, on radio and television: these featured the thoughts of many who argued for or against Cosby's statement, and their vehemence-their need to confirm or counter his view-leads us to Bryan Gibson's first novel, Karma Incarnate: The Best of Foolkiller.
Karma Incarnate is about a man, Joseph Tally, who is slowly losing himself to Alzheimer's, but before he vanishes completely, he reveals to his son a secret life of shadows and death: "...for thirty years I've been a soldier in a secret war, a rogue agent moving stealthily beyond the reach of my government. I changed my name, of course; the name I had no longer suited me: I changed my name, date of birth, and social security number-indeed, Jumoki, I became a new man...but I remained the killer of fools." Obsessed with James Bond and Friedrich Nietzsche, Tally fuses these obsessions with one more: concern, both for his people and his community, recalling haunting, often violent "missions" whose goal is the end of harmful stereotypes, and the elimination those of who perpetuate them: "The kill, no matter its necessity, never brings me joy, nor anything close to it; but I do what I must for the greater good-it is why I am." Throughout this work, readers will be struggling to determine if what he tells his son is true, or a delusion, an effect of the disease; but whether believed or doubted, the father's words are a revelation.
About the Author: Bryan Gibson is a Harlem native who currently resides in Jersey City, New Jersey. In 1998 he attended the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Workshop in Richmond, Virginia, and in 2002 was featured in Gumbo: An Anthology of African American Writing, where he received high praise from Publisher's Weekly. His first book, Karma Incarnate: The Best of Foolkiller, was published in 2006; his second, Malefectus and Lesser Tales, in 2007; and, in 2009, his work will be featured in E. Lynn Harris' Love Is Stronger Than Pride, a collection of five novellas.
