Spook Who Sat by the Door

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This book is both a satire of the civil rights problems in the United States in the late 60s and a serious attempt to focuses on the issue of black militancy.

FROM THE CRITICS

Sacred Fire

The Spook Who Sat by the Door was originally brought into print by a small publisher, Richard Baron Press, and quickly became an underground favorite. Published in the near aftermath of the Black Power movement, The Spook fictionalized the urban- based war for liberation that never quite manifested.

Senator Gilbert Hennington is in a close race for reelection and needs an issue with which to galvanize the Negro vote. His answer: a public call for the integration of the heretofore lily- white Central Intelligence Agency (at its Field Operatives level). Of the hundreds who applied, twenty-three are chosen for training under express orders that no one successfully complete the course. With the exception of one, Dan Freeman, they are eliminated. Exasperated at Freeman's tenacity, Calhoun, the agency's judo instructor, tells him, "Im going to give you a chance. You just walk up to the head office and resign and that will be it. Otherwise, we fight until you do. And you will not leave this room until I have whipped you and you walk out of here, or crawl out of here, or are carried out of here and resign. Do I make myself clear?" Midway through the fight, Freeman wondered if he could keep from killing this white man. No, he thought, he's not worth it.... But he does have an ass-kicking coming and he can't handle it. This cat can't believe a nigger can whip him. Well, he'll believe it when I'm through. . .