Description: Welcome to 'Soul City,' where roses bloom in the cracks of the sidewalk along Cornbread Boulevard, musical genres become political platforms, and children use their allowance money to buy records from the Vinyl Man. Its an unusually peaceful and magical American community with a strong heritage and sense of unity--at least, thats how journalist Cadillac Jackson first finds it.

Verdict: I wasn't familiar with Touré or who he is, so I read this book with a complete blank slate, not knowing what to expect. I was in for a treat! It's a story filled with outrageous characters and caricatures of people living in a town called 'Soul City.' The residents can fly, they eat magic muffins, and living several hundred years is not uncommon. A man named Cadillac Jackson travels to Soul City to cover the mayoral election. However, Cadillac has the hardest time writing down anything, because what he sees and learns in Soul City is so hard to describe. He finds himself meeting the various residents, and through him the reader gets to meet the many larger-than-life characters that grace these pages. The gist of this book is African American pride and a sense of history of where they have been, and where they are now. But in between all that the reader gets to walk down memory lane through a sea of pop culture that will have one laughing and smiling. It's a very short book, only 192 pages, but it could have easily been longer. I didn't want the book to end!
Reviewed by Sebastian Malavoy