Two Books That Scandalized Readers

Dear readers,

Thanks to “Feud,” “Answered Prayers” is having a moment. For me, reading about Truman Capote’s act of social sabotage is a reminder that books — short stories, even! — have always been the best vehicle for scandal. After all, not only do they shock; they last. Here are just two memorable examples.

—Sadie

“Mojo Hand,” by J.J. Phillips

Fiction, 1966

The back cover of my 1985 reissue features two blurbs: One by Alice Walker, one by Henry Miller. The author photo is a head shot of the author taken in her late teens, staring through prison bars at a point beyond the camera lens. “BUSTED,” reads the caption, “for participating in a sit-in, J.J. Phillips in Wake Co. Jail, Raleigh, N.C., August, 1962.”

That’s as good an introduction as any to this genre-defying, wildly idiosyncratic, astounding novel. It’s the myth of Orpheus, told through the eyes of a Black teenager named Eunice Prideaux who becomes obsessed with the enigmatic blues singer Blacksnake Brown. Eunice more or less runs away from home to live with Brown in North Carolina; he’s presumably decades older, and by turns cruel and indifferent.