This extraordinary first novel is a brilliant, detailed record of a stormy relationship written in a unique, concrete language that takes on an independent, stylized life of its own.

A lyrical and evocative novel that tells the story of the stormy and fragmented relationship between Jimson, an aspiring black poet concerned with Afro-American cultural history, and ideal, a young black woman whose roots are in Black Bottom, USA .-Jimson and Ideal meet in Greenwich Village and fall in love, but theirs is a tempestuous affair as they struggle to get beyond the roles a racially oppressive society has forced upon them. The result is a painful and moving exploration of the relations between men and women.

"A complex, scathing and often brilliant depiction of the disintegration of a black couple's relationship. ... The Flagellants portrays a modern-day love affair gone sour--both Ideal and Jimson are presented with equal care and depth."
--Mel Watkins, New York Times Book Review

"[Jimson and Ideal] brilliantly and bitterly tear off layer after layer of rationalization and myth.... It is rare in fiction for characters to possess complete awareness of their situation. That is what happens here. ... Novels so ambitious almost always fail.. . The Flagellants succeeds."
--Roger Ebert, The American Scholar

"Polite is not a blend of influences; she is. As a writer, she is immediately, irruptively, lyrically herself. As with most good writers, her writing has a life of its own, a life within the larger life of the work for which it is employed. ... The Flagellants does not attempt to define reality, psychical or political or social or 'real.' It is an attempt genuinely to exist, to be reality--a task more difficult for the novel every day. ... But this book is art, not argument. Everything in it grows from its texture. Its language is acutely sensory or vaultingly rhapsodic."
--Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic