In the Light of LikenessTransformed by Dana A. Williams looks critically at the work of contemporary African American author Leon Forrest. Not only does she bring to the critical table a wellknown but as yet understudied modernist authoran important endeavor in and of itselfbut she also explores Forrests novels cultural dialogue with black ethnic culture and other African American authors as well as provides indepth readings of his prose and interpretations of his narrative style. Highly touted by both his literary forebear Ralph Ellison who wrote the foreword to Forrests first novel and his literary contemporary Toni Morrison who edited his first three novels and wrote the foreword to his third Leon Forrest is among the most gifted African American writers of our time. Yet he is also among our most difficult. Forrests highly experimental narrative style his reinterpretation of modernism and his transformations of black cultural traditions into literary aesthetics often pose challenges of interpretation for the reader and the scholar alike.ampampnbspAs the first singleauthored booklength study of Forrests novel this book offers readers pathways into his fiction. What this culturalist approach to the novels reveals is that Forrests fiction was foremost concerned with investigating ways for the African American to survive in the contemporary moment. Through a variety of characters the novels reveal the African Americans art of transformationthe ability to find ways to make the wretchedness of the past work in positive ways.