This newly republished classic by Picador was completely unexpected. All I knew about the book was that it was originally published 40 years ago and had a very limited release at the time in the UK. I'm so glad that this book is now more readily available for the UK book reading public. I didn't know what sort of world was waiting for me when I started reading Oreo, little did I know that it would be a world full of diverse, funny in incredibly smart characters. The voice that Fran Ross imbued her characters with is so real, so honest, all the characters in the book feel as real as anybody you'd meet walking down the street. Oreo centres around a young black girl in 70s America on a hunt for her long lost Jewish father (Hence the name Oreo). The events that follow this young persons journey into the unknown are rib-achingly funny and also allude to a larger theme of what it means to be black in America and an examination of inequality in all its forms. This is by far my book of the year so far, and I highly doubt there will be another to replace it.

Oreo is a forgotten contemporary classic first published in 1974. It definitely deserves to be read by the 21st century readers. It is almost like a stand-up comedy novel, full of incredible punch-lines and jokes. With fantastic humour, it tells the story of half-black, half-Jewish Oreo looking for her father. This brilliant novel explores identity, family relations with culture references and overall one strong woman's position in the society. I absolutely loved this book. It is unusual, smart, extremely funny and I should say that it is one in a million.