{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260417T162657Z","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0679745424?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"0679745424","authors":["Toni Morrison"],"book_id":"9780679745426","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/playing-in-the-dark-0679745424","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780679745426.jpg?v=20260417T162657Z%3A2026-04-17T16%3A26%3A57Z","description":"NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An immensely persuasive work of literary criticism that opens a new chapter in the American dialogue on race—and promises to change the way we read American literature — from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner \"[Morrison] boldly...reimagines and remaps the possibility of America.\"— Chicago Tribune Morrison shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly unfree --and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires. According to the Chicago Tribune , Morrison \"reimagines and remaps the possibility of America.\" Her brilliant discussions of the \"Africanist\" presence in the fiction of Poe, Melville, Cather, and Hemingway leads to a dramatic reappraisal of the essential characteristics of our literary tradition. Written with the artistic vision that has earned the Nobel Prize-winning author a pre-eminent place in modern letters, Playing in the Dark is an invaluable read for avid Morrison admirers as well as students, critics, and scholars of American literature.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780679745426","publication_date":"19930727","publisher":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group","slug":"playing-in-the-dark","subtitle":"Whiteness and the Literary Imagination","title":"Playing in the Dark"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"LIT004040","confidence_band":"high","label":"Black Lit Crit","score":0.8079,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"American Lit Crit","score":0.7702,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LCO002010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"African American Literary Collections","score":0.765,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"LIT004040","confidence_band":"high","label":"Black Lit Crit","score":0.8079,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"American Lit Crit","score":0.7702,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LCO002010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"African American Literary Collections","score":0.765,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"LIT004020","confidence_band":"high","label":"American Lit Crit","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004040","confidence_band":"high","label":"Black Lit Crit","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC001000","confidence_band":"high","label":"African American Studies","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Black Lit Crit","score":0.8079,"slug":"black-lit-crit"},{"label":"American Lit Crit","score":0.7702,"slug":"american-lit-crit"},{"label":"African American Literary Collections","score":0.765,"slug":"african-american-literary-collections"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Black Lit Crit","Good for readers interested in civil rights","Good for readers who enjoy Black Lit Crit and American Lit Crit."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Henry Louis Gates Jr."],"book_id":"9780593299784","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593299784.jpg?v=20260417T162657Z%3A2026-04-17T16%3A26%3A57Z","score":14.7856,"title":"The Black Box","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593299784"},{"authors":["Middleton A. Harris","Ernest Smith","Morris Levitt","Roger Furman"],"book_id":"9781400068487","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781400068487.jpg?v=20260417T162657Z%3A2026-04-17T16%3A26%3A57Z","score":12.4641,"title":"The Black Book","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781400068487"},{"authors":["Frantz Fanon","Richard Philcox"],"book_id":"9780802143006","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780802143006.jpg?v=20260417T162657Z%3A2026-04-17T16%3A26%3A57Z","score":12.3812,"title":"Black Skin, White Masks","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780802143006"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:literature"],"label":"Literature","score":0.1235,"slug":"literature"},{"evidence_refs":["phrase_map_match"],"label":"Book Club","score":0.0914,"slug":"book-club"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:race studies"],"label":"Studies","score":0.079,"slug":"studies"},{"evidence_refs":["phrase_map_match"],"label":"Civil Rights","score":0.0123,"slug":"civil-rights"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Literature, Book Club, Studies.","Reading lane: Black Lit Crit and American Lit Crit.","Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group."]},"llm_signals":null,"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":false,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":7639,"goodreads_reviews_count":751,"quality_score":0.9445}}