Groove, Bang and Jive Around

by Steve Cannon

Steve Cannon's first novel Groove, Bang, and Jive Around is an underground classic of such legendary stature that New York's black cognoscenti have transmogrified the work into urban myth. Whenever the book comes up in conversation, eyes light with a glassy leer. "You can't keep that book in your house, man! It's like a ghost! It just disappears!"

Strange tales woven around a strange tale. The reasons for its reputation are simple:

First, until recently, you couldn't find it. Not in used bookstores. Not in in book piles on the street. In fact, its author didn't own a copy for well over twenty years.

Second, it's really filthy.

And third, like a Loa in Haitian Voudon, it leaves the shelves of its host to possess another

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Surreal

242 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1998

About the author

Steve Cannon (b. 1935) was an American writer and the founder of the cultural organization A Gathering of the Tribes.

Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Cody]

Reading this reminded me of nothing so much as cruising New York with a young Bob Fosse. Bob was a real raconteur, a lady-killer, and we were always on the prowl for “nues” (Bob’s epithet for ‘ingénues,’ as well as a perfect example of the wit we’re talking about here). Anyhow, Bob Fosse and I, young turks cruising for ass or grass or whatever moved fast, had ourselves adventures. And this Groove, Bang, and Jive Around reminds me of that time, of Bob’s irascible need for new “nues” to audition in the nearest bar’s filthy john. Joie de vivre or death, we’d say. Steve Cannon made a fantastic third to Fosse and me; he really intuited what turns a body on, who’s hep and who ain’t, and how to lay it down for a stone freak to pick up. You bet: a mensch.

Man, times have changed. The City looks like Vegas, Vegas looks like Dubai, and Fosse has been crushing tail in heaven longer than one of our old hands-free, naked conga lines. That chain did not break, I’ll tell ya. God love ya, Bob. Hell, Cannon’s been dead seven years, Lady Luck’s home digit if paired with a heart and an “all in” of this month’s rent. This mythological land is now fallow of giants, but, boy, their boots resounded when strode they did. Me, you ask? I walk alone now, nursing martooni shakes and searching for whatever $20 and a few loose menthols can get me from a Puerto Rican kid posted up in a doorway to nowhere. I just sure hope he knows how to samba…

[Tramaine Green]

This was one wild book! It was just mind blowing the different things going on with a fourteen year old girl. I'm not sure what it truly was about...Maybe about Annette finding herself?!?! The book kept my attention but it was really not my kind of book. However, I kept reading just to see what would happen. Overall I gave it three stars.

[Emily Van Duinen]

1st chapter was so weird….. i stopped reading

[Madeline Resnick]

Although there were multiple times I hard hard hard core grimaced… these pages are on fire and I was thoroughly entertained
Ps. Its full of porn so you have been warned

[Wouter de Romph]

“The world’s filthiest novel”
Haven’t read all novels but this one sure was filthy.

[Madalena Nicolau]

Groove, Bang and Jive Around is one of the most challenging books I’ve ever read — not just in structure and language, but in subject matter. It follows Annette through a fragmented, surreal coming-of-age story filled with violence, trauma, and the aching search for identity and safety. At times I felt overwhelmed and unsure how to interpret what was happening, but that discomfort felt deliberate. Cannon forces the reader to confront how Black women are sexualised, scapegoated, and often failed by the very people and institutions meant to protect them.

Annette’s story is laced with abuse, both overt and insidious. The book shows how cycles of trauma are passed down, internalised, and normalised. She navigates a world where sex is often the only form of praise, where intimacy is a performance, and where consent becomes a murky concept shaped by power, race, and survival. She is constantly seeking escape, only to be met with repeated violence; even in dreams, religion, or supposed sanctuaries.

Despite how intense and sometimes confusing the narrative is, I found it rich with meaning. Each chapter felt like a new lens into the ways generational pain, misogyny, and racial trauma manifest. I didn’t always “enjoy” reading it; in fact, I had to take breaks; but I couldn’t put it down for long. I found myself engaging deeply, questioning what I thought I knew, and looking into references and metaphors days after reading certain scenes.

It’s a book that lingers - disturbing, thought-provoking, and painfully relevant. Although I think Cannon’s use of shock and surrealism is blatantly intentional, there were moments where the extremity of the violence felt overwhelming and risked clouding the message. Some scenes could have benefited from more clarity or restraint without losing their impact.

[Win]

It's literary LSD.

[Papaya]

This book was good it was a different read. I enjoyed it

[Janet]

The original troll

[Tamara Liffers]

Read this years ago. All I really remember is that is was totally wild. Hope I can find it to read again...

[Amelia Givens]

I seemed to have taken my sweet time with this book. I knew ahead of time it would be erotic and dense, which it did live up to, but I found and took away a lot more than I had in mind after reading some reviews. To those saying this book is just “weird” or “straight pornography “, you completely missed the point and I automatically don’t trust your opinion. The cultural nuance present in this book is immense and much appreciated. One word I think this book likes to be is funky. It is set in a funky time, we meet funky characters, and Cannon takes us to a funky place. I have a newer copy, so I was blessed to find an afterword by Tracie Morris. She writes “women are overwhelmingly more spiritually powerful than men, despite the patriarchal society, as Steve takes great pains to make clear”. I found this myself when reading through certain passages.

Bored is the last thing you will be with this book in hand

[ArtPol Assay]

Culturally attuned.

[Scott]

If you can get past the pornogrophy of if all there is some incredible writing here

[chaya]

steve is deeply unserious & i love that about him. -1 for the exorbitant amount of porn, hate to say it

[William K.Z.]

It’s like the story of ‘My Dad Wrote a Porno’ (the best and funniest podcast ever) but twitter and directed by Jon Waters and a touch of Jodorowsky thrown in for surreal measures.

[Jessica]

This book was a trip. What just happened?

[Charlie]

You know, on the one hand, you certainly must hand it to him, but also, yeesh

[Maxwell]

wowza

[Jon Kapp]

I was waiting for plot but i just ended up getting more porn.

[Justin Fink]

An absolutely BONKERS book that is so disgustingly vile and hilarious while managing to weave fragments of an interesting storyline.