Cataliotti (American and African American literature, Coppin State U.) provides a continuation of his volume The Music of African-American Fiction (1995), which covered the period from the nineteenth century to the 1960s. In this volume, he focuses on 1970 to 2005 and representations of African-American music in fiction by writers such as Ishmael Reed, Toni Morrison, Ntozake Shange, Walter Mosley, Nathaniel Mackey, Xam Cartier, Toni Cade Bambara, Alice Walker, Albert Murray, and John Edgar Wideman. He also explores how this portrayal has been seen as representative of African-Americans and provided paradigms for the works of black writers in the formulation of an African-American literary tradition, the impact of African-Americans and their music on American culture, and the definition of national identity. An annotated discography is included. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)