The Terrible Twos is a funny, sharp-edged fictional assault on all those sulky, spoiled naysayers needing instant gratification - Americans. Ishmael Reed's sixth novel depicts a zany, bizarre, and all-too-believable future where mankind's fate depends upon St. Nicholas and a Risto-rasta dwarf named Black Peter, who together wreak mischievous havoc on Wall Street and in the Oval Office. This offbeat, on-target social critique makes fun of everything that is American, from commercialism to Congress, Santa Claus to religious cults.