Contemporary readers are fortunate that New Directions recently re-released this overlooked classic of the Black Arts Movement. At The Literary Review, I take a look at Fran Ross's Oreo: the book's literary context and its modern-day resonance, in particular its picaresque heroine's role as embodiment of America's diverse cultural identity. The novel interrogates a wealth of sociological themes such as race, ethnicity and feminism, all with a delightfully irreverent tone that mixes high and low culture and will have readers of all tastes laughing out loud. Keenly satirical, linguistically innovative and unabashedly erudite, Oreo has long been ripe for rediscovery.