Shaft is a 1970 detective novel by Ernest Tidyman. It is the first novel in the John Shaft novel series. The novel debuted the character John Shaft and inspired both the 1971 film Shaft and its sequels. - Wikipedia

It is strange to read a book and keep hearing the theme music of the film in my head, but that is what happens when you read a book after hearing the soundtrack all your life! I bought an original of the soundtrack by Issac Hayes for 50p in an Oxfam in the 80s before I saw the film. As for the novel, it is a pulpy, gripping crime tale set in early 70s New York. Shaft is most definitely misogynistic, homophobic, and antisemitic, and this seemed to be tacitly approved by white author Tidyman, but maybe just reflecting the world and the attitudes a character like Shaft would be likely to have.

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