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God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer
A stirring, unsparing debut novel about black life in Philadelphia and the struggle to build intimate connections through the eyes of a struggling ex-Army grad student, from the "extraordinary [and] insightful" author of Sink (New York Times Book Review). After a deployment in the Iraq War, Joseph Thomas is fighting to find his footing. Now a MD/PhD student at The University of Pennsylvania, and an emergency department tech at a hospital in North Philly, he becomes interested in the Holmesburg Prison Experiments, in which the prison conducted scientific trials on their inmates. Through this curiosity he comes to know his estranged father, who is serving time for the statutory rape of his then-teenage mother. Meanwhile, his best friend Murray, a fellow vet, judges the journey he sets out upon, while simultaneously pushing him towards a ruinous self-discovery. Balancing single fatherhood, his studies, and long shifts at the hospital as he becomes closer than he ever imagined to his father, Joseph tries to articulate vernacular understandings of the sociopolitical struggles he recounts as participant-observer at home, against the assumptions of his more storied friends and colleagues. GOD BLESS YOU, OTIS SPUNKMEYER is a powerful examination of every day black life—of health and sex, race and punishment, and the gaps between our desires and our politics.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published June 18, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
May 14, 2024
First, I want to thank NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for this ARC. I needed a good book for a trip I was taking, and when I read the summary for this, I felt like it would be a good vacation read for all the different forms of transit I was taking. This was my first time reading the work of Joseph Earl Thomas; I had heard about Sink, but hadn't had the chance to read it yet.
Let's get to the nitty gritty: I give this a 3.5/5 (rounding up to 4), mainly driven by the fact that the story continued to pull me in every time I thought about taking a break. Thomas' writing style is unique and proselike. I sometimes found it hard to not get lost in the lines, but I ultimately felt that it gave the book an intimate feeling of being told a story in real time. Sometimes it's linear, sometimes you get lost on a tangent; but no matter what, it's real. I think my biggest difficulty was trying to keep all the of the side characters and their storylines straight while remembering where we were in the main plot. Some of the asides amplified the shock factor, peppering in salacious and or traumatic tidbits in otherwise standard paragraphs. I loved the continuous thread of Otis Spunkmeyer muffins; I think it perfect captured the idea that some of the most impactful joys in life can be the simplest (in this case, just your standard vending machine type muffin), and those same joys will be present at the most mundane and most traumatic moments in our lives. The ending was one that I had to re-read a couple of times to truly take in everything that was happening, but I felt that it wrapped the story up aptly.
In general, I think this should definitely be on your summer TBR list, and I look forward to more people becoming familiar with Joseph Earl Thomas' work. I'll be checking out Sink as soon as my library lets me!
Let's get to the nitty gritty: I give this a 3.5/5 (rounding up to 4), mainly driven by the fact that the story continued to pull me in every time I thought about taking a break. Thomas' writing style is unique and proselike. I sometimes found it hard to not get lost in the lines, but I ultimately felt that it gave the book an intimate feeling of being told a story in real time. Sometimes it's linear, sometimes you get lost on a tangent; but no matter what, it's real. I think my biggest difficulty was trying to keep all the of the side characters and their storylines straight while remembering where we were in the main plot. Some of the asides amplified the shock factor, peppering in salacious and or traumatic tidbits in otherwise standard paragraphs. I loved the continuous thread of Otis Spunkmeyer muffins; I think it perfect captured the idea that some of the most impactful joys in life can be the simplest (in this case, just your standard vending machine type muffin), and those same joys will be present at the most mundane and most traumatic moments in our lives. The ending was one that I had to re-read a couple of times to truly take in everything that was happening, but I felt that it wrapped the story up aptly.
In general, I think this should definitely be on your summer TBR list, and I look forward to more people becoming familiar with Joseph Earl Thomas' work. I'll be checking out Sink as soon as my library lets me!
June 5, 2024
4.25/5
Gifted by the publisher
Very stream of consciousness writing style that could be a hit or miss for readers. The sentences are also super long and sometimes I have to reread a couple times to understand the meaning. Definitely not a quick read even though ifs only 230 pages.
It’s hard to write about Black trauma without making it read like trauma porn. The author does a really great job describing everything Black men experiences—racism, violence, poverty, etc—that doesn’t feel melodramatic.
The writing style also strikes a good balance between funny nonchalance, dark humor, and incisive social commentary. It reminds me of that GIF of a boy laugh crying, and that was my reaction too!
Some of my favorite quotes:
I think about what it means to die of natural causes, or really feel natural or get to decide what is natural or unnatural and under what circumstances and in whose language, as I return to Red Top's room.
The symbolic in politics, the racism, the sex-ism, these things had already bored us for so long, just like the guilt of those newly discovered liberals who just then, six months into a forever war that should have, like most all wars waged by the empire and elsewhere, been illegal-where the legal vs. illegal had already been a bit of a sardonic double bind-come to discover their conscience after one of these psychos mows down a human fleeing in an open field with a vehicle-mounted .50-cal just because he planted a small bomb that didn't even kill anyone. (Yes this is one sentence 🤣)
It was always this thing, having become the pseudo-educated one in the family, whether I was to believe all the shit proper folks of all identifications said or wrote about us, or whether I would believe what I felt, what my people said in real life, my people who would be shot tryna cross the threshold of the university, despite any kind of representational war waged in their name. Though I'd feel like a fraud either way.
Psych problem. The reason they need to be guarded, imprisoned, and restrained if necessary is of little importance compared to the fact that they need to be guarded, imprisoned or restrained immediately.
Gifted by the publisher
Very stream of consciousness writing style that could be a hit or miss for readers. The sentences are also super long and sometimes I have to reread a couple times to understand the meaning. Definitely not a quick read even though ifs only 230 pages.
It’s hard to write about Black trauma without making it read like trauma porn. The author does a really great job describing everything Black men experiences—racism, violence, poverty, etc—that doesn’t feel melodramatic.
The writing style also strikes a good balance between funny nonchalance, dark humor, and incisive social commentary. It reminds me of that GIF of a boy laugh crying, and that was my reaction too!
Some of my favorite quotes:
I think about what it means to die of natural causes, or really feel natural or get to decide what is natural or unnatural and under what circumstances and in whose language, as I return to Red Top's room.
The symbolic in politics, the racism, the sex-ism, these things had already bored us for so long, just like the guilt of those newly discovered liberals who just then, six months into a forever war that should have, like most all wars waged by the empire and elsewhere, been illegal-where the legal vs. illegal had already been a bit of a sardonic double bind-come to discover their conscience after one of these psychos mows down a human fleeing in an open field with a vehicle-mounted .50-cal just because he planted a small bomb that didn't even kill anyone. (Yes this is one sentence 🤣)
It was always this thing, having become the pseudo-educated one in the family, whether I was to believe all the shit proper folks of all identifications said or wrote about us, or whether I would believe what I felt, what my people said in real life, my people who would be shot tryna cross the threshold of the university, despite any kind of representational war waged in their name. Though I'd feel like a fraud either way.
Psych problem. The reason they need to be guarded, imprisoned, and restrained if necessary is of little importance compared to the fact that they need to be guarded, imprisoned or restrained immediately.
July 24, 2024
woah! a story about how healing means something more than just physical wellbeing, and how sometimes the joys in life are found in the simplest things. i will definitely have to check out the other things joseph earl thomas has published.
June 29, 2024
I found this to be both heartfelt and humorous, while remaining authentic as Otis learns that his gift of healing reaches beyond the physical.
July 5, 2024
An army vet returns from Iraq, comes to terms with his relationship with his absent father, strains into a relationship with his selfish and immature mother. He is a grad student in Philadelphia and also works in emergency services.
Is this a memoir? I can’t tell. It seems so, if not, it’s very personal and sort of a portrait of everyday black life. It feels very lovingly edited and poured over. As if it is the result of someone’s writers workshop where they spend two hours dissecting a single paragraph.
This isn’t as much a story as just an image. More like a very long poem than a story.
Is this a memoir? I can’t tell. It seems so, if not, it’s very personal and sort of a portrait of everyday black life. It feels very lovingly edited and poured over. As if it is the result of someone’s writers workshop where they spend two hours dissecting a single paragraph.
This isn’t as much a story as just an image. More like a very long poem than a story.
July 14, 2024
I am not even sure what to say about this book, except wow! It took me a minute to get into the stream of consciousness writing, but once I did, I couldn’t put it down.
June 29, 2024
This prose was jam-packed; I found myself starting paragraphs over to catch everything. I appreciated the distinct perspective of a black Philly man juggling life as a parent, graduate student, and medical assistant after serving in the military. It was funny at times, but mostly heavy, and it felt important to read.
July 1, 2024
Hypnotic writing. Beautifully read by JD Jackson on the audiobook.
March 27, 2024
Thomas’ debut novel is a provocative portrait of black life.
Told not strictly in alternating timelines, the story bounces between the protagonist’s deployment in Iraq as a medic, and the present where he works as an ER tech at a hospital in North Philadelphia, while also enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania as a MD/PhD student.
Through the narrator (also named Joseph), Thomas has created his own free-form narrative style of unapologetic, defiant, bold, flagrant language that matches the rhythm and energy of the people of his community. Not easily accessible, his prose is strong, clamorous and boisterous. It’s reflective of the chaos, intergenerational trauma, gender issues, sexuality, violence, and the search for identity of his family, friends, and colleagues amid the larger world not their own.
Along with his ER work and memories of Iraq, our narrator is curious to learn more about the father he never knew who is currently an inmate at the barbarous Holmesburg Prison.
Who or what is Otis Spunkmeyer? Read the book to find out.
Told not strictly in alternating timelines, the story bounces between the protagonist’s deployment in Iraq as a medic, and the present where he works as an ER tech at a hospital in North Philadelphia, while also enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania as a MD/PhD student.
Through the narrator (also named Joseph), Thomas has created his own free-form narrative style of unapologetic, defiant, bold, flagrant language that matches the rhythm and energy of the people of his community. Not easily accessible, his prose is strong, clamorous and boisterous. It’s reflective of the chaos, intergenerational trauma, gender issues, sexuality, violence, and the search for identity of his family, friends, and colleagues amid the larger world not their own.
Along with his ER work and memories of Iraq, our narrator is curious to learn more about the father he never knew who is currently an inmate at the barbarous Holmesburg Prison.
Who or what is Otis Spunkmeyer? Read the book to find out.
July 13, 2024
The cover of God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer shows a young Black man's face overlaying an institutional-looking building in the background. The lines of the drawing, specifically of the man's head, blur, as if his multicolored facets aren't yet able to sustain a stable image. It beautifully represents the gist of Joseph Earl Thomas's debut novel, which is told over the course of one hectic shift at a Philadelphia hospital. Joseph Thomas, who not coincidentally shares the author's name, is a med tech in the emergency department, where he knows every other patient, including his mother, presumed biological father, uncle, great-grandmother.
"A boy who used to beat me up is here for STD testing."
"In the trauma bay there's a lanky girl I knew from middle school named Diamond."
I say that the setting is the hospital, but really it's Joey's mind. He weaves narration of his daily ER routine with flashbacks from gaming with his kids the night before, from his own impoverished childhood, from his tour in Iraq as an army medic, and so on. Throughout his stream-of-consciousness narration, he speaks of hunger and trauma and when is his bff Ray gonna show up with Joey's hoagie and Otis Spunkmeyer muffin?
Therein lies the hook.
This book is phenomenal in how it captures the focus and distraction of both a mind and a trauma center in chaos. Its intense but intimate language is not easy to begin, but by about 15 percent in, I began to see the method in the seeming madness and I was drawn in, mesmerized by its genius. I was already a fan of Thomas's memoir Sink, but the two together make me an even more avid fan.
[Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy and share my opinion of this book.]
"A boy who used to beat me up is here for STD testing."
"In the trauma bay there's a lanky girl I knew from middle school named Diamond."
I say that the setting is the hospital, but really it's Joey's mind. He weaves narration of his daily ER routine with flashbacks from gaming with his kids the night before, from his own impoverished childhood, from his tour in Iraq as an army medic, and so on. Throughout his stream-of-consciousness narration, he speaks of hunger and trauma and when is his bff Ray gonna show up with Joey's hoagie and Otis Spunkmeyer muffin?
Therein lies the hook.
This book is phenomenal in how it captures the focus and distraction of both a mind and a trauma center in chaos. Its intense but intimate language is not easy to begin, but by about 15 percent in, I began to see the method in the seeming madness and I was drawn in, mesmerized by its genius. I was already a fan of Thomas's memoir Sink, but the two together make me an even more avid fan.
[Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy and share my opinion of this book.]
Read
July 26, 2024In Joseph Earl Thomas's debut novel, "God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer," the protagonist, also named Joseph Thomas, navigates a grueling shift as a hospital technician in Philadelphia's trauma center.
Amidst treating a diverse array of patients, from a young gunshot victim to a severely beaten homeless man, Joseph is consumed by hunger and frustration. His friend Ray, who was supposed to deliver a much-needed hoagie and an Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate chip muffin, is nowhere to be found.
Joseph's life is a whirlwind of complications. He's entangled in a web of personal issues: juggling fatherhood with three different women, dealing with a crack-addicted mother, and managing the pressures of both his demanding job and his graduate studies. As he contemplates a forthcoming trip to Belize with a coworker, one of his many romantic entanglements, he reflects on the futility of his hard work and his perpetual struggle to improve his circumstances.
Thomas’s stream-of-consciousness narrative captures Joseph’s deep-seated frustration and the intersection of personal and systemic failures. His insights into poverty, race, and the harsh realities of life resonate with both anger and poignancy. The novel’s raw depiction of Joseph’s world is marked by both humor and tragedy and explores the profound desire for love and understanding in a world that often seems indifferent.
"God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer" is a powerful and evocative work, showcasing Thomas's remarkable ability to convey complex emotions and societal critiques through a deeply personal lens.
Amidst treating a diverse array of patients, from a young gunshot victim to a severely beaten homeless man, Joseph is consumed by hunger and frustration. His friend Ray, who was supposed to deliver a much-needed hoagie and an Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate chip muffin, is nowhere to be found.
Joseph's life is a whirlwind of complications. He's entangled in a web of personal issues: juggling fatherhood with three different women, dealing with a crack-addicted mother, and managing the pressures of both his demanding job and his graduate studies. As he contemplates a forthcoming trip to Belize with a coworker, one of his many romantic entanglements, he reflects on the futility of his hard work and his perpetual struggle to improve his circumstances.
Thomas’s stream-of-consciousness narrative captures Joseph’s deep-seated frustration and the intersection of personal and systemic failures. His insights into poverty, race, and the harsh realities of life resonate with both anger and poignancy. The novel’s raw depiction of Joseph’s world is marked by both humor and tragedy and explores the profound desire for love and understanding in a world that often seems indifferent.
"God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer" is a powerful and evocative work, showcasing Thomas's remarkable ability to convey complex emotions and societal critiques through a deeply personal lens.
June 2, 2024
📚
God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer
Jospeh Earl Thomas
@grandcentralpub - out 6/18
Picture it: a young man, a father of four, a grad student working as an an ER tech in a Philly trauma hospital, through pristine prose yet unrestrained stream-of-consciousness takes on the world. The bloodbath of the US healthcare system, also of the military as he remembers his days as a medic in Iraq, he accounts the systemic racism that streams through and unfortunately often defines both experiences. Family, fatherhood, sexuality, friendship, hunger, anger, race, trauma and prison: this book holds back nothing as it pours it all out there with poetry, humor, and heart. Excellent rendering of hospital trauma bay, contrasting it with the trauma of being alive in our current moment. I pinged back and forth between laughing, holding my breath, crying, and laughing again. This book is great.
National Book Award finalist vibes here. Don’t miss out on this, publishing on 6/18. Catch the author at the @msbookfestival this September!
God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer
Jospeh Earl Thomas
@grandcentralpub - out 6/18
Picture it: a young man, a father of four, a grad student working as an an ER tech in a Philly trauma hospital, through pristine prose yet unrestrained stream-of-consciousness takes on the world. The bloodbath of the US healthcare system, also of the military as he remembers his days as a medic in Iraq, he accounts the systemic racism that streams through and unfortunately often defines both experiences. Family, fatherhood, sexuality, friendship, hunger, anger, race, trauma and prison: this book holds back nothing as it pours it all out there with poetry, humor, and heart. Excellent rendering of hospital trauma bay, contrasting it with the trauma of being alive in our current moment. I pinged back and forth between laughing, holding my breath, crying, and laughing again. This book is great.
National Book Award finalist vibes here. Don’t miss out on this, publishing on 6/18. Catch the author at the @msbookfestival this September!
June 28, 2024
Okay, Mr. Thomas. I'm giving you the benefit of a doubt, you get that fifth star.
The title alone is worth three, I'm happy when anyone goofs on Kurt Vonnegut Jr since I feel his reputation as a secular humanist saint is a bit inflated. You also have an uncommon talent for stream-of-consciousness. Too often, authors who attempt it are a bit precious or schematic, but I really did feel like was inside the brain of your narrator Joseph as it careens from flashback to flash-forward on a typically traumatic night as a tech in an urban hospital.
But your plot . . .
I was fine to assess "God Bless" etc as a plotless four-star literary novel. But a pattern emerges in the chaos as every person who matters, or should matter but doesn't, to Joseph appears in the hospital. There's a 25% chance that you either don't know or don't care about the excess, but a 75% chance that the absurdity is intentional and I like the juxtaposition of surrealism and hyperrealism.
So enjoy that fifth star. I'm reasonably sure you earned it.
The title alone is worth three, I'm happy when anyone goofs on Kurt Vonnegut Jr since I feel his reputation as a secular humanist saint is a bit inflated. You also have an uncommon talent for stream-of-consciousness. Too often, authors who attempt it are a bit precious or schematic, but I really did feel like was inside the brain of your narrator Joseph as it careens from flashback to flash-forward on a typically traumatic night as a tech in an urban hospital.
But your plot . . .
I was fine to assess "God Bless" etc as a plotless four-star literary novel. But a pattern emerges in the chaos as every person who matters, or should matter but doesn't, to Joseph appears in the hospital. There's a 25% chance that you either don't know or don't care about the excess, but a 75% chance that the absurdity is intentional and I like the juxtaposition of surrealism and hyperrealism.
So enjoy that fifth star. I'm reasonably sure you earned it.
June 19, 2024
Unlike any book I have ever read, GOD BLESS YOU, OTIS SPUNKMEYER tells the story of Joseph Thomas, a man trying his best to make good decisions that will make his life and the lives of those he cares about better. Having already lived in many differing conditions, including those of an active duty military member, he has pushed himself forward a degree in medicine while working full time in a hospital emergency room and maintaining a family life. Life has stretched him thin while he struggles with the temptations any young man faces these days. Joseph Earl Thomas has done an excellent job of developing the characters and the communities in which they live. While fiction, this story could be true for many young men today.
June 11, 2024
I had a hard time with this one. The writing is very stream of consciousness which was sometimes a plus but often took away from enjoyment and understanding of the book. Which was also kind of fitting considering that this wasn't meant to be a light read. It was disturbing at times.
There's definitely a lot going on here and I feel like this is the kind of book that could be analyzed in college classrooms. It was interesting to get a different perspective on the world. It just wasn't an easy read in terms of prose and material.
I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.
There's definitely a lot going on here and I feel like this is the kind of book that could be analyzed in college classrooms. It was interesting to get a different perspective on the world. It just wasn't an easy read in terms of prose and material.
I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.
July 29, 2024
This is a hard book to review as it is so short but covers so much ground. While stream of consciousness with fluid shifts between past and present don’t often work for me, I’d say after I got used to it in the first 10% or so, it kind of made sense for the story that was being told. Spanning just one day in an ER, it did at times feel like the author was trying too hard to hit as many hot topics as possible - while it probably is accurate in terms on what comes through an ER in a day, it was a lot of take in as a reader. Ending felt rushed. I was between three and four stars but decided to bump it up as it’s a brand new book with very few reviews yet.
June 11, 2024
Joseph, a Black army veteran and father from Philadelphia, is working in a hospital as a tech while attending grad school. The style of writing of this book made it hard to get into - it felt like stream of consciousness or journal writing. Once I got used to the writing and the gritty content, I was taken by Joseph's life. A unique, fairly disturbing look at what it means to be a Black man from meager means trying to make his life better while helping family and friends around him. ARC courtesy of NetGalley.
July 10, 2024
*I won a copy of this book in a giveaway*
I can tell a lot of love and care went into this, which is why I feel badly not rating it higher. I am just not usually very into a more stream of consciousness narration and this one was unfortunately no exception. If that’s more the writing style you tend to gravitate toward, I would say give it a try (and still give it a try if it’s not as it may surprise you).
I can tell a lot of love and care went into this, which is why I feel badly not rating it higher. I am just not usually very into a more stream of consciousness narration and this one was unfortunately no exception. If that’s more the writing style you tend to gravitate toward, I would say give it a try (and still give it a try if it’s not as it may surprise you).
June 21, 2024
I may change my star rating, but I’m still trying to process this book.
The author’s writing style is definitely unique - lyrical and poetic, switching timelines. It drew me in. But I had trouble keeping track of where we were in the story - past and present and who all the characters were. I read the author’s memoir earlier this year, and I could see some themes from his life in this book.
Overall, I think I give this 3/3.5 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my gifted copy!
The author’s writing style is definitely unique - lyrical and poetic, switching timelines. It drew me in. But I had trouble keeping track of where we were in the story - past and present and who all the characters were. I read the author’s memoir earlier this year, and I could see some themes from his life in this book.
Overall, I think I give this 3/3.5 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my gifted copy!
July 6, 2024
There was a lot about this book that was really good. The writing was, at times, brilliant, and the structure was a creative and fresh take on a stream of consciousness novel. Ultimately though, I felt like Thomas tried to take on too much in too few pages, which ultimately left me feeling whiplash and wishing for a deeper dive into all the characters and their experiences.
July 7, 2024
Intense, poignant, and reads like memoir.
Audiobook strongly recommended. JD Jackson captures the cadence and flow of Thomas’s work, making it a more authentic rendering than how some of us read (structurally).
Love the intersections of black life:
Veteran
Medical ER
Trauma
Multi-Home Parenting
Poverty
Academia
Literary
Queer
Audiobook strongly recommended. JD Jackson captures the cadence and flow of Thomas’s work, making it a more authentic rendering than how some of us read (structurally).
Love the intersections of black life:
Veteran
Medical ER
Trauma
Multi-Home Parenting
Poverty
Academia
Literary
Queer
July 15, 2024
This book deals with a lot of tough topics, which was interesting but the stream of consciousness style of writing just wasn’t for me. I found it hard to keep track of all the characters and to figure out what was being discussed. Whether this was a feature or a bug, I’m not sure but it didn’t do it for me. However, I imagine others who really like this style would enjoy the book.
July 27, 2024
Protagonist is a black man in his 30s and Philadelphia who is in Afghanistan war Vet, currently works in a hospital while enrolled in graduate school and balancing caring for his children, complications with family court, and facing many financial hurdles. Includes commentary on racial and economic disparities.
July 28, 2024
Joseph Earl Thomas' debut novel 'God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer' is one of those books that makes readers work. The writing is more poetry than prose. Sometimes, sentences, paragraphs, and entire pages require careful reading and rereading. It's worth it. This is one of those novels that will stay with me.
May 27, 2024
2.0. Did not finish the book. Found the subject uninteresting and the language off putting. I rarely do not finish a book, but I did not think that completing the story was a good use of my time. Unfortunate.
June 25, 2024
I had high hopes for this book but the crude sexual language turned me off and I got very confused among the characters. Interesting experiences which made me keep with it even though at 20%, I was ready to abandon it.
July 11, 2024
This book was too first person and stream of consciousness for me. There isn't so much of a plot as it is sort of just snippets of the protagonist's life both present and some in the past. The description of the book makes it seem like there's much more of a plot than I got out of it.
July 22, 2024
It is difficult to deny the brilliance here.
The code-mixing Philly and the Ivies. The raw poetry many will see as stream of conscious. The sincerity. I'm not sure for whom this book was written, but it doubtlessly needs to be read.
The code-mixing Philly and the Ivies. The raw poetry many will see as stream of conscious. The sincerity. I'm not sure for whom this book was written, but it doubtlessly needs to be read.
July 23, 2024
A reminder, should you need one, of the ability of fiction to reveal something about the world as it is. Surreal, searing, heartbreaking, and often very funny. The writing is brilliant— with sentences that demand and reward careful reading and reading. It’s just really that good.
Want to read
May 17, 2024A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews