Review by Booklist Review
Kenan, the author of works of nonfiction and the acclaimed novel A Visitation of Spirits, is renowned for his robust characterizations and now presents his first book of new fiction in nearly 30 years. The collection's 10 stories center on Black Americans who find themselves confronting their own contradictions and forgotten selves. In the opening story, an older gentleman from the rural South reconnects with his musical heritage after a chance encounter with a pop star during a trip to New York City. In "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel," a funeral director meditates on her daughter's relationship with a woman and the judgments leveled by some of her closest acquaintances. In "Mamiwata," a young woman who had escaped enslavement in the antebellum South encounters a mysterious man who offers the prospect of escaping recapture through river waters that prove unexpectedly welcome: "Not cool at all. Warm like rabbit fur. Warm like a belly full of hot chicken." Each story in the collection reads like an old favorite, as if related by a dear friend over dinner or a twilight nightcap.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
After three decades, the multi-award-winning Kenan (Let the Dead Bury Their Dead) returns to fiction with a collection again featuring the Black community of Tims Creek, NC. In the opening story, a plumber visiting New York for the National Baptist convention retains his dignity in an exchange with a slick white pop star, then later reflects on the star's presumptuous video while recalling his grandfather singing. Elsewhere, a pastor finally whups his cheating wife's lover, and a son who's abandoned high finance to become a chef is startled to learn that Howard Hughes once asked his mother to cook for him. In one emotionally complex standout, the protagonist reflects on his relationship, both professional and personal, with shining-star architect Jacson Ribeiro while wresting with his dying uncle about the key issue of inherited land. VERDICT Keen portraiture, incisive language (one character has "all the delicacy of a damaged bull when discussing personal matters"), and fully developed stories; highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 2/4/20.]
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Boars, monkeys, adulterers, charlatans, and ghosts all chase the characters gathered here. The slyly soulful Kenan takes his time between books. Now he rewards readers who have waited almost three decades for a return to his fictional Tims Creek, North Carolina, home to the novel A Visitation of Spirits (1989) and the story collection Let the Dead Bury Their Dead (1992)--though this new collection opens with a smile by starting "When We All Get to Heaven" in New York City. A 58-year-old plumber from Tims Creek explores midtown and is improbably swept up into Billy Idol's entourage. Ed Phelps finds the music silly but the day full, and as he drifts off to sleep, he hears his grandfather's voice singing. This pitch-perfect ending is evocative of the thin, beckoning veil between the seen and unseen, the quotidian and the preposterous, that Kenan hangs throughout his fiction. Yet appetite--carnal and gustatory--also fuels these stories. In "I Thought I Heard the Shuffle of Angels' Feet," the narrator introduces his lover: "Six foot six inches of beige, Portuguese-accented brawn, the Brazilian wunderkind. He moved like a dancer, he spoke like a poet--and Americans are such suckers for accents." He tops that poem with 15 words to sum up their union: "Ten tumultuous years. It had not been bliss, but mostly happy, usually fun, always interesting." As this story ends, something new has begun and something old is set right. "The Eternal Glory That Is Ham Hocks" ladles the historical Howard Hughes into its fictional stew, delivering a nice kick. A Tims Creek diner--"The eggs are still greasy, the ham tough as shoe leather, the coffee fit for removing toilet clogs"--serves as backdrop. But do not imagine this a book of grits and honey. In the complex, mesmerizing "Resurrection Hardware; or, Lard & Promises," the speaker shares the author's first name inside a tale of ghosts, strivers, and roasted goose, "succulent, flavorful, the fat a thing of pure joy." It is a feast. Ten artful stories conjure contemporary North Carolina, mouthwatering and matter-of-factly haunted. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
