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Devil is fine / John Vercher.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Celadon Books, 2024Edition: First editionDescription: 262 pages ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781250894489
  • 1250894484
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Summary: "Our narrator is haunted. Haunted by panic attacks, a failed relationship, alcoholism, an academic career that wants to define him by his Blackness, and the trauma of the recent death of his 17-year-old son, Malcolm. When a letter arrives informing him that his maternal grandfather has left Malcolm a plot of land, our narrator leaves his life behind and heads to the seaside of the Northeast, where his identity is shaken by the dark and haunting secret that lies beneath this inherited land. With the wit of Paul Beatty's The Sellout and the nuance of Zadie Smith's On Beauty, author John Vercher's Devil is Fine is an emotional account of what it is to be a father, a son, a writer, and a biracial American fighting to reconcile freedom and creativity with the footprint of colonialism. Gripping, surrealist, and darkly funny, Devil is Fine is a brilliantly-crafted dissection of the legacies we leave behind, and those we inherit"-- Provided by publisher.
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Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library On Order Processing
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"FULL OF MYSTERY, MAGIC, DARK COMEDY, AND HEART." ―Deesha Philyaw

"AN INTIMATE NOVEL, BY TURNS BRACING AND HILARIOUS." ―Maurice Carlos Ruffin

"PROFOUNDLY MOVING." ―Ben Fountain

"THE NOVEL'S FINAL PAGES WILL LEAVE YOU BREATHLESS." ―Jonathan Escoffery


Still reeling from a sudden tragedy, our biracial narrator receives a letter from an attorney: he has just inherited a plot of land from his estranged white grandfather. He travels to a beach town several hours south of his home with the intention of selling the land immediately and moving on. But upon inspection, what lies beneath the dirt is far more complicated than he ever imagined. In a shocking irony, he is now the Black owner of a former plantation passed down by the men on his white mother's side of the family.

Vercher deftly blurs the lines between real and imagined, past and present, tragedy and humor, and fathers and sons in this story of discovering and reclaiming a painful past. With the wit and rawness of Paul Beatty's The Sellout , Devil Is Fine is a gripping, surreal, and brilliantly crafted dissection of the legacies we leave behind and those we inherit.

"Our narrator is haunted. Haunted by panic attacks, a failed relationship, alcoholism, an academic career that wants to define him by his Blackness, and the trauma of the recent death of his 17-year-old son, Malcolm. When a letter arrives informing him that his maternal grandfather has left Malcolm a plot of land, our narrator leaves his life behind and heads to the seaside of the Northeast, where his identity is shaken by the dark and haunting secret that lies beneath this inherited land. With the wit of Paul Beatty's The Sellout and the nuance of Zadie Smith's On Beauty, author John Vercher's Devil is Fine is an emotional account of what it is to be a father, a son, a writer, and a biracial American fighting to reconcile freedom and creativity with the footprint of colonialism. Gripping, surrealist, and darkly funny, Devil is Fine is a brilliantly-crafted dissection of the legacies we leave behind, and those we inherit"-- Provided by publisher.

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