LoveReading Says
A strangely original and wonderfully thought provoking novel. By no means a simple read, the author writes in such a way as to make you think and consider. The lack of quotation marks and obvious introductions to show who is speaking, while at first strange, actively encourages you to feel a part of the action, as though you are there, and it focuses and concentrates your mind on what is being said. This is original and quirky writing, some sentences are curiously and almost perfectly repeated and yet the minute differences change the meaning, the context and therefore surprise and agitate your feelings. This isn't a novel to rush or dash through, you need to be alert, vigilant and ready for this compelling encounter.
Liz Robinson
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Welcome to Braggsville Synopsis
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2015 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2015 BY THEWASHINGTON POST,TIME,MENS JOURNAL, CHICAGO TRIBUNE,KANSAS CITY STAR, BROOKLYN MAGAZINE, NPR,HUFFINGTON POST, THE DAILY BEAST, ANDBUZZFEEDWINNER OF THE 2015 ERNEST J. GAINES AWARD FOR LITERARY EXCELLENCELONGLISTED FOR THE 2016 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTIONNATIONAL BESTSELLERFrom the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of Hold It Til It Hurts comes a dark and socially provocative Southern-fried comedy about four UC Berkeley students who stage a dramatic protest during a Civil War reenactmenta fierce, funny, tragic work from a bold new writer.Welcome to Braggsville. The City that Love Built in the Heart of Georgia. Population 712Born and raised in the heart of old Dixie, Daron Davenport finds himself in unfamiliar territory his freshman year at UC Berkeley. Two thousand miles and a world away from his childhood, he is a small-town fish floundering in the depths of a large, hyper-liberal pond. Caught between the prosaic values of his rural hometown and the intellectualized multicultural cosmopolitanism of Berzerkeley, the nineteen-year-old white kid is uncertain about his place until one disastrous party brings him three idiosyncratic best friends: Louis, a kung-fu comedian from California; Candice, an earnest do-gooder claiming Native roots from Iowa; and Charlie, an introspective inner-city black teen from Chicago. They dub themselves the 4 Little Indians.But everything changes in the groups alternative history class, when Daron lets slip that his hometown hosts an annual Civil War reenactment, recently rebranded Patriot Days. His announcement is met with righteous indignation, and inspires Candice to suggest a performative intervention to protest the reenactment. Armed with youthful self-importance, makeshift slave costumes, righteous zeal, and their own misguided ideas about the South, the 4 Little Indians descend on Braggsville. Their journey through backwoods churches, backroom politics, Waffle Houses, and drunken family barbecues is uproarious to start, but will have devastating consequences.With the keen wit of Billy Lynns Long Halftime Walk and the deft argot of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, T. Geronimo Johnson has written an astonishing, razor-sharp satire. Using a panoply of styles and tones, from tragicomic to Southern Gothic, he skewers issues of class, race, intellectual and political chauvinism, Obamaism, social media, and much more.A literary coming-of-age novel for a new generation, written with tremendous social insight and a unique, generous heart, Welcome to Braggsville reminds us of the promise and perils of youthful exuberance, while painting an indelible portrait of contemporary America.
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