Her entry begins:I recently read Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah--a hallucinatory and hilarious collection about America's racial and economic absurdities. The fearlessness of this book's comic instincts put me in mind of Paul Beatty's The Sellout; its moments of pathos reminded me of the stories of George...[read on]About The Spectators, from the publisher:
Talk show host Matthew Miller has made his fame by shining a spotlight on the most unlikely and bizarre secrets of society, exposing them on live television in front of millions of gawking viewers. However, the man behind The Mattie M Show remains a mystery—both to his enormous audience and to those who work alongside him every day. But when the high school students responsible for a mass shooting are found to be devoted fans, Mattie is thrust into the glare of public scrutiny, seen as the wry, detached herald of a culture going downhill and going way too far. Soon, the secrets ofLearn more about the book and author at the official Jennifer duBois website.Mattie’s past as a brilliant young politician in a crime-ridden New York City begin to push their way to the surface.
In her most daring and multidimensional novel yet, Jennifer duBois vividly portrays the heyday of gay liberation in the seventies and the grip of the AIDS crisis in the eighties, alongside a backstage view of nineties television in an age of moral panic. DuBois explores an enigmatic man’s downfall through the perspectives of two spectators—Cel, Mattie’s skeptical publicist, and Semi, the disillusioned lover from his past.
With wit, heart, and crackling intelligence, The Spectators examines the human capacity for reinvention—and forces us to ask ourselves what we choose to look at, and why.
The Page 69 Test: A Partial History of Lost Causes.
My Book, The Movie: A Partial History of Lost Causes.
The Page 69 Test: Cartwheel.
Writers Read: Jennifer duBois.
--Marshal Zeringue
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