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Hell of a Book: A Novel door Jason Mott
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Hell of a Book: A Novel (editie 2021)

door Jason Mott (Auteur)

LedenBesprekingenPopulariteitGemiddelde beoordelingAanhalingen
5633742,193 (4.05)31
In Jason Mott's Hell of a Book, a Black author sets out on a cross-country publicity tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline drives Hell of a Book and is the scaffolding of something much larger and urgent: since Mott's novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour. As these characters' stories build and build and converge, they astonish. For while this heartbreaking and magical book entertains and is at once about family, love of parents and children, art and money, it's also about the nation's reckoning with a tragic police shooting playing over and over again on the news. And with what it can mean to be Black in America. Who has been killed? Who is The Kid? Will the author finish his book tour, and what kind of world will he leave behind? Unforgettably told, with characters who burn into your mind and an electrifying plot ideal for book club discussion, Hell of a Book is the novel Mott has been writing in his head for the last ten years. And in its final twists it truly becomes its title.… (meer)
Lid:edparks
Titel:Hell of a Book: A Novel
Auteurs:Jason Mott (Auteur)
Info:Dutton (2021), 336 pages
Verzamelingen:Jouw bibliotheek
Waardering:****1/2
Trefwoorden:Geen

Informatie over het werk

Hell of a Book door Jason Mott

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1-5 van 36 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
audio fiction (9 hours, 40 min)
Awards: National Book Award, Notable Books for Adults

funny/serious meta adventure (reading the named book that the protagonist talks about writing and promoting on book tour) that somehow involves a Black child (so dark-skinned his classmates have cruelly nicknamed him "Soot") who maybe can disappear at will and a best-selling author who meets him, or maybe just imagines he meets him. Both characters are from the small town of Bolton, North Carolina; significant time is also spent in San Francisco and Denver during the book tour.

Ridiculously comic moments are juxtaposed with a (purposefully) unsettling look at the protagonist's attempts to remain separate from the traumatic pervasiveness of a systemic disregard for the value of Black lives. An astounding, skillfully crafted story that I'll be thinking about for a long time. ( )
  reader1009 | Nov 3, 2023 |
Update: rounding up to 5⭐️... I can't stop thinking about this book!

4.5⭐

Our unnamed narrator is a Black writer riding high on the success of his recently published book – a book titled “Hell of a Book” ("It’s been Kindled and Kobo’d, iPadded and Audible’d. It’s been optioned so that it can be movie’d—"). He is currently on a promotional tour, traveling across the country, answering the question “What’s Your Book About?”, signing copies and connecting with his reader base. Of course, he has been extensively trained in media interaction and has a “handler” wherever he goes, though that doesn’t quite prevent him from getting into trouble. As our narrator travels across the country, the recent tragic shooting of a ten-year-old Black boy by the police has garnered national attention – it’s on the news, protesters have taken to the streets - and being an African –American writer, almost everywhere he goes someone is bringing it up expecting him to voice his thoughts about it .

Parallel to our narrator’s experiences is the story of a little boy who is unkindly nicknamed “Soot” on account of his extremely dark skin. Soot’s loving parents believe that they can keep him safe if he stays “invisible”.
Our narrator is often visited by “The Kid”, a “gangly, meek, and nerdy-looking” boy only he can see and interact with, who insists he is “real” and with whom he shares some deep and meaningful conversations on what it means to Black in America.
As the different threads converge and the lines between fiction and reality become blurred -for our narrator and for the reader-the story attains a dream-like quality that pulls you in, breaks your heart and leaves you more than a little unsettled.

“But the thing to know and remember is that you can never be something other than what you are, no matter how much you might want to. You can’t be them. You can only be you. And they’re going to always treat you differently than they treat themselves. They won’t ever know about it—at least, most of them won’t. Most of them will think that everything is okay and that you’re being treated well enough and that everything is beautiful. Because, I guess for them, all they can imagine is a world in which things are fair and beautiful because, after all, they’ve always been treated fairly and beautifully. History has always been kind to them.”

I tend to be wary of award winning books with a lot of hype surrounding them which is why I took my time to get to this one. But I am so glad that I eventually did pick this book up. Aptly named, "Hell of a Book" is truly a creative and brilliant work of fiction. With its powerful writing, lyrical prose and elements of magical realism, sardonic humor and a narrative that is hard-hitting, insightful and relevant, Jason Mott’s "Hell of a Book" is a unique and immersive experience. I combined my reading with the audio narration by JD Jackson and Ronald Peet which made for an exceptional immersion reading experience. ( )
  srms.reads | Sep 4, 2023 |
Well, if there's one thing you can say about this one, it's that it's a metafictional novel about race that won the Pulitzer Prize. Jason Mott's writing reminds me a bit of Zadie Smith circa "White Teeth" in that it's sharp and funny and exquisitely knowing. For a novel full of sadness, there are a lot of passages here that, with a little modification, could be killer bits on a slightly edgy comedy special, and that's meant a compliment. Like many underground comics, Mott scores points -- and deservedly so -- for saying what he thinks his audience absolutely needs to hear and what they probably won't be told elsewhere. He skewers the outpouring of pointless, intense emotion that seems to follow racially motivated killings in the social media age. In one especially memorable scene, he uses beautiful imagery to illustrate the past's stubborn persistence while pointing out that white folks don't much like to revisit the aspects of American history that make white people, as a group, look less than admirable. And he has a lot of fun portraying the publishing industry as essentially shallow, mercenary, and money-driven. Mott's very good at playing with caricature and archetype and he pulls this stuff off without breaking a sweat.

Having said that, what are we going to make of his unnamed main character who, it must be said, is, like Mott, a first-time black author hawking a literary novel, and his travelling companion, Soot? Our protagonist is quite aware that Soot might not be quite as real as the chair you're probably sitting on right now: even his therapist has said that his relationship is liable to interference and distortion thanks to a personal trauma that, the deeper one gets into this novel, might as well be called ambient, a set of fears and apprehensions that just come with being black, American, and alive in the twenty-first century. To give Mott credit, he never quite spells out this mysterious kid's exact nature, and he makes him human -- and likable -- enough to keep him from being nothing but a literary symbol. But don't have to be a psychologist specializing in trauma to see the collision of his and the narrator's stories coming from a mile away. Meanwhile, both the narrator and this not-quite-a-character are used as foils for any number of conflicting desires: for visibility and for safety, for numbness and closeness, for memory and detachment. In the book's closing pages, they have a painfully emotional conversation that seems to get to the heart of things, and, ever since I finished the book, I've meant to go back and reread it. After a few hundred pages of deft literary games, Mott and his book might actually hit on something genuinely human here, but, quite frankly, "Hell of a Book" is such an emotionally trying read that I haven't reread these passages yet, and I'm not completely convinced that I will anytime soon. "Hell of a Book" is funny and wry, but no beach read. Your opinion of it may depend on how much tolerance you have for its twisty metafictional constructions, but those are hardly the most difficult aspect of this novel. The novel feels like it's a built on a well of sadness that, with or without all the postmodern fireworks, the author struggles to put on paper. Whew. Eventually, I think I may go back to see how well he does this, but probably not for a while. This one is easy to like, but tough to judge. Three and a half stars will have to do for now. ( )
  TheAmpersand | May 30, 2023 |
Mott's writing style is very unique and this book keeps the reader unbalanced while broaching a serious topic with humor and heart. ( )
  bookwyrmm | May 19, 2023 |
This is definitely a hell of a book. It is funny, clever, and utterly devastating. It is about how Black people cope with the relentless violence against them; the endless cycle of shootings, protest, outrage, and inaction; the struggle between the need to ignore the violence to survive daily life and the guilt of ignoring it; the utter helplessness when faced with the monumental scale of the problem.

The unnamed narrator is an author on a book tour, promoting is book called Hell of a Book. Every other chapter tells the story of a boy with very very black skin, who constantly tries to become invisible so he will be safe. The book very cleverly obscures reality by creating many shifting layers of reality and unreality. The narrator often can't tell the difference between what is real and what is not, so the reader must constantly try to figure out what is real, and ultimately realize it doesn't matter. The stories of the narrator and the boy blend into each other, and blend into all of the other stories of Black people who are shot by cops.

The writing is relentlessly clever, witty, and playful - every sentence is delightfully crafted - while also exploring some of the most painful and difficult subjects possible. There were parts of the book where I was literally laughing and crying at the same time. This is a very powerful book. ( )
  Gwendydd | Apr 30, 2023 |
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In Jason Mott's Hell of a Book, a Black author sets out on a cross-country publicity tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline drives Hell of a Book and is the scaffolding of something much larger and urgent: since Mott's novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour. As these characters' stories build and build and converge, they astonish. For while this heartbreaking and magical book entertains and is at once about family, love of parents and children, art and money, it's also about the nation's reckoning with a tragic police shooting playing over and over again on the news. And with what it can mean to be Black in America. Who has been killed? Who is The Kid? Will the author finish his book tour, and what kind of world will he leave behind? Unforgettably told, with characters who burn into your mind and an electrifying plot ideal for book club discussion, Hell of a Book is the novel Mott has been writing in his head for the last ten years. And in its final twists it truly becomes its title.

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