![]() ![]() To see the absurdity of a moment, or a way of being, and make it clear to others without ever raising his voice.” This is a part of Mat’s charm on the page and in real life. “eaders won’t realize they’ve been made to think deeply about something until after they’ve already started laughing. “Humor/satire is such a great, and classic, way to get at the most painful issues,” he told me via email. Victor LaValle, a longtime friend and another novelist of color who mixes genres with abandon, admires the sneaky weight of Johnson’s comedy. Taking off from its wild setup, the novel delivers belly laughs and gut punches in quick succession. Those residents are descended from 17th century human settlers along with subsequent waves of UFO abductees. The setting of “Invisible Things” is New Roanoke, a space colony that is discovered when a spaceship from Earth, the SS Delaney, is “kidnapped” by the colony’s residents. Besides, as Donald Trump marched to the White House, he was broadening his satirical target. The novel also set Johnson up for a lot of questions about racial categorization that he didn’t always want to answer. ![]() … But there are still several things I was uncomfortable about. ![]() He also explores his identity as a “mulatto” - a “racial optical illusion.” As Johnson explained in an interview, the impetus for the novel was that “as an adult, I started growing warm to mixed identity. His protagonist, Warren Duffy, takes up residence in an inherited house and ends up encountering ghosts, comic books and his teenage daughter, whom he’s never met. The author’s 2015 followup, “ Loving Day,” was set in Johnson’s native Philadelphia it was by far his most personal book. To say that “Loving Day” is a book about race is like saying “Moby-Dick” is a book about whales. Books Review: ‘Loving Day’s’ examination of race is handled with candor, wit ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |