Black Jesus and Other Superheroes
Stories
by Venita Blackburn
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Pub Date Sep 01 2017 | Archive Date Sep 29 2017
Description
Winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, Black Jesus and Other Superheroes chronicles ordinary people achieving vivid extrasensory perception while under extreme pain. The stories tumble into a universe of the jaded and the hopeful, in which men and women burdened with unwieldy and undesirable superhuman abilities are nonetheless resilient in subtle and startling ways.
Venita Blackburn's characters hurl themselves toward the inevitable fates they might rather wish away. Their stories play with magic without the sparkle, glaring at the internal machinations of the human spirit. Fragile symbols for things such as race, sexuality, and love are lifted, decorated, and exposed to scrutiny and awe like so many ruins of our imagination. Through it all Blackburn’s characters stumble along currents of language both thoughtful and hilarious.
Advance Praise
“Prepare! This collection bears exuberant testimony to a striking new talent. Witness here the terrific imagination of Venita Blackburn as she lays out and plays out the harm and the succor that come with family. These are short, high-octane stories, funny and dark; open this book and read the story ‘Chew’ right now! It will lead you to the rest. This is an exhilarating debut.”—Ron Carlson, author of Return to Oakpine and A Kind of Flying
"Electrically alive, funny, real—this is work that just begs to be read aloud and when it is it will fill a room with crackle and ache. What a delight!”—Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781496201867 |
| PRICE | $17.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 174 |
Links
Featured Reviews
Krystal Kavita J, Media/Journalist
This story collection was truly a literary feast for all my senses! Vernita Blackburn manages to delve into both the maudlin and the mesmerising with such unbridled imagination!
Hannah S, Reviewer
I feel really bad about not finishing this but I did not get along with the first couple of stories in this collection. I am super fickle when it comes to short stories. I requested this soley based on the title (and my love for short story collections) and still think that the title is just genius.
david s, Reviewer
These short stories were written in 2017, with a much-needed prophetic voice in the undergirding racism that continues to plague America. For the record, the stories are vast and could happen anywhere in the world. Each story contains a hero. Some heroes are more jaded than others, and yet the more they’ve been mired in the muck of life the easier it is to identify with their struggle. Blackburn has some hidden, one-liner gems and if you read too fast you’ll easily miss it.
Here are a few of the one-liners in the book:
“Big uncle’s obsession with the apocalypse wasn’t about how the world stops, but how it starts again.”
“Pastor Short had a degree in dark spirits. Pastor Short was the dark spirit whisperer.”
“The two passed by the pair of bouncers like ladybugs over elephants.”
“Most whores had honor, but the average crack-whore will rob you blind and blow your Rottweiler for a five dollar fix.”
There are more. I promise.
This was a review copy provided by NetGalley given for an honest review
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