Library EventB.Y.O.Book--Jason Mott's "Hell of a Book"

Hello readers! Join us to read and discuss "Hell of a Book: Or the altogether factual, Wholly Bona Fide story of a big dreams, hard luck, American-Made Mad Kid" by Jason Mott. This book made all of the lists, and with good reason. Publisher's Weekly says:

Mott's stunning fourth novel (after The Crossing) delves into the complex and fraught African American experience. The protagonist, a nameless Black author on his first book tour, is reeling from his newfound fame and the success of his book, Hell of a Book. As he flies to promotional events, often in a drunken stupor, the author reveals that his vivid imagination makes it difficult for him to distinguish reality from fiction. So when he encounters "The Kid," a 10-year-old boy with impossibly ebony skin, the author doubts the boy is real. The Kid, who uncannily resembles a recent victim of police violence, first appears at a hotel and continues to pop up during the book tour, leading the author to recall his own repressed trauma as a bullied Black boy in North Carolina. The author's sobering recollections of his youth are punctuated with humorous and insightful encounters that include a discussion on national sociopolitical identity with Nicolas Cage and an improbable first date with a funeral director. Mott's poetic, cinematic novel tackles what it means to live in a country where Black people perpetually "live lives under the hanging sword of fear." Absurdist metafiction doesn't get much better."

We have a limited number of copies in the print collection...if there isn't a copy available, head on over to our Overdrive collection where we have unlimited downloading of the ebook and eaudiobook in the month before the event.

Get registered now, and a reminder email with the Zoom link will be sent out the day of the event.