Hell of a Book is the latest novel by Jason Mott. The protagonist is a best-selling African-American author on tour promoting a book he can’t consciously remember, and who’s having a nervous breakdown. He interacts with figments of his imagination, including The Kid, a young black boy who was shot to death yet somehow is still alive. The story seesaws between what is probably the author at an early age growing up in North Carolina and the author as the touring adult. The ambiguity about what’s real and what’s not is a device that allows the story to unfold like stand-up comedy that alternates with incredible poignancy, within which the author talks about the very serious matter of what it’s like to be Black in America. Here’s a wonderful line from one of the serious moments: “Ultimately it’s sadness that sits at the bedrock of all of the anger these people feel every day. Sadness at being left behind and left out of so much of what everyone else seems to have in this county, in this world.” It really is a hell of a book. Here’s what Kirkus Reviews says:
