Reviews
A wide-ranging juggernaut of a novel ... internalised racism, overlapping identities, double standards and the sheer messiness of people's lives are laid bare in an immersive and thought-provoking read
Johnson's hefty, free-wheeling, sharp-witted, disquieting third novel has a complexity that belies its straightforward premise ... a swing-for-the-fences novel, both a gripping procedural and high literary study of American bigotry.
Dazzling, dizzying ... a furious, sly postmodern mystery about a deeply corrupt society ... a stunning novel
The Occidental Book of the Dead asks a lot of the reader. The novel features a sprawling cast with connections to one another that don't become clear until later in the book, and Johnson takes frequent digressions into the history of the South, sociology, economics, and popular culture. It is all very much worth it ... Johnson's prose is nothing short of spectacular, with his protagonist's voice a mix of longing, anger, confusion, and desperation. Bitterly funny ... darkly humorous ... a stunning novel, one that asks us to consider who we really are as Americans, not who we tell ourselves we are. Johnson has proven that he is one of the country's finest writers of fiction, and this is his tour de force.
No one is having more fun with language than T. Geronimo Johnson. The way his mind works is endlessly entertaining, inviting us into a fantasia. Of men behaving badly in a world behaving worse. Of walking broken hearts with guns. Men, who are somehow, still, trying to bridge a cultural gap, to move toward some understanding, a shared humanity. Johnson's take on history, his political commentary, and humor read like jazz, as, with this book in particular, he plays with the novel as a form, bending notes, making new music
In T. Geronimo Johnson's Atlanta, racial tensions percolate and the system rarely bends to demands for justice. In his latest novel, the author of Welcome to Braggsville, a National Book Award finalist, explores the moral calculus of a Black cop who's implicated in the killing of a white teenager. In a narrative that unfolds over two decades, Johnson asks big questions about identity, corruption, and American ideals
Nothing is what it seems in this spellbinding and profanely funny novel about race, police violence, and distorted narratives ... the author thrillingly plays on expectations of a sympathetic main character and a story of vindication by keeping the reader guessing at the truth and the nature of his protagonist. Fans of Susan Choi's Trust Exercise will devour this
Compelling, funny and wise
Wildly unpredictable ... emotionally charged ... often surprising