A Visitation of Spirits
by Randall Kenan
On This Page
Description
When A Visitation of Spirits was published, Randall Kenan (1963-2020) was instantly recognized as a writer of significance, and one who brought into literary fiction the southern Black, gay experience, one of the first such writers to achieve mainstream success. His groundbreaking first novel, A Visitation of Spirits, is the powerful story of Horace Cross, a popular and high-achieving sixteen-year-old boy, who wrestles with the guilt of discovering who he is, a young man attracted to other show more men and yearning to escape the narrow confines of the small town of Tims Creek, North Carolina, where he grew up. Raised on stories of prophets, revelations, and dreams, his internal struggles take shape in his mind as demons and angels battling for his soul, culminating in one night of horrible and tragic transformation. A Visitation of Spirits established Randall Kenan as a literary master, and his influence continues to be felt. Now in Grove paperback and with an introduction by Tarell Alvin McCraney, Oscar-winning writer of Moonlight, A Visitation of Spirits is a classic novel of growing up from a literary giant. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
sturlington Gay teenagers coming of age in the South.
Member Reviews
Truthfully, although I'm marking this as read, I only read 40% of this book. Certainly one of those books I personally wish I liked more than I did. I wanted to read this after reading Randall Kenan's wonderful story Wash Me.
I liked the fact that this story had a Black Southern gay teenager as the protagonist, I wish I could have pushed harder with the story, but I noticed I was pushing hard to like the story which is often an indicator that I should leave the book and hopefully return to it when my mind feels less cluttered than it currently is or when I can appreciate the writer's style. Perhaps reading Randall Kenan's short story collection [b:Let the Dead Bury Their Dead|857338|Let the Dead Bury Their Dead|Randall show more Kenan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1382946578l/857338._SX50_.jpg|842793] will be a better way to connect with this writer. show less
I liked the fact that this story had a Black Southern gay teenager as the protagonist, I wish I could have pushed harder with the story, but I noticed I was pushing hard to like the story which is often an indicator that I should leave the book and hopefully return to it when my mind feels less cluttered than it currently is or when I can appreciate the writer's style. Perhaps reading Randall Kenan's short story collection [b:Let the Dead Bury Their Dead|857338|Let the Dead Bury Their Dead|Randall show more Kenan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1382946578l/857338._SX50_.jpg|842793] will be a better way to connect with this writer. show less
dust jacket
Un libro intenso, a tratti amaro. Si alternano stili diversi, spesso contrapposti. Descrizioni e allucinazioni si susseguono. La storia è quella di Horace, ragazzo di colore degli Stati del Sud, i suoi antenati schiavi. Scopre di essere attratto dagli uomini, ma non riesce ad accettarlo. E decide che l’unica via di fuga sia un vecchio rito magico medievale, vorrebbe tramutarsi in un uccello. Ma le cose non vanno come aveva sperato, e in una notte di allucinazioni, ripercorre la sua vita. Per conoscersi. E capirsi. Fino a dire “mi ricordo di me”.
Feb 20, 2018Italian
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Southern Fiction
212 works; 52 members
Best African American Literature
53 works; 9 members
Books Set in North Carolina
84 works; 7 members
Publishing Triangle 100 Best Lesbian and Gay Novels
97 works; 6 members
Fiction With Familiar Settings
279 works; 92 members
Author Information
12+ Works 989 Members
Raised in Chinquapin, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with degrees in English and Creative writing (1985). He is a Black, gay Southerner which is the creative foundation for his work. Randall Kenan is the author of the novel A Visitation of Spirits (1989) and the short story collection Let the Dead show more Bury Their Dead (1992). The latter was nominated for the 1992 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction. After the success of A Visitation of Spirits, Kenan began working on a new book. More than a dozen years ago, he rented a car and set out from New York on a cross-country journey to interview African Americans. The title of the book that resulted, Walking on Water (1999), comes from the story of slaves en route from Africa who commandeered their ship off the coast of Georgia around 1800. Legend has it that they walked off the ship to an unknown fate. In his book, Kenan attempts to learn that fate. His other books include James Baldwin: American Writer (1993), A Time Not Here: The Mississippi Delta (he wrote the text for this collection of photographs by Norman Mauskoff published in 1997), The Fire This Time (2007), and If I had Two Wings (2020), a short story collection. His awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting award, the Sherwood Anderson Award, the John Dos Passos Prize, and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. When he isn't writing, Kenan teaches writing classes at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. He is also a contributor to the New York Times and The Nation and was once an assistant editor at Knopf. Randall Kenan had a stroke several years ago and had heart related problems. He died on August 28, 2020 at the age of 57. (P) (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Notable Lists
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- A Visitation of Spirits
- Original publication date
- 1989
- People/Characters
- Horace Cross; Reverend James "Jimmy" Green
- Important places
- North Carolina, USA
- Blurbers
- Naylor, Gloria; Kennedy, Adrienne
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 306
- Popularity
- 104,058
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (4.03)
- Languages
- English, Italian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 2
