
The Vain Conversation
A Novel
Anthony Grooms(Author)
University of South Carolina Press
Published on 13. June 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-64336-451-3 (ISBN)
Description
Witness to a lynching in 1946, Lonnie is compelled to understand the brutal event and investigate his own culpability. Set in Georgia and drawn from real events, Anthony Grooms imagines his story from the perspectives of both the victims and the perpetrators. The Vain Conversation depicts a conversation in which all Americans must be engaged. A foreword is provided by American poet, painter, and novelist Clarence Major. An afterward is written by T. Geronimo Johnson, the bestselling author of Welcome to Braggsville and Hold It 'Til It Hurts.
Reviews / Votes
An incisive, gripping, and empathetic novel." - Kirkus Reviews [starred review]In a preview of the book, New York Times best-selling author Ron Rash noted, "The Vain Conversation vividly evokes the horrors of American racism, but [Anthony Grooms] never denies the humanity of his characters, whether black or white, young or old. With complexity, satire, and sometimes levity, he [Grooms] explores what it means to redeem, as well as to be redeemed, on the issues of America's race violence and speaks to the broader issues of oppression and violence everywhere. That Grooms' incisive, gripping, and empathetic novel dares to probe beneath the humiliations, customs, and fears that sustain injustice implies that our seemingly eternal conversation on race, to which the title refers, may not be as vain as it often seems.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
South Carolina
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
358 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-64336-451-3 (9781643364513)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Anthony Grooms is the author of Bombingham and Trouble No More: Stories, both winners of the Lillian Smith Book Award for fiction. Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, he has taught writing and American literature at universities in Ghana and Sweden and, since 1994, at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.