Red Now and Laters
A Novel
-
-
5.0 • 5 Ratings
-
-
- $15.99
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
“Guillory’s complex and mesmerizing novel spans numerous eras of family history and southern folklore, offering a haunting yet soulful portrait of a neglected American culture” (Booklist).
Meet Ti John, a young boy growing up in Texan Creole culture in the 1980s, the decade of Reaganomics, disco music, and the candy of choice—red Now and Laters. Raised in a Black Creole family by a voodoo-practicing father and strict Catholic mother, he is blessed with a special gift: spiritual healing.
But life in the Houston ghetto where he lives is never easy. Ti John struggles to remain an ordinary kid, but even with a rodeo-star father he idolizes and the help of supernatural guides, nothing can shield Ti John from the roughness of inner-city life. He witnesses violence and death, gets his heart broken by girls, feels the anger of his own embittered father, struggles to live up to his mother’s middle-class aspirations—all while trying to become the man he’s expected to be. Will Ti John fall prey to the bad side of life—or will he recognize and hold on to the good?
Multilayered and multigenerational, this tremendous novel breathes new life into the coming-of-age novel through “a truly unforgettable world of spirits and magical men” (Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Wench). Red Now and Laters is a poignant and uniquely American story, as memorable and flavorful as the candy itself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in Houston's South Park neighborhood, Guillory's first novel is a no-holds-barred, yet ultimately haunting (in all senses of the word), account of growing up poor, black, Creole, Catholic, smart, and smart-alecky, in an urban ghetto beset by poverty but rich in food, music, language, religion, and connections to the dark side of the spirit world. The novel opens during Houston's 1977 floods, as four-year-old Ti John's father carries him through the mud. Strong, scarred, secretive, Ti John's father is a rodeo cowboy and healer who uses otherworldly powers. Young Ti John shows signs of inheriting his father's gift when the smell of smoke announces to him the ghostly presence of ancestor Nonc Sonnier, whose unfortunate history is told in a flashback. Despite Ti John's mother's insistence on a Catholic education, he also inherits his father's close acquaintance with trouble. Guillory includes footnotes, his family tree, and passages defining the relationship between the bayou and the affluent, and between those defeated by racism and poverty and those with a chance. Secondary characters, like Father Jerome; brutal scenes, like a woman losing her baby in the storm; and razor-sharp, brazenly clever commentary, provide abrasive humor. Guillory's story provides insights simultaneously provocative, angry, and compassionate into one of America's neglected communities.
Customer Reviews
Great book!
Growing up in 5th Ward I can and being creole, I can relate to the entire book! It drew me in to the violence, hanging out, creole culture, and just growing up in the inner city! I'll recommend this to anyone!