Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
An interconnected story collection about four young men struggling to liberate themselves from the burden of being black and male in America-- the arrival of an explosive new voice.
Dub, Rolls, Rye, and Gio, who narrates most of these nine stories, have been friends since childhood, growing up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SAVE YOURSELF covers roughly a decade of these inseparable friends weaving in and out of one another's lives as their futures diverge. Among their differences, Gio's mixed-race identity--with a black father, an NFL player whose injury washed him out, and a white mother--sets him apart from his friends, as does his eventual path to the Ivy League. As these four go from boys to men, they grapple with the newfound power of sex and drugs, with the force of their needs, and at times with the violence of their desires.
In this collection, which can whipsaw, sometimes in an instant, from hilarity to devastation, Holmes brilliantly captures the volatile nature of his characters and how the world they move in can shift dramatically from one moment to the next. It will be a journey for each of them to come to terms with the complexity of his family history.
Touching on issues of sex, race, money, and family, these stories have a potent immediacy. They are at times funny, often uncomfortable, and always gripping. They will get under your skin and stay there. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SAVE YOURSELF represents the emergence of a powerful and necessary new voice in American fiction.
Synopsis
"JM Holmes is not just a new voice but a new force: honest, urgent, compelling, often hilarious, and more often gut-wrenching. Comparisons to Junot D-az and Denis Johnson are perhaps inevitable, but I imagine they'll prove short-lived; in a few years we'll be comparing writers to JM Holmes." --Rebecca Makkai, author of The Borrower
With potent immediacy and bracing candor, this powerful and provocative debut follows a decade in the lives of Dub, Rolls, Rye, and Gio, four young friends coming of age in the postindustrial enclave of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and struggling to liberate themselves from the legacies left to them as black men in America. As Gio recounts their grappling with the complexity of their family histories, with the newfound power of sex and drugs, and with the occasional violence of their desires, he proves himself an unforgettable narrator--beautifully flawed and unstintingly honest.
In the tradition of Junot D-az's Drown and Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, JM Holmes's How Are You Going to Save Yourself illuminates in breathtaking detail an entire world--one that has been underrepresented in American fiction. At times funny, often uncomfortable, and sometimes disturbing, these stories fearlessly address issues of race, sex, drugs, class, and family. JM Holmes is an explosive and timely new voice whose fiction has never been more vital and necessary.
Synopsis
Bound together by shared experience but pulled apart by their changing fortunes, four young friends coming of age in the postindustrial enclave of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, struggle to liberate themselves from the legacies left to them as black men in America. With potent immediacy and bracing candor, this provocative debut follows a decade in the lives of Dub, Rolls, Rye, and Gio as they each grapple with the complexity of their family histories, the newfound power of sex and drugs, and the ferocity of their desires.
Gio proves himself an unforgettable narrator, beautifully flawed and unstintingly honest, as he recounts both the friends' conflicts and their triumphs. Whether it's a fraught family cookout, a charged altercation on the block, a raucous night in high-society Manhattan gone wrong, or the troubled efforts of a drug hustler to go clean, JM Holmes brings the thump and the heat of his scenes to life with the kind of ease that makes us not just eavesdroppers but participants.
How Are You Going to Save Yourself illuminates in breathtaking detail an entire world-one that has been underrepresented in American fiction. At times funny, often uncomfortable, occasionally disturbing, these stories fearlessly engage with issues of race, sex, drugs, class, and family. Holmes's blistering and timely new voice, richly infused with the unmistakable rhythms of hip-hop that form the sound track to his characters' lives, delivers an indelible fiction that has never been more vital and necessary.
Synopsis
Four young men struggle to liberate themselves from the burden of being black and male in America in an assured debut "as up-to the-minute as a Kendrick Lamar track and as ruefully steeped in eternal truths as a Gogol tale" (
Kirkus, starred review).
Bound together by shared experience but pulled apart by their changing fortunes, four young friends coming of age in the postindustrial enclave of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, struggle to liberate themselves from the legacies left to them as black men in America. With potent immediacy and bracing candor, this provocative debut follows a decade in the lives of Dub, Rolls, Rye, and Gio as they each grapple with the complexity of their family histories, the newfound power of sex and drugs, and the ferocity of their desires.
Gio proves himself an unforgettable narrator, beautifully flawed and unstintingly honest, as he recounts both the friends' conflicts and their triumphs. Whether it's a fraught family cookout, a charged altercation on the block, a raucous night in high-society Manhattan gone wrong, or the troubled efforts of a drug hustler to go clean, JM Holmes brings the thump and the heat of his scenes to life with the kind of ease that makes us not just eavesdroppers but participants.
How Are You Going to Save Yourself illuminates in breathtaking detail an entire world-one that has been underrepresented in American fiction. At times funny, often uncomfortable, occasionally disturbing, these stories fearlessly engage with issues of race, sex, drugs, class, and family. Holmes's blistering and timely new voice, richly infused with the unmistakable rhythms of hip-hop that form the sound track to his characters' lives, delivers an indelible fiction that has never been more vital and necessary.