{"product_id":"divine-days-9780810145702","title":"Divine Days","description":"\u003cb\u003eA virtuosic epic applauded by Stanley Crouch as \"an adventurous masterwork that provides our literature with a signal moment,\" back in print in a definitive new edition\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"I have an awful memory for faces, but an excellent one for voices,\" muses Joubert Jones, the aspiring playwright at the center of \u003ci\u003eDivine Days\u003c\/i\u003e. A kaleidoscopic whorl of characters, language, music, and Black experience, this saga follows Jones for one week in 1966 as he pursues the lore and legends of fictional Forest County, a place resembling Chicago's South Side. Joubert is a veteran, recently returned to the city, who works for his aunt Eloise's newspaper and pours drinks at her Night Light Lounge. He wants to write a play about Sugar-Groove, a drifter, \"eternal wunderkind,\" and local folk hero who seems to have passed away. Sugar-Groove's disappearance recalls the subject of one of Joubert's earlier writing attempts--W. A. D. Ford, a protean, diabolical preacher who led a religious sect known as \"Divine Days.\" Joubert takes notes as he learns about both tricksters, trying to understand their significance. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eDivine Days \u003c\/i\u003eintroduces readers to a score of indelible characters: Imani, Joubert's girlfriend, an artist and social worker searching for her lost siblings and struggling to reconcile middle class life with her values and Black identity; Eloise, who raised Joubert and whose influence is at odds with his writerly ambitions; (Oscar) Williemain, a local barber, storyteller, and founder of the Royal Rites and Righteous Ramblings Club; and the Night Light's many patrons. With a structure inspired by James Joyce and jazz, Leon Forrest folds references to African American literature and cinema, Shakespeare, the Bible, and classical mythology into a heady quest that embraces life in all its tumult and adventure. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e This edition brings Forrest's masterpiece back into print, incorporating hundreds of editorial changes that the author had requested from W. W. Norton, but were not made for their editions in 1993 and 1994. Much of the inventory from the original printing of the book by Another Chicago Press in 1992 had been destroyed in a disastrous warehouse fire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLEON FORREST\u003c\/b\u003e (1937-1997) was born in Chicago and taught at Northwestern University for more than two decades. His first novel, \u003ci\u003eThere Is a Tree More Ancient Than Eden\u003c\/i\u003e, included an introduction by Ralph Ellison and was edited by Toni Morrison, who also worked with Forrest on two subsequent novels, \u003ci\u003eThe Bloodworth Orphans\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTwo Wings to Veil My Face\u003c\/i\u003e. Originally published in 1992, Forrest's masterpiece, \u003ci\u003eDivine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eDays\u003c\/i\u003e, was inspired by James Joyce's \u003ci\u003eUlysses\u003c\/i\u003e and hailed as \"boldly musical\" by the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e and \"dazzling\" by \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003ci\u003eMeteor in the Madhouse\u003c\/i\u003e, a series of connected novellas narrated by Joubert Jones, was published posthumously by TriQuarterly Books in 2011, and Forrest was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame in 2013. His papers are held at the McCormick Library of Special Collections and University Archives at Northwestern University. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eKENNETH W. WARREN \u003c\/b\u003eis the University of Chicago Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eWhat Was African American Literature?\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSo Black and Blue: Ralph Ellison and the Occasion of Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eBlack and White Strangers: Race and American Literary Realism\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eZACHARY PRICE \u003c\/b\u003eis the grandson of Leon Forrest.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Seminary Co-Op Offsets","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50614687498514,"sku":"9780810145702","price":25.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_eeb90773-03a6-4b98-ba2f-082bb81731e7.jpg?v=1732456714","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/divine-days-9780810145702","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}