✍ Scribed by Mat Johnson
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Chris Jaynes, professor of African American studies, has been denied tenure for his refusal to sit on the Diversity Committee at his university and for his intense interest in Edgar Allan Poe. Enraged, he nearly implodes before discovering a lost manuscript proving that Poes only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, is a factual account. Jaynes devises a mission to find the lost, black-inhabited island near Antarctica described in Poes narrative, setting off with an all-black crew that includes his seafaring cousin; his obese friend Garth; his ex-fiance, Angela, and her husband, Nathaniel; and two flamboyant mechanics. They discover that something else described in Poes narrative is also real: giant, yeti-like, albino humanoids living in large colonies below the ice in Antarctica. This extension of Poes adventure is a romp that surprises on every page. Funny, insightful, racially important, Pym is a death-defying adventure and a probing examination of notions of race, even at the farthest ends of the earth. --Julie Hunt
"BLISTERINGLY FUNNY...a full-fledged and fiendishly inventive inversion of Poe's [_Pym_], a series of bizarre encounters I can't bring myself to spoil, each one more deliciously pointed than the last." Laura Miller, Salon
"SCREAMINGLY FUNNY...there's no shortage of thought and scholarship and experience underpinning_Pym,_but Johnson doesn't let any of it bog him down. On the contrary, reading Pym is like openingA BIG CAN OF WHOOP-ASS and then marveling -- gleefully -- at all the mayhem that ensues." Maggie Galehouse, Houston Chronicle
"RELENTLESSLY ENTERTAINING...Its no easy task to balance social satire against life-threatening adventure, the allegory against the gory, but Johnsons hand is steady and his ability to play against Poes text masterly. The book is polyphonous and incisive, an uproarious and hard-driving journey." New York Times Book Review
"RIOTOUS...Jaynes never learns much about the white pathology and mindset, but Mr. Johnson knows plenty about the character types he skewers." Wall Street Journal
LOONY, disrespectful, and sharp,Johnson's___Pym_is a welcome riff on the surrealistic shudder-fest that is Poe's originalI'll stop there, but Johnson's inventiveness never does. NPRs Fresh Air
"Mat Johnson's new novel is nothing short of fantastic, in every sense. I fell in love with the voice, the tone and the world of Pym. This is an adventure novel, a work of historical and social commentary, a rumination on identity. The only problem I could find with this novel is that I didn't write it. It's a beautiful piece of work."
--Percival Everett, author of I Am Not Sidney Poitier
"Mat Johnson has come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and he's all out of bubble. gum. Pym is an adventure, a satire, and a bracing political debate all rolled into one brilliant novel. Edgar Allen Poe has inspired many authors but Mat Johnson has the inspired audacity to both honor and discredit the man, often in the same sentence. I imagine Poe choking on half the things Johnson writes in this novel, and tipping his tiny hat in admiration to the rest."
--Victor LaValle, author of Big Machine
PYM reframes far more than Poe it reframes everything American, from the whiteness of Ahabs whale to Detroit bus drivers; from DNA testing to tenure review; from the Gatsbyesque dream of romantic love to the dream of Utopia; from our fear of life to our love of death. No one today writes inside the brilliant black mind better.
--Alice Randall, author of The Wind Done Gone and _Rebel Yell
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Social criticism rubs shoulders with cutting satire in this high-concept adventure [PYM] is caustically hilarious as it offers a memorable take on America's racial pathology and the whole ugly story of our world.
--_Publishers Weekly_, starred review
You can trust the veracity of this account: Mat Johnsons Pym is a spectacularly sly and nimble-footed send-up of this world, the next world, and all points in between. A satire with heart, as courageous as it is cunning. --Colson Whitehead, author of Sag Harbor
An acutely humorous, very original story that will delight lovers of literature and fantasy alike.
--_Kirkus_, starred review
This extension of Poes adventure is a romp that surprises on every page. Funny, insightful...Pym is a death-defying adventure. Booklist
Mat Johnson writes with all the probing intelligence of James Baldwin, the scalding satire of Dany Laferriere and the technique of a master craftsman, all of which make him one of the most exciting, important and gifted writers of his generation. Pym is a moving and accomplished novel. -- Chris Abani, author of GraceLand and the Virgin of Flames.
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La única novela de Edgar Allan Poe, que tantos y tan hermosos cuentos escribió, es un verdadero friso de atrocidades: a un ritmo vertiginoso, en una atmósfera agobiante, se suceden naufragios, tempestades, escenas de hambre y canibalismo, matanzas, gritos, silencios opresores… En estas páginas obses