Bedrock Faith: A Novel
Eric Charles May
Feb 2014 · Akashic Books
5.0star
2 reviews
Ebook
434
Pages
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About this ebook
An ex-convict returns to his Chicago community a changed man—but maybe not for the better—in this “vivid, suspenseful, funny, and compassionate novel” (Booklist).
One of Booklist’s Top 10 First Novels of the Year
One of Roxane Gay’s Top 10 Books of the Year
After fourteen years in prison, Gerald “Stew Pot” Reeves, age thirty-one, returns home to live with his mom in Parkland, a black middle-class neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. The residents are in a tailspin, dreading the arrival of the man they remember as a frightening delinquent. The anxiety only grows when Stew Pot announces that he experienced a religious awakening in prison.
Most folks are skeptical, with one notable exception: Mrs. Motley, a widowed retired librarian and the Reeves’ next-door neighbor, who loans Stew Pot a Bible, which is seen by him and many in the community as a friendly gesture. With uncompromising fervor (and with a new pit bull named John the Baptist), Stew Pot soon appoints himself the moral judge of Parkland—and starts wreaking havoc on people’s lives. Before long, tension and suspicion reign, and this close-knit community must reckon with questions of faith, fear, and forgiveness . . .
“[A] novel of epiphanies, tragedies, and transformations . . . perfect for book clubs.” —Booklist, starred review
“May slowly builds suspense as he persuasively unfolds the narrative in this work that reads like an Agatha Christie mystery.” —Library Journal
“A wonderful urban novel full of vitality and pathos and grit.” —Dennis Lehane
One of Booklist’s Top 10 First Novels of the Year
One of Roxane Gay’s Top 10 Books of the Year
After fourteen years in prison, Gerald “Stew Pot” Reeves, age thirty-one, returns home to live with his mom in Parkland, a black middle-class neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. The residents are in a tailspin, dreading the arrival of the man they remember as a frightening delinquent. The anxiety only grows when Stew Pot announces that he experienced a religious awakening in prison.
Most folks are skeptical, with one notable exception: Mrs. Motley, a widowed retired librarian and the Reeves’ next-door neighbor, who loans Stew Pot a Bible, which is seen by him and many in the community as a friendly gesture. With uncompromising fervor (and with a new pit bull named John the Baptist), Stew Pot soon appoints himself the moral judge of Parkland—and starts wreaking havoc on people’s lives. Before long, tension and suspicion reign, and this close-knit community must reckon with questions of faith, fear, and forgiveness . . .
“[A] novel of epiphanies, tragedies, and transformations . . . perfect for book clubs.” —Booklist, starred review
“May slowly builds suspense as he persuasively unfolds the narrative in this work that reads like an Agatha Christie mystery.” —Library Journal
“A wonderful urban novel full of vitality and pathos and grit.” —Dennis Lehane
Ratings and reviews
5.0
2 reviews
Junetta Goodman
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November 20, 2014
This is the neighborhood of my childhood: very comforting, very curious. The characters were so real to me that I missed them when I turned the final page. Begging for a sequel.
About the author
Eric Charles May is an associate professor in the Fiction Writing department at Columbia College Chicago. A Chicago native and former reporter for the Washington Post, his fiction has appeared in the magazines Fish Stories, F, and Criminal Class. In addition to his Post reporting, his nonfiction has appeared in Sport Literate, the Chicago Tribune, and the personal essay anthology Briefly Knocked Unconscious by a Low-Flying Duck. Bedrock Faith is his first novel.
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