I don't usually do fantasy stuff, but I made an exception here because I liked Kiese Laymon's other bookHeavy. That's a book of essays.Long Divisionis a novel about a young teenage boy who reminds me a little ofOscar Wao. City is a 14-year-old who participates in a spelling bee that's more about using the word right than spelling it. So he's doing that on live TV and ends up cursing everyone out because they gave him the word niggardly. It's 2013 and the video goes viral on YouTube.
At that same moment tho in real life, City is getting sent to his grandma's house in Mississippi with no computer or anything. It's there that he gets beat and teased and baptized. That's also where he finds this book calledLong Division. The book itself is a mystery being written as it goes. After reading 3/4 of this book, you have to flip the book over and start reading from the back. So it's a very physical story. Cool concept, cool writing.
There's one copy ofLong Division available at Ten Dollar Books (same one I just read). Click here to view that and Laymon's other books.
-Rachel Wagner
