LEON FORREST

Divine Days

A unanimous chorus of critical acclaim greeted this powerful novel last year—one of the most significant works of African-American fiction since Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. This huge oratorio of a novel unfolds over seven days in the life of Joubert Jones, an aspiring playwright making ends meet tending bar at his Aunt Eloise's Night Lounge. A Rabelaisian cast of characters and a Shakespearean range of voices crowd the pages of this book, an infinitely rich and suggestive tapestry of Black-American life and identity.

"Almost every page offers abundant evidence that Leon Forrest is a writer of virtuosity and power. . . . A landmark in the artistic representation of social and historical reality, a rich and complex entertainment that deserves our praise, respect and gratitude." —Arnold Rampersad, New York Newsday

"An adventurous masterwork that provides our literature with a signal moment. . . . This epic detective story pulls in elements of the Gothic, the tall tale, the parable, the philosophical argument, the novel of ideas, the history lesson, the novel of manners and the sort of close observation Balzac, Mann and Hemingway would have admired." —Stanley Crouch, New York Times Book Review

"Divine Days is that rare thing in our self-conscious and ironic age—a full-out serious work of art." —Sven Birkerts, New Republic

Divine Days is published jointly by Norton and Another Chicago Press.

1995 / ISBN 0-393-31221-6 / 1144 pages / FICTION/AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES

• Leon Forrest is the author of three previous novels. He is the chair of African-American Studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
• A New York Times Notable Book