Divine Days

By Leon Forrest

Book Overview

A 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

"I have an awful memory for faces, but an excellent one for voices," muses Joubert Jones, the aspiring playwright at the center of Divine Days. 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.

Divine Days introduces 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.

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810145707
• ISBN13: 9780810145702
• Release Date: February 2023
• Publisher: Seminary Co-Op Offsets
• Length: 1168 Pages
• Weight: 3.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.7" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A wonderful read!

This was such a good read, you get caught up in all the stories of all these wonderful characters. It is a big book but it reads so quickly. I know you will be glad to pick this up

please read this book

Divine Days is as beautifully written as it is challenging. It is massive, complex, and wonderful. Leon Forrest is truly one of the great writers of the 20th century. History may look back and place Forrest in the Canon along with the likes of Ellison, Faulkner, and Morrison. On the other hand, the book may continue to be overlooked. Either way, do yourself a favor and read this book. You'll be glad you did.

jazz, stories, history- it doesn't get any better than this!

Written in the free-form style of jazz music, Leon Forrest's novel captures the pride, woe and miracle of a people and of a generation. There will never be a more human, more complete, more whole celebration of storytelling and history than Divine Days!!!