James Hannaham is the author of the novel God Says No, which was honored by the American Library Association. He holds an MFA from the Michener Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and lives in Brooklyn, where he teaches creative writing at the Pratt Institute.
"James Hannaham's new novel is a tour de force. Gripping, haunting,
and deeply moving, it beguiles the reader with the urgent immediacy
of its characters' lives, while also reverberating with universal
themes of freedom and enslavement, love and survival."--Jennifer
Egan, Pulitzer Prize winner for A Visit from the Goon Squad
"Delicious Foods has plenty of magic in it, and plenty of
tragedy... A powerful allegory about modern-day slavery, Delicious
Foods explores the ways that even the most extraordinary black men
and women are robbed of the right to control their own lives...
[Hannaham] is serious about investigating the long-term effects of
internalized racism, and the despair that prevents people from
helping themselves... A sharp critique of the American belief that
you can do anything as long as you work hard."--Entertainment
Weekly
"A writer of major importance... Moments of deft lyricism are
Hannaham's greatest strength, and those touches of beauty and
intuitive metaphor make the novel's difficult subject matter easier
to bear... The novel's finest moments are... in the singular way
that Hannaham can make the commonplace spring to life with nothing
more than astute observations and precise language."--New York
Times Book Review
"Disturbing and addictive... This dark story is horrific,
engrossing, deeply moving, and surprisingly funny at times... The
subject matter in this tale of survival is uncomfortable and
unfortunately all-too believable, but Hannaham's inventive
storytelling and care for his characters fill this bleak world with
much needed hope and love. Delicious Foods is hard to swallow at
times, but also hard to put down."--Winnipeg Free Press
"Hannaham's seductive and disturbing second novel grips the reader
from page one... The light he shines on the realities of racial
injustice, human trafficking, drug abuse, and exploitation make a
deep imprint on the reader. But as devastating as Darlene, Eddie,
and the other laborers' situations become, the heroic themes of
love, forgiveness, and redemption carry this memorable
story."--Publisher's Weekly (Starred Review)
"Harrowing... Hannaham details a cycle of despair and enslavement
in the poverty-ridden South... What emerges is the powerful tale of
a place whose past is 'a ditch so deep with bodies it could pass
for a starless night.'"
--The New Yorker
"If The Great Gatsby was the Great American Novel of the twentieth
century, Delicious Foods could be that of the early twenty-first.
If the plot sounds like tough going, Hannaham's masterpiece is
anything but. The writing makes it "great," and the themes of pain,
forgiveness, exploitation, and self creation make it American. It
is simply unmissable."
--Booklist (starred review)
"This is a book of astonishing originality and power. In Delicious
Foods, James Hannaham has created a wholly new world--a
hallucinatory place shot through with struggle and terrible
deeds--but one never lacking light or hope. Hannaham reinvents the
Southern gothic with prose at once brutal and lyrical and drop-dead
gorgeous. This is a hell of a novel."
--Dave Eggers, author of A Hologram for the King and The Circle
"Delicious Foods is fiercely imaginative and passionate. There are
echoes here of Ralph Ellison and Zora Neale Hurston, even at times
of Zola or Kafka. The investigation of Nat's disappearance is not
the only instance of racism in law enforcement; in that respect,
the novel is timely, even prophetic. Few novels leap off the page
as this one does.Delicious Foods is a cri de coeur from a very
talented and engaging writer."--Bookpage (Top Pick of the
Month)
"Delicious Foods is a strange and compelling American horror story,
arrived at through fresh narrative strategies. A mother, a son,
drugs, workers enslaved in a gruesome nightmare, love and
survival--this is a wonderfully conjured novel."
--Daniel Woodrell, New York Times bestselling author of The Maid's
Version and Winter's Bone
"Delicious Foods is a tale both hopeful and tragic, of the triumph
of the human spirit, and the cruelties of man and
nature...Delicious Foods is, above all else, an American story: a
story of slavery and power, defiance and grit, and hope for a
better day."
--Cedar Rapids Gazette
"Delicious Foods is an epic and devastating hero's journey... [It]
is the result of a master storyteller at the top of his game. Don't
miss it."--Buzzfeed Books
"Delicious Foods is not a story about the death of the American
Dream, but an illumination of the fantasies that surround it, and
the denial that permits us to believe in its innocence. It is also
a compelling and haunting tale of family, responsibility, and
endurance."--Guernica
"Delicious Foods is virtuosity on a hire wire--a wild, romping,
brilliant plot, capped off with bodacious characters and
breathtaking prose. A completely unforgettable, original, and
singular novel by a brave, exciting new writer."
--Tayari Jones, author of Silver Sparrow
"[A] sensational new novel about the tenacity of racism and its
bizarre permutations... bounce[s] off the page with the sharpest,
wittiest, most unsettling cultural criticism I've read in years...
Hannaham is a propulsive storyteller... the whole story speeds
through the dark... never takes its foot off the gas... An
archetypal tale of American struggle... Reminiscent of Edward P.
Jones's The Known World...[A] fantastically creative performance...
[An] insightful and ultimately tender novel... You will devour this
book." --Ron Charles, Washington Post
"A comic novel about family, addiction, and getting in too
deep."--O Magazine
"A Southern farm provides the backdrop for a modern-day slavery
tale in this textured, inventive and provocatively funny novel... A
poised and nervy study of race in a unique voice."
--Kirkus (starred review)
"An audacious novel about poverty, grief, addiction and the bond
between mother and son--told with a ferocious voice not unlike
those of previous Discover selections Ruby by Cynthia Bond and
Southern Cross the Dog by Bill Cheng."--Shelf Awareness
"An audacious, heartbreaking story... that is intended to be
allegorical, but unearths a horror that is real and whose roots
reach all the way back to slavery... Hannaham brilliantly creates a
metaphor for human trafficking, modern-day industrialism, the
pernicious effects of the war on drugs, and society's greedy need
for 'quality' delivered as cheaply as possible... Delicious Foods
stay[s] in the mind... A breathtaking depiction of how difficult is
to break a spirit down, and how stubborn and resilient people can
be. "--Maclean's
"Bury me with this book, so I will remember how wonderful living
was--the food, the words, the stories, the places, the feeling of
freedom. Delicious Foods is a magnificent novel, full of beauty a
great writer can make of even the most terrifying parts of
life."--Rebecca Lee, author of Bobcat
"Hannaham's new book begins with one of the strongest openings for
a novel in recent memory... Propelled by the force of the questions
raised by those opening lines, Delicious Foods progresses with an
almost hallucinogenic fervor."--National Post
"Hannaham's prose is gloriously dense and full of elegant
observations that might go unmade by a lesser writer. There is a
great warmth in this novel that tackles darkness... [Hannaham]
creates full-bodied characters. Even the minor figures are drawn
with subtle details... Hannaham's decision to give a voice to
crack--in the character Scotty--occasions some lively and inventive
writing. Scotty has swagger and a sly sense of humor, and when he
narrates he holds your attention... The character is complex, both
tender and ruthless... A grand, empathetic, and funny novel about
addiction, labor exploitation, and love... Delicious Foods should
be read for its bold narrative risks, as well as the heart and
humor of its author's prose."--Roxane Gay, Bookforum
"In lesser hands, Delicious Foods could easily have been a dark and
dreary saga of misery and pain. Instead, Hannaham gleefully rides
the lightness. There is no dwelling in sorry here--only movement to
find a way forward to something better. No matter how bad things
get, you are breathing, you are alive. Therein lies the joy."--The
Root
"James Hannaham's satirical and darkly humorous look at racism,
drugs, and the American South begins intensely... and doesn't let
up... This brutal and beautiful tome is irresistible."
--USA Today
"Strange and often haunting, Hannaham's brilliant look at the
parent and child relationship, and the things that can tear that
normally unbreakable bond apart, could be one of the best novels of
2015."--Men's Journal
"The novel's unforgettable cast... satisfies all our readerly
cravings and without ostentation... The story's twists are at times
implausible but nonetheless are a great feat of imagination.
Hannaham has put his characters in the perfect conditions for these
issues to play out--and for us to believe them... From what we've
seen go down at Delicious, from the tenacity of this mother and
son, we know it's love that keeps us going. Love is a rock every
bit as hard as those diamond stars. Its indestructible beauty is
enough to break down the earthly rocks that are its meager
imitations."--The Rumpus
"This talented author conveys the story as no other could, except
possibly Tony Morrison, as in The Bluest Eye. But Hannaham may
actually surpass Morrison's considerable talents in conveying the
darkness of our struggles."--Peter Kelton, The Examiner
"With its ragged Southern vernacular, clever personification, and
horrific opening scene, Delicious Foods is violent and grim, but
it's ultimately a reminder of how, amid poverty and addiction, love
can prevail."--Out Magazine
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