 I read a lot. Whether it be for teaching, for research, for pleasure, to stay informed, I do a lot of it. As such, I often think, "Damn, that was good." Many times I'll tell my wife or friends that I learned so much from a piece.
It is not rare, even, that I finish something and think or say, "Holy shit, that was amazing." I think that something I read was so impactful it will change the way I think the rest of my life often. Just sitting here thinking about it, I can think of a handful of books and articles that are that impactful. "James" by Percival Everett is, in fact, one of those pieces. The book was just named the 2024 Pulitzer Prize winner for Fiction and it is completely worthy of the honor. One of my friends recently told me about a friend of her parents -- a well-to-do, older woman who claimed she did not know the horrors of slavery described in a fictional book she had read. She knew about slavery, but didn't realize how brutally the vast majority of slaves were treated. (This friend and I were in utter disbelief over the fact, but it explains a lot, I suppose.) Slavery is such a stain on humanity -- the absolute worst of human beings. But the best of humanity is art. Percival Everett's work here is just the best of human beings, the best of what the species is capable. Holy shit... that was amazing.
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Molly Yanity, Ph.D.
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