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Title details for Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham - Available

Great Expectations

A Novel

by Vinson Cunningham
Aaron Goodson
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A historic presidential campaign changes the trajectory of a young Black man’s life in this “coming of age story that captures the soul of America” (The Washington Post), the debut novel from The New Yorker staff writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Vinson Cunningham.
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD/JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST BOOK
“One of the smartest and most involving political novels I’ve read in ages.”—The Wall Street Journal
ONE OF SLATE’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, NPR, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Town & Country, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Electric Lit, Current, WBEZ
I’d seen the Senator speak a few times before my life got caught up, however distantly, with his, but the first time I can remember paying real attention was when he delivered the speech announcing his run for the Presidency.
When David first hears the Senator from Illinois speak, he feels deep ambivalence. Intrigued by the Senator’s idealistic rhetoric, David also wonders how he’ll balance the fervent belief and inevitable compromises it will take to become the United States’ first Black president.
Great Expectations is about David’s eighteen months working for the Senator's presidential campaign. Along the way David meets a myriad of people who raise a set of questions—questions of history, art, race, religion, and fatherhood—that force David to look at his own life anew and come to terms with his identity as a young Black man and father in America.
Meditating on politics and politicians, religion and preachers, fathers and family, Great Expectations is both an emotionally resonant coming-of-age story and a rich novel of ideas, marking the arrival of a major new writer.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 12, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593559017
      • File size: 197876 KB
      • Duration: 06:52:14

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from February 12, 2024
      New Yorker staff writer Cunningham debuts with a sophisticated bildungsroman that draws on his work for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. His narrator, David, is a Black man in his early 20s, adrift in Chicago and searching for role models, having neglected his early academic promise after unexpectedly becoming a father and subsequently flunking out of college. Beverly, a leading Black businesswoman whose middle-schooler son David tutors in English and math, connects him with the campaign of an Obama-like politician known only as “the Senator.” David keenly longs for something to believe in, but despite his brushes on the campaign trail with Cornel West and other leading Black figures, his work mainly consists of selling tickets to fund-raising dinners and arranging staged meetings between the Senator and voters. The political plot is secondary—readers know the campaign will, like Obama’s, follow a victorious arc—freeing Cunningham to shine in David’s recollections of his upbringing in a Pentecostal church run by a charismatic pastor who bears some resemblance to the Senator. More than a chronicle of idealism and disillusionment, this is an extended exploration of the power and limits of believing in something bigger than oneself. Cunningham’s remarkable first novel matches the scale of its namesake.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Aaron Goodson has a pleasing narrative style. He performs this coming-of-age novel in a conversational manner. His pensive tone works for narrator/protagonist David Hammons, the well-read but adrift young man who finds himself working as a fundraising assistant in the 2008 presidential election for the unnamed African American senator from Illinois. This clearly autobiographical novel (Cunningham worked on Barack Obama's staff) succeeds because the author is a keen observer of political goings-on, and his finely crafted story includes smart and nuanced riffs on religion, money in politics, and life on the campaign trail. This fictional tell-all takes the young man to settings that range from Martha's Vineyard to L.A. His observations create a timely listen. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      May 31, 2024

      David is a college dropout who finds himself swept up in the presidential campaign of an eloquent Black senator from Illinois. Suddenly, David is scraping by with the other lowly campaign staffers while simultaneously rubbing elbows with the wealthy donors they court. The dichotomy forces him to reconsider everything he knows, from faith to fatherhood, and weigh it against this new world of power and politics. Amid friendships, flirtations, and failures, David presses onward in support of the senator and his promise of a new age for the United States. Cunningham, theater critic at the New Yorker, makes a powerful debut with this poignant novel. Though the presidential candidate is unnamed, his quest to become the first Black president and allusions to his elegant wife and young daughters leave little doubt that he is based on Barack Obama. Narrator Aaron Goodson gives an engaging performance of this thought-provoking story of hope. His no-frills presentation of the first-person narrative lets Cunningham's witty and reflective writing shine. VERDICT This audio will appeal to listeners seeking a moving novel about disillusionment and destiny set against the backdrop of a political campaign. Recommended for fans of Jason Mott and Paul Beatty.--Lauren Hackert

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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