- A Visitation of Spirits
Infobox Book |
name = A Visitation of Spirits
title_orig =
translator =
image_caption =
author =Randall Kenan
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country =United States
language = English
series =
genre =Novel
publisher =Grove Press
release_date = July 1989
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 272 p.
isbn = ISBN 978-0802111180
preceded_by =
followed_by =A Visitation of Spirits is a 1989 novel by
Randall Kenan .WorldCat shows it to be in hundreds of libraries.Plot introduction
Horace, a black gay teenager from
North Carolina , kills himself and comes back as a ghost.Plot summary
Horace, a gay black teenager from Tims Creek, North Carolina, goes out with the school's sissyboy, Gideon. Later he jilts him and befriends a group of well-to-do white jocks. Later still, he goes out with a
Puerto Rican actor, Antonio Santanglo. Finally, he decides to pore over books ofsorcery and come back as a bird to escape his predicament - homosexuality and cultural homophobia. In delirium, he kills himself. He later comes back as a ghost to see different stages of his life again.Meanwhile, Horace's elder cousin, Jimmy, becomes a minister and the principal of the local high school. He drives his great-aunt Ruth and his uncle Ezekiel to see one of their relatives, Asa Cross, in hospital. At a diner, the aunt has an argument with the uncle; Jimmy attempts to quell it but he remains unsuccessful, in spite of his being a church minister.Cultural references
*Reverend Barden mentions "
Little House on the Prairie " and "The Waltons ".External links
* [http://www.time.com/time/reports/mississippi/literature.html Time Magazine article about the book and author.]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=YnEDAAAACAAJ&dq=A+Visitation+of+Spirits&ie=ISO-8859-1 Google Books page.]
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