Book Review: Delicious Foods by James Hannaham - Entrepreneur Generations

I didn't know anything about Delicious Foods, a 2015 novel by James Hannaham, except for its description, accolades, and Best-Of lists on Amazon, including praise from Dave Eggers and Jennifer Egan. I took a chance on the audible, listening to the first few paragraphs read by the author, and was immediately hooked both by his narration
and the story: a young black man is driving a Subaru through the middle of the night, his hands having been chopped off, having just escaped something.

I'd never read a book that starting even remotely like this before.

And Hannaham's novel continued to slay me throughout my listening (and I've subsequently re-read it in prose, because I felt like I missed some stuff): this is an audacious, funny, and gut-wrenching novel about mothers and sons, grief, addiction, and dehumanization. It follows several American novel motifs: there are multiple journeys and quests to find others and themselves; there are the corrosive effects of racism; there is the exploitation of workers by big companies. But there's also something fairly post-modern about the novel, too: one of the narrators is, literally, Crack Cocaine.

The profane and crass narration by Crack Cocaine is a daring choice, but it works. He narrates the thoughts of Darlene, a black woman who is too overcome with addiction to narrate her own story: "Maybe I attack a certain kinda person. Folks always saying that I do. Doctors talking now 'bout how people brain chemistry make some of em fall in love harder with codependent types. But I feel a obligation to Darlene. Out all my friends--and, baby, I got millions--she make me wonder the most if I done right by her. Sometimes I think to myself that maybe she shouldna met me. But then again, can't nobody else tell her side of things but Yours Truly, Scotty. I'm the only one who stuck by her the whole time." And there are a number of a things that lead to this addiction, but it's mostly out of grief, for Darlene's husband, a civil rights activist, was killed under mysterious circumstances, leaving Darlene both a widowed mother of a 4-year old son and in a downward spiral of depression and poverty.

It's the 4-year old son who eventually becomes the teenage boy driving without hands at the outset of the novel, but much happens both before and after that. The title comes from the name of a company that Darlene and her son both find themselves working for, an exploitative company that uses workers' debt and addiction to keep them in a modern form of slavery; it's based on the real-life company Bulls-Hit Farm, which you can read about here. Hannaham -- continuing to narrate the actions by Crack Cocaine, with a 3rd person omniscient also focusing on the son, Eddie -- describes the exploitation and profiteering with a keen observant eye and, often, humor; the raunchy voice of Crack Cocaine (Scotty) does not shy away from the grotesqueness of the company's actions, of addiction, or of the forces that keep all of these people here.

James Hannaham

Scotty calls his addictive effect on the brain "braindancing," and I'm not sure if I've ever read a more visceral account of addiction in literature before. But Hannaham's novel is also full of gritty poetry and imagery, and, even though addiction makes up an important part of Delicious Foods, it's also about survival, racism, and exploitation. And, at its core, it's the story of a wounded boy and a wounded woman who must overcome all of this and, maybe, become mother and son again.

There were a few scenes, such as the one that explains the handlessness of Eddie, that strained credibility for me. And I'm sure the brutality and darkness of Delicious Foods will turn off others. But I found Hannaham's novel to be one of the most unusual, intriguing, and powerful that I've ever read.

But did I mention that I laughed out loud throughout the novel? And got really sad at times, including some big real tears by the end? Yes. Delicious Foods is quite possibly a great novel, with all of its bold flourishes and core human truths. Would I teach it? Mature seniors would love it, and I think this is a cool addition to the American Literature canon; it is full of dreams and journey and problemetizes some of the tenets upon with the United States stands, namely race and capitalism. However, it's probably too mordant and profane for younger.

P.S. -- I also don't know anything about James Hannaham, but some cursory research shows he's Black and gay, and this is his 2nd novel; his first novel, God Says No, is about a man who goes to a pray-away-the-gay ministry. I'll be reading that one shortly because I think Hannaham, with Delicious Foods, reminds me of one of my favorite writers, Paul Beatty.

from Epiphany in Baltimore http://ift.tt/2apXTPn Book Review: Delicious Foods by James Hannaham - Entrepreneur Generations

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