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A Visitation of Spirits: A Novel

by Randall Kenan (Goodreads Author)

3.68 · rating details · 127 ratings · 16 reviews

In a remarkable first novel--uniquely conceived and executed--Randall Kenan has created a vivid portrait of four generations of a Southern black family in rural North Carolina.

Paperback, 272 pages

Published October 1st 1990 by Vintage (first published 1989)

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Nov 01, 2011

jo rated it

Recommended to jo by: Qiana

Shelves: african-american, queer, blew-my-mind, experimental

this book is so ridiculously good, i had to check and check again that this author has in fact written only one novel, and no fiction at all (at least in book form) since 1993. NINETEENNINETYTHREE???? what are you doing, randall kenan? can you pleasepleaseplease write us another novel?

what flows in the arteries of this magnificent mixture of narrative, hallucination/visitation, snippets of playwrightery, first-and-third-person chapters, old stories and present stories -- what keeps ...morethis book is so ridiculously good, i had to check and check again that this author has in fact written only one novel, and no fiction at all (at least in book form) since 1993. NINETEENNINETYTHREE???? what are you doing, randall kenan? can you pleasepleaseplease write us another novel?

what flows in the arteries of this magnificent mixture of narrative, hallucination/visitation, snippets of playwrightery, first-and-third-person chapters, old stories and present stories -- what keeps it alive and beautiful and luscious and irresistible -- is preternaturally beautiful language and a vision of african-americanness and religion and family and life's torments that only language this beautiful can convey properly. i found this book very painful. a friend of mine tells me it's about comics. to me it was about pain, weariness, endurance, exhaustion, sickness, and the consolation of death. maybe comics are about all of these things too (i'm sure my friend would say they are).

at the center of the novel is the predicament of horace, a high school gay boy who is tortured to the bone by his homosexuality. his grandfather is chief deacon and this means a lot in the small baptist community where he lives. religion and the sinfulness of his desire chase him everywhere he goes. because he has nothing else to turn to, he turns to magic; except it's home-made magic, list-ditch-effort magic. what results is a visitation of spirits or a visitation of inner demons, depending how you choose to read it.

intermingled with horace's hallucinatory/supernatural trip are various multi-vocal narratives, most notably a sunday trip by three of horace's family members (his grandfather, his cousin and his great-aunt -- if i have that right) to visit sick relatives. the trip's banality and pettiness acts as a counterpoint to horace's torments, but also speaks of family, of people's taking care of each other, of long-held secrets, or intergenerational miscommunication, of growing old, of loss, of aloneness, and, to some extent, of love.

and yet, painful as it is, this is not a bitter book. i at least didn't find it bitter. i found it gorgeous. there is an quasi-epic quasi-biblical passage toward the end that links all of horace's pain -- and by extension all the discomfort and defeat of the three in the car on their errand of mercy -- to slavery. the passage drips sadness and despair, but then it's also so incredibly beautiful, how can this beauty not contain seeds and seeds of hope?
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Sep 23, 2011

David Carr rated it

It may be a notable artifact of its time and a significant step in its author's development, but I found this to be an immature and confused book. It uses hallucinatory passages to review the past, slips in and out of reality, and varies so wildly between coherence and an overboard striving for lyricism that I was annoyed throughout. The problem for me: I have to talk about this book twice to library audiences in the next couple of weeks, so I will talk about the extremes, the constraints and...more

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Mar 22, 2011

P'ster rated it

It is always an accomplishment when a writer completes a novel, never mind publishes one. Anyone who does the former gets immediate points, but doing the latter doesn’t mean it’s a great novel or even a very good one. Randall Kenan’s first novel, 1989’s A Visitation of Spirits, is neither great nor very good, but it is a notable entry in post- Alice Walker and Toni Morrison African American, particularly Gen X African American, fiction. Kenan could very well find his niche somewhere between thes...moreIt is always an accomplishment when a writer completes a novel, never mind publishes one. Anyone who does the former gets immediate points, but doing the latter doesn’t mean it’s a great novel or even a very good one. Randall Kenan’s first novel, 1989’s A Visitation of Spirits, is neither great nor very good, but it is a notable entry in post- Alice Walker and Toni Morrison African American, particularly Gen X African American, fiction. Kenan could very well find his niche somewhere between these giants and younger writers like Colson Whitehead. Time will tell.

Spirits, at its simplest, recounts the story of two branches of the Cross family, the oldest, most well-respected and prominent African American family in the tobacco-farming area in and around Tim’s Creek, North Carolina. The family’s (many) trials and (meager) triumphs are told though the experiences of two protagonists, cousins Horace Cross and James (Jimmy) Malachai Greene, and two subsidiary but important characters, brother and sister-in law Zeke and Ruth Cross, who are, respectively, Horace’s grandfather and aunt, and Jimmy’s great uncle and aunt. If this basic lineage sounds a bit confusing, just wait: That’s just the main characters. These four characters then figure in a plot that intersperses their experiences over the course of a day, but not the same day. Horace’s story unfolds in one 24 hour period in the past and Jimmy, Zeke’s and Ruth’s over another in the present. Within these two different days, each character’s present and past and the family’s overall history unspools. Still with me? Ok, well then these past/present intercuts occur within five sections whose titles attest to the stain of slavery and both the saving and suppressing role of spirituality in this African American family: White Sorcery; Black Necromancy; Holy Science; Old Demonology; and Old Gods, New Demons. Within these five sections are various chapters focusing either on Horace or Jimmy, Ruth and Zeke.

Although Kenan plots with Dickensian zeal—and borrows from Dicken’s A Christmas Carol to tell Horace’s story, the structure is elaborate and distracting. The narrative’s heart is strained by the competing demands of too many characters, none of whom, except Horace, is realized enough for readers to understand why they should care about the family’s unraveling. Too bad because Kenan has some beautiful intentions here: To depict a family’s rise and fall through its own pride and prejudices, the key to its self-preservation and self-combustion a religiosity whose dualities are embodied in 16-year-old Horace’s struggles with his homosexuality. Indeed, Kenan best hits his stride with Horace, a scholar-athlete who represents the Crosses’ next great hope. Unfortunately, Horace is young, black, gay and gifted in a black Southern Baptist family, in a mid-1980’s rural, bigoted North Carolinian community decades removed, if not in actual chronology then attitude, from Stonewall. His resources, outside his own imagination, are few; this is unfortunate because his (literal) salvation could have been the family’s. Unfortunately, Kenan only hints at this.
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Apr 10, 2010

Eric Aiello rated it

Shelves: 50-book-challenge-2010

Goodreads seriously needs to consider putting in a rating system broken down into half-stars. I feel bad giving this only 3, but I don't feel satisfied enough to give it four. So, for the record, this gets 3 and one half stars from me!

Horace's story was fan-freaking-tastic. I was very invested in his break-down and his horror filled night. James Greene's narrative was also pretty interesting. Kenan has an uncanny ability to grotesquely and vividly describe the killings of things. In ...more

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Aug 11, 2011

Paul Wilson rated it

Didn't realize how old this book was when I picked it up, from 1989. But a solid read that stands the test of time. Still has a powerful message with good characters.

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Dec 30, 2009

Benjamin Thomas Sutpen added it

http://sensemania.blogspot.com/2007/11/v...

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Aug 21, 2010

Victoria Innes rated it

Haunting and beautiful, this book broke my heart!

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Oct 12, 2011

Emily rated it

Recommends it for: people confused, oppressed, sad; my son or daughter

Recommended to Emily by: Brian Desarro

‎"Even television had played a role in his mysterious search. It was the magical blue box, soon to become the yardstick against which he measured his world."

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Mar 14, 2010

Sarah rated it

This was very Toni Morrison-esque. It switched narrators, even from first to third. It skipped through time. It even changed genres here and there. Parts were good, but I just didn't have concentration that it took to truly understand what was going on at each moment. I kept wanting a family tree to keep everyone straight. It would have been better if I had given more of a crap.

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Sep 17, 2008

Belinda Mitchell rated it

I actually read this book years ago but it is definitely one of my favorites. It is beautifully written and I was amazed that this was his first novel. I don't understand why Randall Kenan is not on the level of a Toni Morrison for example. He's that good.

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Aug 26, 2008

Ashley Lucas rated it

Kenan teaches at UNC and was raised in a small town in North Carolina, much like the one where he sets this novel. The novel has an interesting structure and some very poignant moments, but it wasn't quite as captivating as I'd hoped.

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Nov 15, 2008

J-L rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone

I just finished re-reading this magical, heart-quickening, darkly erotic novel. I'm so in awe of Kenan's talent, courage and language. I wish him millions of readers all over the world for centuries to come.

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Jul 28, 2011

Lbball27 rated it

disturbing at times, but a real page-turner. want to discuss this with my wise son when he reads this. I would definitely read more from him.

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Sep 12, 2008

Barbara rated it

This book is about a gay black kid living in the south who's pondering whether to kill himself, or everyone else. After I read this I had very intense dreams.

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Apr 29, 2007

Morgan Williams rated it

Shelves: literaryfiction

A somewhat strange, but very successful and beautifully written book. This is Randall Kenan's first novel, but it is so well done that it is hard to tell.

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Oct 29, 2010

Chelsea Hutchins rated it

A super intense read. It's definitely not for the faint of heart, but it makes you think.

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Feb 07, 2012

Mae R rated it

Feb 06, 2012

Emily marked it as to-read

Shelves: read-in-college

Jan 29, 2012

skoob_books added it

Jan 20, 2012

Sarah rated it

Jan 08, 2012

Sean Donovan rated it

Shelves: queer-lit

Dec 30, 2011

Vrinda added it

Dec 29, 2011

Bret rated it

Shelves: novel, finished, african, american

Dec 29, 2011

Jamie Hughes marked it as to-read

Shelves: to-read-fiction

Dec 14, 2011

Ty added it · review of another edition

Dec 13, 2011

Zalman rated it

· review of another edition

Jan 08, 2012

Paige Gray rated it

Nov 26, 2011

Continualknowledge marked it as to-read

Nov 21, 2011

Vinetta marked it as to-read

Nov 10, 2011

M marked it as to-read

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About Randall Kenan

Randall Kenan's first novel, A Visitation of Spirits was published by Grove Press in 1989; and a collection of stories, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, was published in 1992 by Harcourt, Brace. That collection was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was among The New York Times Notable Books of 1992. He is also ...moreRandall Kenan's first novel, A Visitation of Spirits was published by Grove Press in 1989; and a collection of stories, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, was published in 1992 by Harcourt, Brace. That collection was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was among The New York Times Notable Books of 1992. He is also the author of a young adult biography of James Baldwin (1993), and wrote the text for Norman Mauskoff=s book of photographs, A Time Not Here: The Mississippi Delta (1997). Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1999, and was nominated for the Southern Book Award. His latest book, The Fire This Time, was published in May 2007. He is currently working on a novel, There’s A Man Going Round Taking Names, set in North Carolina and New York City; and a book about the North Carolina hog industry.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1963, and spent his childhood in Chinquapin, North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a B.A. in English in 1985. From 1985 to 1989 he worked on the editorial staff of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, publishers. In 1989 he began teaching writing at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. He was the first William Blackburn Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Duke University in the fall of 1994, and the Edourd Morot-Sir Visiting Professor of Creating Writing at his alma mater in 1995. He was the John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi, Oxford (1997-98),Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Memphis, and held the Lehman-Brady Professorship at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. He has also taught urban literature at Vassar College.

He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Sherwood Anderson Award, the John Dos Passos Prize, and was the 1997 Rome Prize winner from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Currently he is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at UNC-Chapel Hill.
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Books by Randall Kenan

Walking On Water: Black American Lives At The Turn Of The Twenty First Century

James Baldwin:American Writer, lives of notable gay men and lesbians

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