The Vain Conversation
About this book
Inspired by true events, The Vain Conversation reflects on the 1946 lynching of two black couples in Georgia from the perspectives of three characters—Bertrand Johnson, one of the victims; Noland Jacks, a presumed perpetrator; and Lonnie Henson, a witness to the murders as a ten-year-old boy. Lonnie’s inexplicable feelings of culpability drive him in a search for meaning that takes him around the world, and ultimately back to Georgia, where he must confront Jacks and his own demons, with the hopes that doing so will free him from the grip of the past.In The Vain Conversation, Anthony Grooms seeks to advance the national dialogue on race relations. With complexity, satire, and sometimes levity, he explores what it means to redeem, as well as to be redeemed, on the issues of America’s race violence and speaks to the broader issues of oppression and violence everywhere.
Where to buy
No purchase options available at this time.
More by Clarence Major
Breaking Ice: an Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction
Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, Charles R. Johnson, Ernest J. Gaines, Marita Golden, John Edgar Wideman, Rita Dove, Gayl Jones, James Alan McPherson, Wanda Coleman, Ntozake Shange, Angela Jackson, David Bradley, Nathaniel Mackey, Becky Birtha, Amiri Baraka, Percival Everett, William Melvin Kelley, Ishmael Reed, John McCluskey, Randall Kenan, Paule Marshall, Gloria Naylor, J. California Cooper, Terry McMillan, Toni Cade Bambara, Melvin Dixon, Barbara Neely, Kristin Hunter Lattany, Mary Monroe, Tina McElroy Ansa, Connie Rose Porter, Darryl Pinckney, Clarence Major, Wesley Brown, Trey Ellis, William Demby, Arthur Flowers, Safiya Henderson-Holmes, Colleen McElroy, Richard Perry, Xam Wilson Cartier, Steven Corbin, Don Belton, Grace Edwards-Yearwood, Sandra Hollin Flowers, Carolyn Cole, Bill Williams Forde, Doris Jean Austin, Fatima Shaik, Peter Harris
Welcome to Braggsville
T. Geronimo Johnson
Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy
Jonathan Carroll, Mark Childress, Connie May Fowler, George Singleton, Ron Rash, Janis Ian, Jonathan Galassi, Mary Monroe, Wendell Minor, Patti Callahan Henry, Nicole Seitz, Marjory Wentworth, Sandra Brown, Katherine Clark, William Walsh, Mary Hood, Sallie Ann Robinson, Sonny Brewer, Maggie Schein, Mark Powell, Rick Bragg, Anthony Grooms, Valerie Sayers, Anne Rivers Siddons, Terry Kay, Nathalie Dupree, Barbra Streisand, Alex Sanders, Ashley Warlick, Lawrence S. Rowland, Josephine Humphreys, Walter Edgar, Nikky Finney, Steve Oney, Teresa Miller, Lynn Seldon, Kathleen Parker, Jonathan Sanchez, Bernie Schein, Melissa Conroy, Catherine Seltzer, John Warley, Cynthia Graubart, Andy Marlette, Bren McClain, Kathy L. Murphy, Cassandra King Conroy, John Connor Cleveland, Sean Scapellato, John Lane, Cliff Graubart, Alexia Helsley, Scott Graber, Stephanie Austin Edwards, Ellen Malphrus, Debbi Covington, Judy Goldman, Tim Conroy, Dottie Ashley, David Lauderdale, Ryder Carroll, William A. Balk Jr., Teresa K. Weaver, Margaret Evans, Michael O'Keefe, Michael Morris