A Different Drummer: the extraordinary rediscovered classic - Softcover

Kelley, William Melvin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1787478033 ISBN 13: 9781787478039

Publisher: riverrun, 2018

'More than lives up to the hype' Observer
'Set to become a publishing sensation' Kirsty Lang, BBC Front Row
'An astounding achievement' Sunday Times
'The lost giant of American literature' New Yorker

June, 1957. One afternoon, in the backwater town of Sutton, a young black farmer by the name of Tucker Caliban matter-of-factly throws salt on his field, shoots his horse and livestock, sets fire to his house and departs the southern state. And thereafter, the entire African-American population leave with him.

The reaction that follows is told across a dozen chapters, each from the perspective of a different white townsperson. These are boys, girls, men and women; either liberal or conservative, bigoted or sympathetic - yet all of whom are grappling with this spontaneous, collective rejection of subordination.

In 1962, aged just 24, William Melvin Kelley's debut novel A Different Drummer earned him critical comparisons to James Baldwin and William Faulkner. Fifty-five years later, author and journalist Kathryn Schulz happened upon the novel serendipitously and was inspired to write the New Yorker article 'The Lost Giant of American Literature', included as a foreword to this edition.

Review:

Every so often, a 'forgotten classic' is rediscovered around which the literary world rallies with praise and prediction of a 'Stoner effect' . . . A Different Drummer more than lives up to the hype, both in terms of its literary accomplishment and in the power of its political vision . . . Today the book offers us an unflinching study of the southern white American psyche at the cusp of the civil rights movement: its belligerence against change, the incomprehension and anger. It is woeful to think that almost 60 years later, Kelley's story seems just as timely and as urgent, but what a gift to literature that we have rediscovered it. (Arifa Akbar Observer)

Simple, timeless, mythic . . . an astounding achievement . . . still relevant and powerful today. (Sunday Times)

Set to become a publishing sensation. (Kirsty Lang BBC Front Row)

Black America's lost literary masterpiece. (Observer)

Astounding . . . Absolutely essential reading. (Stylist)

This fierce and brilliant novel is written with sympathy as well as sorrow. It's a myth packed with real-world resonance. (Guardian)

Wonderful . . . full of dazzling moments of social and psychological observation that jump from the page as if they were written yesterday. (Metro)

A Different Drummer is a revelation. A story so vividly alive I closed the book a different person from the one who opened it. A vital classic of literature. (Polly Clark, author of Larchfield)

Brilliant . . . The rare first novel that makes future ones seem both inevitable and exciting. (New Yorker)

Despite the novel being over 50 years old it feels as relevant as ever, sitting alongside the likes of The Good Immigrant, Slay in Your Lane and Becoming. (Alexandra Heminsley Grazia)

Book Description:

A lost masterpiece, following in the footsteps of Suite Française, Alone in Berlin and Stoner.

• Publisher: riverrun
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1787478033
• ISBN 13: 9781787478039
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336