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Black Jesus is Simone Felice's latest novel, published by Allen&Unwin this year. The fact that the book is published by A&U, an Australia-based publisher, while the writer himself lives in the Catskill Mountains in New York State, arguably the backyard of the largest English-language publishing hub in the world, New York City, is perhaps indicative of the novel itself.
The story, centred around a marine, who returns home from Iraq blinded, named Lionel White, or 'Black Jesus' (his marine nick-name)and a woman named Gloria/Desiree who flees to the Catskills where Black Jesus' home is, to get away from a (very) abusive partner in LA. It is fate that brings the two together at Lionel's mothers flea market - a meeting that helps them both find their centre and redemption through a renewed belief in reality.
I do not wish to go too far into the story - the outline above gives you the premise, but it is Felice's language that will draw you in. He has the power of making the mundane and drab into the poetic and exciting. For the sake of comparison, the book reads as a bastard-child of DBC Pierre's 'Vernon God Little' and Mitch Cullin's 'Tideland', mixing black humour with a southern gothic edge.
I read this novel in an evening, effortlessly letting the story wash over me. You care for all characters, all beautifully flawed, and the story stays fresh and keeps moving. The only criticism I have is the about the inclusion of the useless side-story involving Gloria/Desiree's ex after she has left him - it adds nothing to the novel as a whole and, in fact, distracts from the main story-line and could be cut without leaving any kind of gaps. That said, this is a great read, and I highly recommend it. Apart from the lovers of, obviously, DBC Pierre and Mitch Cullin's 'Tideland' anyone who likes a dark quirky story will enjoy this novel.
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