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In his new book, Pym, fiction writer Mat Johnson plays with the premise of Edgar Allen Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Poe's novel was a "master text of anxious white fright," says Maureen Corrigan, and Johnson's clever book shines new light on the material.
Pym
By Mat Johnson
Hardcover, 336 pages
Spiegel & Grau
INTERVIEW WITH MAT JOHNSON, AUTHOR OF GRAPHIC NOVEL INCOGNEGRO
"Zane Pinchback, a reporter for The New Holland Herald of New York, is a black man who can pass for white. Zane uses this ability to go undercover to investigate lynchings in the 1930s South. “Identity is open-ended,” he proclaims. “Why have just one?” That belief is a theme that comes up in unexpected ways in this engrossing graphic novel, with its smart dialogue and sharp images."
