{"product_id":"god-bless-you-otis-spunkmeyer-hardcover","title":"God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJoseph Earl Thomas\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eONE OF \u003ci\u003eTHE MILLIONS'\u003c\/i\u003e MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2024\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"This is an astonishingly accomplished novel...Just stunning.\" - Kirkus Reviews, starred review\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Magnificent\" - Publisher's Weekly, starred review \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA stirring, unsparing novel about Black life in Philadelphia and the struggle to build intimate connections through the eyes of a struggling ex-Army grad student that \"reads like a direct communication from the soul,\" (Justin Torres) from the virtuoso author of \u003ci\u003eSink\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e After a deployment in the Iraq War dually defined by threat and interminable mundanity, Joseph Thomas is fighting to find his footing. Now a doctoral student at The University, and an EMS worker at the hospital in North Philly, he encounters round the clock friends and family from his past life and would-be future at his job, including contemporaries of his estranged father, a man he knows little about, serving time at Holmesburg prison for the statutory rape of his then-teenage mother. Meanwhile, he and his best friend Ray, a fellow vet, are alternatingly bonding over and struggling with their shared experience and return to civilian life, locked in their own rhythms of lust, heartbreak, and responsibility. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Balancing the joys and frustrations of single fatherhood, his studies, and ceaseless shifts at the hospital as he becomes closer than he ever imagined to his father, Joseph tries to articulate vernacular understandings of the sociopolitical struggles he recounts as participant-observer at home, against the assumptions of his friends and colleagues. GOD BLESS YOU, OTIS SPUNKMEYER is a powerful examination of every day black life--of health and sex, race and punishment, and the gaps between our desires and our politics.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoseph Earl Thomas\u003c\/b\u003e is a writer from Frankford whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in \u003ci\u003eVQR, N+1, Gulf Coast, The Offing, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Kenyon Review\u003c\/i\u003e. He has an MFA in prose from The University of Notre Dame and is a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Pennsylvania. An excerpt of his memoir, \u003ci\u003e Sink, \u003c\/i\u003e won the 2020 Chautauqua Janus Prize and he has received fellowships from Fulbright, VONA, Tin House, and Bread Loaf. He's writing the novel \u003ci\u003eGod Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, \u003c\/i\u003e and a collection of stories, \u003ci\u003eLeviathan Beach, \u003c\/i\u003eamong other oddities. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 240\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.89 x 8.49 x 5.77 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 18, 2024\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51747667509536,"sku":"9781538740989","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/239e5ef8ea58fbbec18ab9be20e77eb9.webp?v=1779898707","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/god-bless-you-otis-spunkmeyer-hardcover","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}