Retrieve The Through Imagined By A. Rafael Johnson Contained In Document

love the way this book weaves together the reallife struggles of the central characters and the magicalrealist elements, which are captivating in and of themselves,

For my review of the book, see sitelink com/thethrough/.
The Through is a book about so many things: trauma, rape, black identity, slavery, Hurricane Katrina, relationships, ghosts, undead mothers, slave ships, black shooting and more.
Told in lyrical prose, the story centers around Ben Hughes and his girlfriend Adrian as they go about their lives in present day Alabama:

Ben is a struggling writer who hasn't written in awhile while working a deadend job as an adjunct professor.
Adrian is a working professional who has experienced a lot of trauma in her past and tries to keep it in the past, She deals in selfharm but it's unclear if her injuries are imagined or real, One day, in a dilapidated part of town called The Through, a flying slave ship appears in the sky and its appearance starts a chain of events that ends in tragedy.


The book reads like a fever dream: hallucinatory images, beautiful allegories, and allusions to concepts that, to be honest, went way above my head, Reading the prose, you can tell A, Rafael Johnson can write, But because of its magical realism, it's hard to distinguish what's real versus imagined,

Hence, I found myself often confused, when a character meets a new person or does an act, Is it really happening or not This could very well be the writer's intent, to leave the reader guessing, so I think this will be a marmitetype of book: some will love it and some will hate it.


I found it middling because while I can appreciate Johnson's elegant prose, I could not get a handle on the plot so found the book a bit too puzzling for my liking.


P. S. Still very confused by the cut on Adrian's hand and the constant appearance

of cicadas, This debut novel by A, Raphael Johnson is a must read, He has a writing voice that is lyrical and fresh, unlike any you've read before, He mixes music, art, history, magic, and nature, demanding much of us and giving us so much in return, The characters are complex and real, while aspects of the story are magical and provocative, The imagery and ideas will stay with you, and you will find yourself wondering when his second book is going to come out, I loved this book, The Through by A, Rafael Johnson. Its magical realism reminded me a great deal of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I loved the way it pulled together the black experience and the history of slavery with the current day troubles of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and Tuscaloosa, Alabama after its infamous tornado, and blended all that with the lives of characters who were so vivid and real.
It even pulled in the fight against apartheid investment on the University of Texas campus in thes, I also felt the presence of Toni Morrison and Beloved along with other novels of hers, The prose was very lyrical, The metaphor of the slave ship being carried by the characters on top of their heads speaks volumes, It will take a lot of pondering on my part to fully appreciate the depth of this book, but it will stick with me, of that I am sure.
A great debut novel. Can't wait to read more from Mr, Johnson. Fearless, incentive, original just such a good read Like most avid readers, I love to recount the stories of how particular books came to me, The author of this novel is the father of one of the children in my son's fourthgrade class, I had the privilege of hearing him read selections from the book at my favorite Twin Cities bookstore, Magers amp Quinn, and was not surprised to hear Johnson is also a spoken word artist.
Even when I was reading the novel on my own, so much of it felt like it could be read aloud and perhaps he will record an audio book some day.


The Through surrounds an AfricanAmerican couple who live outside Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Adrian is a successful businesswoman who survived both childhood rape and the violence of Hurricane Katrina Ben is an adjunct professor and writer struggling for his voice.
When a slave ship appears in the sky above their home, they must interact simultaneously with the fantastical and the actual threats to their safety, and confront their identities as individuals and as a couple.
Johnson constructs an outer world around their story with elements of Southern mythology, contemporary art, even a podcast about cicadas,

Most of my exposure to magical realism has been through Latinx authors, I enjoyed the way this writer transferred the genre to the American south, and hope to read more of his work in the future, The Through was enjoyable from start to finish, primarily because of how A, Rafael Johnson so seamlessly transitions from voice to voice, and the characters filled with so much life, and that's outside of our protagonists, Cut Mary and Ethiopia Jackson caught my attention anytime they uttered a single word, made a move, translated an experience, I found Ben almost too relatable at times, The speculative elements work well with the themes of pain, hate, and loss weaved throughout, but ultimately it speaks to an appreciation for and search of life, I felt.
Notes forthcoming . In a lyrical style reminiscent of Edward P, Jones and Rion Amlicar Scott, debut author A, Rafael Johnson navigates the strange and dangerous magic of Okahika, a black ghost town that exists somewhere between Alabama and the otherworld of flying slave ships and mothers back from the dead.
This narrative interrogates blackness in the New South, including the ways in which it is haunted and revisited by the old, It also engages with love and trauma, exploring how we keep ourselves hidden and allow ourselves to know each other in our most intimate relationships, Jeffrey Renard Allen describes The Through as “a novel about the hidden universes of being, a richly rewarding book that shows us how history is just above our heads, and the future is just under our feet, if we know how to look.
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