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Loving Day

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'Loving Day' by Mat Johnson follows the story of Warren Duffy, a biracial man who returns to America after a failed marriage and the death of his father. Warren, struggling with his identity, discovers he has a daughter named Tal, who is darker than him and raised in the Jewish faith. As they navigate their complex relationship, they become involved with a community of biracial people, including a cultish school that challenges their perceptions of race and identity. The novel is a funny, satirical, and sometimes poignant exploration of American racial politics, mixed with dark humor and autobiographical elements.

Characters:

The characters are complex and flawed, with the protagonist, Warren Duffy, struggling with his biracial identity and his relationship with his daughter.

Writing/Prose:

The writing style combines humor, satire, and sharp commentary, making complex themes accessible and engaging.

Plot/Storyline:

The plot centers on a biracial man who navigates complex family dynamics and racial identity after discovering he has a teenage daughter.

Setting:

The setting is primarily in Philadelphia, contrasting a dilapidated mansion with the vibrant and complicated community surrounding it.

Pacing:

The novel begins with a fast pace but shifts into more complex and sometimes overwhelming territory later on.
IN THE GHETTO THERE IS A MANSION, and it is my father’s house. It sits on seven acres, surrounded by growling row homes, frozen in an architectural class war. Its expansive lawn is utterly useless, wi...

Notes:

Mat Johnson's novel 'Loving Day' explores racial identity through the eyes of Warren Duffy, a biracial man.
Warren returns to Philadelphia after the death of his father and discovers he has a teenage daughter named Tal.
The story is a mix of comedy and tragedy, addressing serious topics about race and identity.
Duffy struggles with his mixed heritage, often feeling uncomfortable in both white and black communities.
The novel is named after Loving Day, which commemorates the 1967 Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage in the U.S.
Duffy's light skin often leads to others misidentifying his racial identity, causing him inner conflict.
Tal, raised as white, makes casual remarks about race that challenge Duffy's views on her identity.
Duffy's journey includes navigating his daughter's biracial identity while dealing with the eccentricities of a cult-like school she wants to attend.
The book receives praise for its dark humor and satirical take on American race relations.
Critics note that Johnson combines poignant themes with a humorous narrative style, reminiscent of Mark Twain.

Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings

Content warnings for Loving Day include discussions of race, identity struggles, socioeconomic issues, and potential racial insensitivity.

Has Romance?

There is a medium presence of romance as Warren navigates his feelings for Sunita amidst his personal struggles.

From The Publisher:

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • “[Mat Johnson’s] unrelenting examination of blackness, whiteness and everything in between is handled with ruthless candor and riotous humor.”—Los Angeles Times “Razor-sharp .

. . Loving Day is that rare mélange: cerebral comedy with pathos.”—The New York Times Book Review NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times • San Francisco Chronicle • NPR • Men’s Journal • The Miami Herald • The Denver Post • Slate • The Kansas City Star • San Antonio Express-News • Time Out New York Warren Duffy has returned to America for all the worst reasons: His marriage to a beautiful Welsh woman has come apart; his comics shop in Cardiff has failed; and his Irish American father has died, bequeathing to Warren his last possession, a roofless, half-renovated mansion in the heart of black Philadelphia.

On his first night in his new home, Warren spies two figures outside in the grass. When he screws up the nerve to confront them, they disappear. The next day he encounters ghosts of a different kind: In the face of a teenage girl he meets at a comics convention he sees the mingled features of his white father and his black mother, both now dead.

The girl, Tal, is his daughter, and she’s been raised to think she’s white. Spinning from these revelations, Warren sets off to remake his life with a reluctant daughter he’s never known, in a haunted house with a history he knows too well.

In their search for a new life, he and Tal struggle with ghosts, fall in with a utopian mixed-race cult, and ignite a riot on Loving Day, the unsung holiday for interracial lovers. A frequently hilarious, surprisingly moving story about blacks and whites, fathers and daughters, the living and the dead, Loving Day celebrates the wonders of opposites bound in love.

Praise for Loving Day “Incisive . . . razor-sharp . . . that rare mélange: cerebral comedy with pathos. The vitality of our narrator deserves much of the credit for that.

He has the neurotic bawdiness of Philip Roth’s Alexander Portnoy; the keen, caustic eye of Bob Jones in Chester Himes’s If He Hollers Let Him Go; the existential insight of Ellison’s Invisible Man.”—The New York Times Book Review “Exceptional . . . To say that Loving Day is a book about race is like saying Moby-Dick is a book about whales.

. . . [Mat Johnson’s] unrelenting examination of blackness, whiteness and everything in between is handled with ruthless candor and riotous humor. . . . Even when the novel’s family strife and racial politics are at peak intensity, Johnson’s comic timing is impeccable.”—Los Angeles Times “Johnson, at his best, is a powerful comic observer [and] a gifted writer, always worth reading on the topics of race and privilege.’”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

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