Comedy can be a double-edged sword. The best comedians often address weighty matters more effectively than anyone else, but some audiences won't take seriously works that make them laugh. Readers dismiss at their own peril the warnings in People Like Us, Jason Mott's painfully funny and justifiably scathing portrait of the contemporary United States. This excellent novel vacillates between storylines about two Black authors Mott (The Returned; The Crossing) introduced in Hell of a Book. In the first, divorced North Carolina author Soot travels to a Minnesota college, the site of the latest school shooting, where he's been asked to "talk about America through the lens of his Black skin, his fear of police, and his loss." That loss is the suicide of his daughter at age 16.
In the second, another Black North Carolina author, unnamed until the end, won the National Book Award but has major problems, including a Black man with "scars on scars on scars" who threatens to kill him. The author buys a gun, "as American as apple pie, student loan debt, and truck nuts," but a seemingly lucky break may render it unnecessary. A French billionaire makes him an offer: stay in Europe, write whatever he wants about the U.S., and he'll be paid handsomely. The only catch is that the author can never go back.
Racism, active shooter drills, disaffected expatriates--they're all here, along with trenchant commentary on the United States. Solace is scarce in this bracing novel, but those who feel they don't belong anywhere will find plenty of commiseration. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer