A History of the African-American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond, as Told to Percival Everett & James Kincaid (A Novel)

“[A]n outrageously funny satire of race relations and racism, US history, contemporary sexual mores and behavior, academia, and the publishing industry . . . It could become a cult-classic . . . Highly recommended.”—Library Journal

“The story’s epistolary format allows novelist Everett and literary theorist Kincaid to write in a chorus of richly individuated voices, by turns—and often simultaneously—sardonic, hysterical, obsequious, and threatening, aware of their own hypocrisies but unwilling to renounce them. The result is a truly funny send-up of the corrupt politics of academe, the publishing industry, and politics, as well as a subtle but biting critique of racial ideology.” —Publishers Weekly

In A History of the African-American People [Proposed], Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Percival Everett (James) and James Kincaid present a fictitious chronicle of former South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond’s desire to pen a history of African Americans—his and his aides’ belief being that he had done as much, or more, than any American to shape that history. An epistolary novel, A History follows the letters of loose-cannon congressional office workers, insane interns at a large New York publishing house, and disturbed publishing executives, along with homicidal rival editors and kindly family friends. Strom Thurmond appears charming and open, mad and sure of his place in American history.