Will You Be Mine? - Hardcover

Beckham, Barry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 093176159X ISBN 13: 9780931761591

Publisher: Beckham Publications Group, 2006

Synopsis

Distinguished novelist's stab at presenting a different kind of love story. "I wanted a black male narrator who is tender and passionate," says Beckham. "At the same time," he adds, "readers will find my usual elements of exaggerated reality and social commentary." His narrator is a 50-year-old African-American photographer whose third wife, Chinita-twenty years younger-has just died after a painful bout with "the disease that keeps growing." Caught in Washington, DC traffic and listening to talk radio as he drives toward his beach house, the narrator has the perfect audience-a sympathetic Teddy bear. The photographer's rumination is really a description of his long search for his soul mate, his earth angel. It has taken more than half of his life to find her. His musings are poignant explorations of the full range of passion and romance. At the same time, the events take on surreal, comic and tragic tones as he negotiates his way in a society that seems obsessed with stifling and subjugating his manhood. For the African-American male in the last half of the twentieth century, says Beckham, it is a painfully difficult challenge trying to foster a loving, tender relationship filled with passion and joy.

About this title

About the Author:

Barry Beckham is considered one of our most innovative prose writers who has brought a variety of experiences to his work.

A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Beckham is on the board of the Author’s League Fund and the George Polk Awards, and has served on the boards of PEN American Center and the Author’s Guild. He was one of the judges of the 2005 Hurston Wright Foundation Award for the best novel by an African American.

Beckham has published prose in Esquire, Black Enterprise, Crisis, the New York Times, Educational Record, the Washington Post, American Visions, and elsewhere. He was director of the graduate writing program at his alma mater, Brown University, where he taught for 17 years.

About this edition

• Publisher: Beckham Publications Group
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 093176159X
• ISBN 13: 9780931761591
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 312