The Longest Summer

With The Longest Summer, Ogundimu manages to tap into the very essence of what it means to be human in a world that literally ceases to have meaning... in the process, once again, proving to the world that she is one of the best at her craft. It is in the decayed city of Abboton, Indiana (an almost too-perfect portrayal of a very specific moment in time of a very specific part of the American Midwest) that a certain type of slow-motion violence occurs-quietly descending upon its denizens, and sending out never-ending waves of irreparable destruction. I mean... My father lays his rifle across the bed and tells my mother One of us is going to die tonight. Holy Hell. Jesus Christ. WTGDF. This is one that is going to stay with you forever. - Mike Kleine Do you remember your early twenties? Think back. When every action carried weight, when friends were as important as blood? Alexandrine Ogundimu's The Longest Summer is beautifully alive with the flush of young adulthood. Victor Adewale and his friends felt totally real to me - lost, searching, bound by indecision, yet joyously alive - people I would have hung out with. If you buy just one book this summer, make sure it's this book. - James Nulick, author of Lazy Eyes Ogundimu consistently produces visceral prose, and The Longest Summer, her most extended work to date, is her first masterpiece. The dinge of the Midwest and the despair of its inhabitants shine through, alongside a profound alienation. Humanity is reduced to a corporate script, while personal connections flounder under the weight of economic oppression, bigotry and surreal external forces. It feels like an environmental evil is persecuting the narrator, and its effects penetrate to the micro-personal level. A radical loneliness manifests as events unfold according to a logic that is not fate, but the result of human agency. The knowledge that other choices could have been made only exacerbates the sense of doom these circumstances elicit. Someone willed this hell into existence. A feel-good summer read. -Charlene Elsby, author of Hexis