Pym

A comic journey into the ultimate land of whiteness by an unlikely band of African American adventurers
Recently canned professor of American literature Chris Jaynes is obsessed with "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, " Edgar Allan Poe's strange and only novel. When he discovers the manuscript of a crude slave narrative that seems to confirm the reality of Poe's fiction, he resolves to seek out Tsalal, the remote island of pure and utter blackness that Poe describes with horror. Jaynes imagines it to be the last untouched bastion of the African Diaspora and the key to his personal salvation.
He convenes an all-black crew of six to follow Pym's trail to the South Pole in search of adventure, natural resources to exploit, and, for Jaynes at least, the mythical world of the novel. With little but the firsthand account from which Poe derived his seafaring tale, a bag of bones, and a stash of Little Debbie snack cakes, Jaynes embarks on an epic journey under the permafrost of Antarctica, beneath the surface of American history, and behind one of literature's great mysteries. He finds that here, there be monsters.

About the Author :
Mat Johnson was born and raised in Philadelphia, and has lived most of his life elsewhere. He is the author of several novels and graphic novels including "Drop, Hunting in Harlem, " and "Incognegro." Johnson is a faculty member at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program and lives in Texas with his wife and children.

Review :
"BLISTERINGLY FUNNY...a full-fledged and fiendishly inventive inversion of Poe's ["Pym"], a series of bizarre encounters I can't bring myself to spoil, each one more deliciously pointed than the last." - Laura Miller, "Salon"
"SCREAMINGLY FUNNY...there's no shortage of thought and scholarship and experience underpinning "Pym, " but Johnson doesn't let any of it bog him down. On the contrary, reading Pym is like opening A BIG CAN OF WHOOP-ASS and then marveling -- gleefully -- at all the mayhem that ensues." - Maggie Galehouse, "Houston Chronicle "
"RELENTLESSLY ENTERTAINING...It's no easy task to balance social satire against life-threatening adventure, the allegory against the gory, but Johnson's hand is steady and his ability to play against Poe's text masterly. The book is polyphonous and incisive, an uproarious and hard-driving journey." - "New York Times Book Review "
"RIOTOUS...Jaynes never learns much about the white pathology and mindset, but Mr. Johnson knows plenty about the character types he skewers." - "Wall Street Journal"
"LOONY, disrespectful, and sharp, Johnson's ""Pym"" is a welcome riff on the surrealistic shudder-fest that is Poe's original...I'll stop there, but Johnson's inventiveness never does." - NPR's "Fresh Air"
"Mat Johnson's new novel is nothing short of fantastic, in every sense. I fell in love with the voice, the tone and the world of "Pym." This is an adventure novel, a work of historical and social commentary, a rumination on identity. The only problem I could find with this novel is that I didn't write it. It's a beautiful piece of work."
--Percival Everett, author of "I Am Not Sidney Poitier"
"Mat Johnson has come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and he's all out of bubble. gum. "Pym" is an adventure, a satire, and a bracing political debate all rolled into one brilliant novel. Edgar Allen Poe has inspired many authors but Mat Johnson has the inspired audacity to both honoru "Mat Johnson's new novel is nothing short of fantastic, in every sense. I fell in love with the voice, the tone and the world of "Pym." This is an adventure novel, a work of historical and social commentary, a rumination on identity. The only problem I could find with this novel is that I didn't write it. It's a beautiful piece of work."
--Percival Everett, author of "I Am Not Sidney Poitier"
"Mat Johnson has come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and he's all out of bubble. gum. "Pym" is an adventure, a satire, and a bracing political debate all rolled into one brilliant novel. Edgar Allen Poe has inspired many authors but Mat Johnson has the inspired audacity to both honor "and" discredit the man, often in the same sentence. I imagine Poe choking on half the things Johnson writes in this novel, and tipping his tiny hat in admiration to the rest."
--Victor LaValle, author of "Big Machine"
"PYM reframes far more than Poe - it reframes "everything "American, from