Asali Solomon’s characters are vivid misfits—a heathen at Jesus camp, a scheming prep-school student, a middle-aged mom pining for her salsa-dancing salad days, a scheming twentysomething virgin, a college stud in love with his weight-lifting partner, a lonely girl in love with a yellow dress. The kids in Get Down are trapped between their own good breeding and their burning desire to join the house party of sex, romance, and bad behavior that seems to be happening on some other block, down some other, more dangerous street. Get Down is, in the words of Edward P. Jones, “touching and sensitively observed . . . from the first word to the last.”
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“American literature tends to offer its black characters only two moods to play: angry or mad . . . which is why Asali Solomon’s debut collection, Get Down, comes as such a blessed relief. Angry and mad make appearances, but so do confused, awkward, hopeful and sincere.” —Victor Lavalle, Paste “Fresh, intimate portraits of people trying to straddle contradictory worlds. While Asali Solomon writes with uncanny acumen about men, Get Down will resonate with anyone—male or female, black or white, young or old—who has ever felt like an outsider.” —Jennifer Egan
From the Publisher
"Asali Solomon's stories are luminous and touching and are an important contribution to the serious literature about the urban lives of black Americans. Solomon's work--much of it about the world of private school teens in 1980s Philadelphia--is touching and sensitively observed and should be applauded from the first words to the last."
--Edward P. Jones, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--Edward P. Jones, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Detailed and True,
By Author Author (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Get Down: Stories (Hardcover)
This is one sly, deft, funny, and truly moving collection of stories. Solomon has great grace as a stylist and as a chronicler of interior lives. I read the book in one sitting and blushed with recognition and empathy for her deeply realized characters. I also laughed out loud at the wit that studs the entire collection. You're going to love it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heartbreaking and funny, sometimes at the same time,
By
This review is from: Get Down: Stories (Hardcover)
If you're looking for stories that will make you laugh and ache in sympathy in equal measure, then get started reading right away. Get Down is filled with characters who will earn your love even as they make decisions that will have you talking out loud to them while you're reading, trying to keep them from doing things you know are only going to make their lives harder, which will get embarrassing if you're not by yourself. It won't bother you if you're alone, though, because they seem so real that it won't seem strange to think that maybe if you talk loud enough they might listen to you, even if you know you won't be able stop them. A highly impressive debut from someone to keep an eye on.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
UP with Get Down!,
By
This review is from: Get Down: Stories (Hardcover)
I have very little time for reading these days, so when I picked up this short-story collection at the bookstore, it was with the express idea of reading a story a day, right before slipping into my nightly coma. But after the first story, I was hooked. I stayed up half the night to read ALL the stories in one sitting, and plan on re-reading them again soon.
Solomon has a great eye for telling details and an equally good ear for dialogue that always rings true. Even if you didn't grow up in West Philadelphia, you will recognize yourself in this book, but it will be the self you--and all of us--abandoned when you did what you had to do to become tough, invulnerable, and popular. Reading these stories reminded me of my wounded and needy self, but also me when I felt life and other people intensely. In this way, these stories are a gift.
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