Sons of the Rapture [Paperback]

Todd Dills (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2006

Billy Jones and his dad have a score to settle. Up in Chicago, Billy drowns his past in booze. In South Carolina, his father saddles up for a drive to reclaim him. Caught in this perfect storm is a ragged assortment of savants: shape-shifting doctor, despairingly bisexual bombshell, tiara-crowned trumpeter, zombie senator.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Sons of the Rapture is a gloriously ambitious achievement. Dills has crafted a novel that's as slick, crafty and wise as an Upcountry political fixer. -- The Elegant Variation,, October 2, 2006

Todd Dills is a strong and confident storyteller who is able to warp and bend time. -- Razorcake Magazine, Spring 2007

Wildly entertaining, technically astounding and moving to the last... -- Punk Planet, Fall 2006

From the Back Cover

Sons of the Rapture is the literary equivalent of the Fourth of July--as technically inventive as it is truly intimate and heartfelt,this fiery novel draws upon the grand mythology of the old testament and the profundity of Faulkner's best work. It's powerful storytelling and a reconciliation of our shared conflicts and histories.--Joe Meno, author of Hairstyles of the Damned and The Boy Detective Fails

In Sons of the Rapture, Todd Dills weaves a new kind of contemporary Southern yarn. His alluringly warm narrative mediates the rawness of a rich but divisive society and reminds us that simmering right beneath the present is a not-too-distant brutal past.--Emily Pohl-Weary editor Kiss Machine, author A Girl Like Sugar

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Featherproof Books (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977199215
• ISBN-13: 978-0977199211
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,538,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Rapture... the real kind, October 28, 2009

By 

Alex Mollere "Edgar Mollere" (New Orleans LA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Sons of the Rapture (Paperback)

Sons of the Rapture is a great book written with inventive turns of phrases in a fast-paced, rhythmic prosody that keeps the pages turning, all while running a veritable gambit of styles (seemingly drawing inspiration from writers as diverse as Salinger, Flannery O'Connor, and John Kennedy Toole) but aping none. The book starts as a kind of pastiche of often laugh-out-load anecdotes, some recounted from the past and some taking place as the narrative unfolds, careening in and out of the lives of its two main characters and introducing the reader to a motley cast of cohorts. The two protagonists are 1) Billy Jones, a heavy-drinking ne'r-do-well stumbling in and out of relationships and jobs while carousing Chicago with a group of eclectic hipsters, and 2) his father Johnny Jones, a heavy-drinking South Carolinian with enough inherited wealth to fund any and all larks he might crave, no matter how ridiculous. As the narrative develops however, recurring themes weave the novel into a coherent whole, and by the end of the book, the reader is left with much more than just a handful of entertaining stories. I'll leave the details of exegesis to you, but suffice it to say that the novel, remaining ensconced as it does in the existential moment (even when delving deep into memory), never degenerates into pedantry or a neatly-wrapped story of redemption. If the characters ever experience rapture, it's the real kind, an imperfect one that takes place in the here-and-now rather than some biblical future... aimless, gritty, maybe even beat-the-hell-up... but rapture all the same.