Hell of a Book

This chapter takes place six months before the narrator’s book has been published. He is waiting in a Manhattan office with his publicist Sharon for media training. The media trainer’s assistant Carrie is there as well. Jack, the media trainer, arrives and is so handsome that the narrator thinks he may not be real. However, Jack is real and very enthusiastic. He remarks that he did not know the narrator is Black and agrees with Sharon that it is a good thing he couldn’t tell this from Hell of a Book’s writing. Jack’s job is to train the narrator to become a new, marketable version himself. Jack is fast-talking and verbose; he reminds the narrator of the character John in his book. Through convoluted metaphors, occasional tangents, and references to various books, Jack explains that they must construct a simplified narrative of what the book is about. This leaves the narrator mostly confused.

Sharon interrupts their conversation to show them an image on her phone of the grieving parents of the recently murdered boy making a public statement. Jack is dismissive at first, but Sharon insists they keep looking. As they exchange words of disappointment about the situation, the narrator is hesitant and wary of saying the wrong thing. He is indifferent about the incident because the victims are always strangers. Emotional, Sharon steps out. The narrator goes to the bathroom and finds The Kid there. They discuss the recent tragedy and how egregious violence has always been around and is commonplace. The Kid thinks it’s important to care about the victims, but the narrator insists that it’s impossible to care about them all.

The training continues, first going over wardrobe and then with a mock interview. Jack coaches the narrator to mention his book title often and use the book to talk about himself. Jack’s final advice is that he should never write about race because it is off-putting for readers. Instead, he must write about supposedly universal things like love.

William jogs through the neighborhood on a summer night. People are playing music and barbecuing. He is offered a plate of food as he passes one house but declines because he still has a long way to go. William feels free jogging out in the countryside where no one is watching him. He is free of people’s judgments of his body and skin. He hates that Soot struggles with the same discomfort of being looked at for being different. The thought upsets William, but the jogging soon makes him feel better again, because he is unseen and safe.

When William is nearly back home, he is stopped by a police car. An officer gets out and tells him to stop where he is. The officer shines a flashlight in his face and asks why he is out at night. William explains that he likes to run at night when the weather is cooler. He points to his house nearby. The officer asks for identification, but William doesn’t have any on him. Suddenly, the officer begins to arrest him and wrestle him to the ground. The officer yells as William struggles. He only wants to make it home. Soot and his horrified mother emerge at the front door of their house. William looks on as Soot slowly begins to disappear. William smiles at the thought that Soot will finally be unseen and safe. The officer shoots William and he dies at the scene.

The narrator and The Kid are sitting in an airport eating together. The Kid has been appearing more often since Renny told the narrator he is Black. The narrator tells The Kid that there are two kinds of fear. The first is the fear of being someone less fortunate than yourself; the second he doesn’t have the heart to tell the boy. When The Kid shares that his favorite animal is a peacock, the narrator points out a black peacock nearby. The Kid cannot see the bird.

Though a loner, the narrator has tried to find love. He once dated a woman named Kelli who insisted on cooking him dinner. On their date, she expresses how he is different from other men, because he isn’t always telling her what to do. Wary of upsetting her, the narrator doesn’t caution her that she’s turned the stove heat too high. This leads to a fire in the building. 

The narrator describes the small, old house he grew up in with wood floors and paneling that was eventually removed and painted. Growing up, his father worked the swing shift at the sawmill. He was a tall, skinny man with a goatee and baggy clothes. He and his father used to watch old black and white action films. While the movie characters were brave, the narrator knows now that his father was always afraid bad things would happen. The narrator’s father also used to tell him stories about real people; he encouraged his son to be a writer. His father was diagnosed with cancer and spent his last moments in hospice care. One day, when the narrator was still a boy, he was watching TV in his father’s hospice room. The news showed a report of a Black man shot by the police in his front yard in front of his son and wife. From that point, the narrator felt “The Fear,” and felt that his father and the dead man were the same. When his father woke to see the news, he whispered “God…no” (131), reached toward the TV, shed a tear, and died.

The narrator once dated another woman named Kellie. While driving with her one day, she asks him to let her out and pick her back up just down the street. She runs straight for a man standing on the corner looking at his phone. Kellie punches him in the face and yells that she warned him. Then she gets back in the car and acts as if nothing has happened.

Soot wakes up to the blue police car lights and his mother’s screams. He gets out of bed to see what has happened and finds his distraught mother at the front door; his mother tells him to return to bed. His mother walks outside with her arms raised, crying. Soot stays inside but watches from the window. His heart is beating loud. Because of the lights, Soot can only see silhouettes of people, but he can tell that the skinny one is his father. Standing on the front steps, his mother calls William’s name. Then the police officer shoots William. Soot runs outside to his mother. She screams and clenches her fists. Soot sees his father turn to him with fear in his eyes. Just as Soot feels he wants to disappear, he senses himself getting lighter. He becomes unseen and feels safe. 

The narrator’s bookstore event in San Francisco has ended. The audience is emotional afterward. The last fan to get her book signed asks him vaguely how long he can keep it up. The narrator is confused and asks if they have met before. They haven’t, but her name is Kelly, which is striking because of the many Kellys he has dated before. He starts to flirt superficially with her, but she interrupts him and tells him to just ask her to dinner. Finding her interesting, he does as she suggests. At dinner, Sharon calls and tells him the date is a mistake because he should be focused on his next book. When Sharon asks about the advance money, he says he hasn’t spent it, though Sharon knows he has spent all of it. She mentions that she is setting up a big interview for him in Denver and then the call ends.

The narrator thinks he sees his dead mother sitting at the bar. The Kid is also there; this annoys the narrator. At the table, he assumes Kelly wants to talk about his book, since most people do when they learn he is an author. However, she does not and hasn’t even read the book. She had stopped into the bookstore that night looking for another book. It is refreshing to have an interaction where he doesn’t have to be an author; he can be himself. Normally he would order wine to put emotional distance between him and others, but because he is interested in Kelly, he orders water. The Kid remarks that it is good he isn’t drinking. Then, The Kid disappears again.