Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.” –Montesquieu

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

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I picked up Chain-Gang All-Stars (2023) by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah because it was on a bunch of year-end lists and sounded interesting. In this book, American prisoners who are part of the CAPE program travel to different arenas around the country competing in death matches. The people who enjoy and/or profit from this program defend it because the prisoners are murderers themselves, and it was something the prisoners signed up for. It is gory and violent and makes some pointed commentary on America’s justice system and imprisonment. […]

“I’ve had my eyes taken from me twenty-three hours a day. The one hour I’m out of the hole is the worst of them all. I spend the fifty-nine minutes afraid to go back in.”

Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

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This book y’all. This. Book. THIS. BOOK. This one is in my top 5 for the year, easy; it’s an early contender for #1. I knew going into it that it was going to be a bumpy ride, having been warned by a few reader friends that it was intense, hard-to-read, and “the ending left me stunned, mouth opened, for five whole minutes.” And still, I was not prepared for Adjei-Brenyah’s literal and metaphorical jaw-dropping book. A few chapters in I asked said friends, “Ummm. […]

Call me corrupt, call me clean

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

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Much has been written about Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s novel Chain-Gang All-Stars. Shortlisted for lots of prizes, probably ending up on many top ten end of year lists – this novel is a stunner for a reason. The story is timely and captivating, the stakes are high. It’s terrifying and beautiful. But before we talk about the story, I would like to heap praise on this author for the craft (I really struggled over this word – it isn’t QUITE what I mean but it’s close) […]

The immensity of this edifice makes the park seem small.

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Absence – 4/5 Stars I started reading this one for a few different reasons. One, Peter Handke is often in the conversation for the Nobel Prize. In these conversations the general thread is that his work should be considered along the lines of a combination of his novels and fiction and also his screenwriting. I am not sure how I feel about that and I also feel like there’s a kind of gray area in terms of how many different forms/ how much of a […]

Add Friday Black to your Black Friday shopping list!

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[BINGO #2!] In this most holy month of guerrilla bargain shopping which begins with the Happy Holiday season of Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays, I couldn’t think of a better book to review than Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. Both Roxanne Gay and George Saunders are singing the praises of this fresh young author, and everyone should be reading this outstanding collection of short stories. Adjei-Brenyah’s tales whipsaw between dystopian near futures of shopping madness in “Friday Black,” where stores just pile up the dead bodies so […]



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