Id seen the Senator speak a few times before my life got caught up, however distantly, with his, but the first time I can remember paying real attention was when he delivered the speech announcing his run for the Presidency.

When David first hears the Senator from Illinois speak, he feels deep ambivalence. Intrigued by the Senators idealistic rhetoric, David also wonders how hell balance the fervent belief and inevitable compromises it will take to become the United States first Black president.

Great Expectationsis about Davids eighteen months working for the Senator’s presidential campaign. Along the way David meets a myriad of people who raise a set of questionsquestions of history, art, race, religion, and fatherhoodthat force David to look at his own life anew and come to terms with his identity as a young Black man and father in America.

Meditating on politics and politicians, religion and preachers, fathers and family,Great Expectationsis both an emotionally resonant coming-of-age story and a rich novel of ideas, marking the arrival of a major new writer

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