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The aptly-titled Great Expectations announces Vinson Cunningham as a novelist of singular style, wit and ambition. Focused on one young man’s experience working on a historic presidential campaign, the novel is both a coming-of-age story for its narrator and—just as powerfully—a coming-of-age tale for the nation writ large. Cunningham has an uncanny ability to access the thoughts undergirding our thoughts, and his narrator is one that readers will wish they could keep by their sides to make sense of the world after the book’s final pages. Read Great Expectations and see our recent past, our present, and even our future anew.
— Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House, finalist for the National Book Award
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In Great Expectations, gospel is both a formative rhythm and a means of seduction. Cunningham writes thoughtfully about aspiration, fatalism, and the complexity of bearing witness to the creation of a mythology. I always look forward to reading his work.
— Raven Leilani, New York Times bestselling author of Luster
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This is a novel of so many things—love and pride and pity and politics and sex and God and fatherhood—but, ultimately, it is about the human ambition to make sense of the troubled waters of our times. Brilliantly written, piercingly smart, quietly subversive, Great Expectations will be one of the talked-about novels of the year. I couldn't help thinking that there was a touch of Fitzgerald in Cunningham's words, borne back not just ceaselessly, but also gracefully, into the too-recent past.
— Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin, winner of the National Book Award
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Recent history becomes both thrillingly vivid again and achingly past in Vinson Cunningham’s spellbinding debut novel, Great Expectations. A coming-of-age novel of the richest, most expansive kind, it’s a rare debut, one that feels both intimate and revelatory.
— Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of The Turnout
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The aptly-titled Great Expectations announces Vinson Cunningham as a novelist of singular style, wit and ambition. Focused on one young man’s experience working on a historic presidential campaign, the novel is both a coming-of-age story for its narrator and—just as powerfully—a coming-of-age tale for the nation writ large. Cunningham has an uncanny ability to access the thoughts undergirding our thoughts, and his narrator is one that readers will wish they could keep by their sides to make sense of the world after the book’s final pages. Read Great Expectations and see our recent past, our present, and even our future anew.
— Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House, finalist for the National Book Award
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Vinson Cunningham’s Great Expectations is epic, intimate, and brimming with brilliance. Cunningham’s prose both soothes and scalds, crafting a bildungsroman, a tragicomedy, and the panorama of an entire nation, juggling humor and sensitivity and honesty with ease. Great Expectations is a phenomenal, transfixing work; Cunningham is a singular, dazzling writer.
— Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal and Memorial
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This is a novel of so many things—love and pride and pity and politics and sex and God and fatherhood—but, ultimately, it is about the human ambition to make sense of the troubled waters of our times. Brilliantly written, piercingly smart, quietly subversive, Great Expectations will be one of the talked-about novels of the year. I couldn’t help thinking that there was a touch of Fitzgerald in Cunningham’s words, borne back not just ceaselessly but also gracefully into the too-recent past.
— Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin, winner of the National Book Award
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The aptly titled Great Expectations announces Vinson Cunningham as a novelist of singular style, wit, and ambition. Focused on one young man’s experience working on a historic presidential campaign, the novel is both a coming-of-age story for its narrator and—just as powerfully—a coming-of-age tale for the nation writ large. Cunningham has an uncanny ability to access the thoughts undergirding our thoughts, and his narrator is one that readers will wish they could keep by their sides to make sense of the world after the book’s final pages. Read Great Expectations and see our recent past, our present, and even our future anew.
— Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House, finalist for the National Book Award
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Recent history becomes both thrillingly vivid and achingly past in Vinson Cunningham’s spellbinding debut novel, Great Expectations. A coming-of-age novel of the richest, most expansive kind, it’s a rare debut, one that feels both intimate and revelatory.
— Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of The Turnout
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This is a novel of so many things—love and pride and pity and politics and sex and God and fatherhood—but, ultimately, it is about the human ambition to make sense of the troubled waters of our times. Brilliantly written, piercingly smart, quietly subversive, Great Expectations will be one of the talked-about novels of the year. I couldn’t help thinking that there was a touch of Fitzgerald in Cunningham’s words, borne back not just ceaselessly but also gracefully into the too-recent past.
— Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin, winner of the National Book Award
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In Great Expectations, gospel is both a formative rhythm and a means of seduction. Cunningham writes thoughtfully about aspiration, fatalism, and the complexity of bearing witness to the creation of a mythology. I always look forward to reading his work.
— Raven Leilani, New York Times bestselling author of Luster
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Recent history becomes both thrillingly vivid and achingly past in Vinson Cunningham’s spellbinding debut novel, Great Expectations. A coming-of-age novel of the richest, most expansive kind, it’s a rare debut, one that feels both intimate and revelatory.
— Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of The Turnout
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Vinson Cunningham’s Great Expectations is epic, intimate, and brimming with brilliance. Cunningham’s prose both soothes and scalds; he crafts a bildungsroman, a tragicomedy, and the panorama of an entire nation, juggling humor and sensitivity and honesty with ease. Great Expectations is a phenomenal, transfixing work, and Cunningham is a singular, dazzling writer.
— Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal and Memorial
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Vinson Cunningham is a brilliant culture writer and theater critic whose New Yorker pieces have made him one of the magazine’s rising stars, so I was delighted to see that the 2020 National Magazine Award finalist has now written a novel.
— Lit Hub
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A theater critic at the New Yorker, Cunningham is one of my favorite writers working today, so I was thrilled to learn of his debut novel, which cheekily steals its title from the Dickens classic. Following a young Black man as he works on a historic presidential campaign, Great Expectations tackles questions of politics, race, religion, and family with Cunningham’s characteristic poise and insight.
— The Millions
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The aptly titled Great Expectations announces Vinson Cunningham as a novelist of singular style, wit, and ambition. Read Great Expectations and see our recent past, our present, and even our future anew.
— Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House, finalist for the National Book Award
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A theater critic at The New Yorker, Cunningham is one of my favorite writers working today, so I was thrilled to learn of his debut novel, which cheekily steals its title from the Dickens classic. Following a young Black man as he works on a historic presidential campaign, Great Expectations tackles questions of politics, race, religion, and family with Cunningham’s characteristic poise and insight.
— The Millions
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Cunningham, a writer for The New Yorker and former staffer on Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign and in the White House, has written an electrifying first novel and bildungsroman of consummate artistry and sensitivity, honed vision and wit.
— Booklist (starred review)
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Cunningham, a writer for the New Yorker and former staffer on Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign and in the White House, has written an electrifying first novel and bildungsroman of consummate artistry and sensitivity, honed vision and wit.
— Booklist (starred review)
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. . . an electrifying first novel and bildungsroman of consummate artistry and sensitivity, honed vision and wit.
— Booklist (starred review)
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Alive in its intellectual detours, with Cunningham considering religion, race, sex, film, politics, fatherhood, and more . . . A top-shelf intellectual bildungsroman.
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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A theater critic at The New Yorker, Cunningham is one of my favorite writers working today, so I was thrilled to learn of his debut novel, which cheekily steals its title from the Dickens classic. . . . Great Expectations tackles questions of politics, race, religion, and family with Cunningham’s characteristic poise and insight.
— The Millions
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An electrifying first novel and bildungsroman of consummate artistry and sensitivity, honed vision and wit.
— Booklist (starred review)