Research Catalog

Title

Vengeance : a novel / Zachary Lazar.

Author

Lazar, Zachary

Publication

• New York : Catapult, [2018]
• ©2018

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

253 pages : illustrations; 21 cm

Summary

• Zachary Lazar's powerful and important novel was inspired by a passion play, The Life of Jesus Christ, he witnessed at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. As someone who writes ٢fiction, nonfiction, sometimes a hybrid of both, ٣ the narrator of Vengeance, a character much like Lazar himself, tries to accurately view a world he knows is ٢beyond the limits of my small understanding.٣ In particular, he tries to unravel the truth behind the supposed crime of an inmate he meets and befriends, Kendrick King, who is serving a life sentence at Angola for murder. As the narrator attempts to sort out what happened in King's life-paying visits to his devoted mother, his estranged young daughter and her mother, his girlfriend, his brother, and his cousin-the writer's own sense of identity begins to feel more and more like a fiction. He is one of the ٢free people٣ while Kendrick, who studies theology and philosophy, will never get his only wish, expressed plainly as ٢I just need to get out of here.٣ The dichotomy between their lives forces the narrator to confront the violence in his own past, and also to reexamine American notions of guilt and penance, racial bias, and the inherent perversity of punitive justice.
• "Zachary Lazar's powerful and important novel was inspired by a passion play, The Life of Jesus Christ, he witnessed at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. As someone who writes "fiction, nonfiction, sometimes a hybrid of both," the narrator of Vengeance, a character much like Lazar himself, tries to accurately view a world he knows is "beyond the limits of my small understanding." In particular, he tries to unravel the truth behind the supposed crime of an inmate he meets and befriends, Kendrick King, who is serving a life sentence at Angola for murder. As the narrator attempts to sort out what happened in King's life--paying visits to his devoted mother, his estranged young daughter and her mother, his girlfriend, his brother, and his cousin--the writer's own sense of identity begins to feel more and more like a fiction. He is one of the "free people" while Kendrick, who studies theology and philosophy, will never get his only wish, expressed plainly as "I just need to get out of here." The dichotomy between their lives forces the narrator to confront the violence in his own past, and also to reexamine American notions of guilt and penance, racial bias, and the inherent perversity of punitive justice"--Cover.

Subjects

• Louisiana State Penitentiary
• Psychological fiction
• Thrillers (Fiction)
• Fiction
• Identity (Philosophical concept) > Fiction
• FICTION > Literary
• FICTION > Political
• Prisoners > Fiction
• Angola (La.) > Fiction
• Louisiana > Angola
• FICTION > African American
• Louisiana State Penitentiary Fiction

Genre/Form

• Fiction.
• Psychological fiction.
• Thrillers (Fiction)

Call Number

JFD 18-4402

ISBN

• 9781936787777
• 1936787776

LCCN

2017938491

OCLC

988857402

Author

Lazar, Zachary, author.

Title

Vengeance : a novel / Zachary Lazar.

Publisher

New York : Catapult, [2018]

Copyright Date

©2018

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Alternate Script for Summary

Zachary Lazar's powerful and important novel was inspired by a passion play, The Life of Jesus Christ, he witnessed at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. As someone who writes ٢fiction, nonfiction, sometimes a hybrid of both, ٣ the narrator of Vengeance, a character much like Lazar himself, tries to accurately view a world he knows is ٢beyond the limits of my small understanding.٣ In particular, he tries to unravel the truth behind the supposed crime of an inmate he meets and befriends, Kendrick King, who is serving a life sentence at Angola for murder. As the narrator attempts to sort out what happened in King's life-paying visits to his devoted mother, his estranged young daughter and her mother, his girlfriend, his brother, and his cousin-the writer's own sense of identity begins to feel more and more like a fiction. He is one of the ٢free people٣ while Kendrick, who studies theology and philosophy, will never get his only wish, expressed plainly as ٢I just need to get out of here.٣ The dichotomy between their lives forces the narrator to confront the violence in his own past, and also to reexamine American notions of guilt and penance, racial bias, and the inherent perversity of punitive justice.

Research Call Number

JFD 18-4402