A Different Drummer, William Melvin Kelley
A Different Drummer, William Melvin Kelley
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A Different Drummer

Author: William Melvin Kelley

Narrator: Jay Smooth

Unabridged: 6 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/27/2019

Synopsis

The stunning, thought-provoking first novel by a "lost giant of American literature" (The New Yorker)

June, 1957. One hot afternoon in the backwaters of the Deep South, a young black farmer named Tucker Caliban salts his fields, shoots his horse, burns his house, and heads north with his wife and child. His departure sets off an exodus of the state’s entire black population, throwing the established order into brilliant disarray. Told from the points of view of the white residents who remained, A Different Drummer stands, decades after its first publication in 1962, as an extraordinary and prescient triumph of satire and spirit.

About The Author

WILLIAM MELVIN KELLEY was born in New York City in 1937 and attended the Fieldston School and Harvard. The author of four novels and a short story collection, he was a writer in residence at the State University of New York at Geneseo and also taught at the New School and Sarah Lawrence College. He was awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for lifetime achievement and the Dana Reed Prize for creative writing. He died in 2017.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Miriam on November 22, 2018

First published in 1962, "A Different Drummer" is written by the late African-American writer William Melvin Kelley and who has been described as the "The Lost Giant of American Literature". I wholeheartedly agree, this book was one of the best books I have read in a very long time and will stay wit......more

Goodreads review by PattyMacDotComma on September 26, 2021

5★ “The last letter was delivered one morning after David had left for the day. . . . Then he folded it and slid it back in the envelope and said, ‘Well, that’s the last one. He’s promised. Perhaps I’ll have some peace now.’ For a second I felt very warm and good inside because I was listening to his w......more

Goodreads review by La Tonya on October 30, 2018

A factious and fictitious state in the union where all the black people decide to leave. First, it starts in towns of New Marsails and Sutton. But, it eventually it engulfs the entire state. Publicly, the govenor and the white people of the state do not see this as an issue. After awhile, resentment......more

Goodreads review by Paul on March 25, 2019

I remember the name William Melvin Kelley from the time when I was in college, though I never read any of his books then - my loss, as it turns out. Reading this article -[URL not allowed] - created an interest in me to read one of Mr. Kelley's books, and I owe Kathryn Schulz......more

Goodreads review by 8stitches 9lives on October 31, 2018

A Different Drummer is being hailed as a lost classic of American literature, but I had no idea quite how exquisite and insightful it was going to be until I was already reading. First published in 1962, by the then twenty-four-year-old Kelley, it earned him comparisons to literary greats such as Wi......more

Quotes

“[A] lost giant of American literature. . . . Brilliant.” —The New Yorker

"A work of deep originality and superior craftsmanship whose treatment of racial politics resists ideological classification. . . . A potent brew of mythology, gossip, history, political argument and family drama. . . . A Different Drummer is animated by a force so immense, and fed by so much history, that it transcends encapsulation." —The Wall Street Journal

“This fierce and brilliant novel is written with sympathy as well as sorrow. It’s a myth packed with real-world resonance.” —The Guardian
 
“Radical and important.” —Financial Times
 
“Kelley blended fantasy and fact to construct an alternative world whose sweep and complexity drew comparisons to James Joyce and William Faulkner.” —The New York Times
 
“A rare first novel; dynamic, imaginative, and accomplished.” —Chicago Sunday Tribune

“Powerful. . . . Unflinching. . . . A gift to literature.” —The Observer

“So brilliant is this initial novel that one must consider Mr. Kelley for tentative future placement among the paragons of American letters.” —Boston Sunday Herald

“Beautifully written and thought-provoking.” —Baltimore Evening Sun

“This first novel just perhaps could play a part in changing our history.” —Kansas City Star

“An astounding achievement . . . Timeless, mythic. . . . Still relevant and powerful today.” —The Sunday Times (London)

“Breathtakingly good. . . . Must be one of the most assured debuts of all time.” —Sjón, author of CoDex 1962

“An imaginative, brilliantly observed world of the 20th-century Deep South in turmoil. . . . Kelley delivers his observations with caustic humour and surprising compassion. The comparisons of his debut to the books of James Baldwin and Faulkner are justified.” —The Irish Times

 “A rediscovered classic of African American literature. . . . A powerful novel that weaves intricate themes like racism, systemized oppression and identity together.” —Bookriot

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