Adam Smyer’s Knucklehead is so smart, so wildly, uncategorizably original, such a flat-out revelation from page to page, you almost forget how savagely funny and fearless the author actually is. Knucklehead is the kind of book you don’t just admire, it’s the kind that makes you want to buy in bulk and jam into the hands of loved ones and strangers as you scream in their faces, ‘Read this or remain clueless!‘ In a feat of fierce literary magic, the author’s 1990s Bay Area and NYC peel back the curtain on our own Trump-stained era, exposing, in loving detail, the fine line between salvation and self-destruction that defines the times. No one who reads Knucklehead will ever think the same about relationships, about family, about race, class, or the business of remaining sane—and human—in the world of crazy-making, soul-defiling choices we now inhabit. I straight-up loved this book.

From page one, Knucklehead is a literary punch in the face. Adam Smyer’s exploration of rage is unflinching, brave, and absolutely brilliant. There’s so much energy in this debut you could put it in your tank and drive on it.

Adam Smyer is an incendiary new voice who announces himself with the force of a Category 5 hurricane. A staggering, unforgettable debut.

While loss and loneliness are at its core, “Knucklehead” is a mordantly funny book.

Here is a list of things you’ll need to read this book: ample space for stretching out the side stitches you’ll get from laughter; half a box of tissues for the most gripping and harrowing dramas at the heart of the novel; a fresh stress ball for the tense situations the protagonist finds himself in (both of his own doing and not); and just a bit of that space in your heart to see people, in all their complexity, trying to do their best.

This book is bold in how it treats the reader as an insider to the reality of American blackness. It can be, in turns, lyrically poignant, cynical, hilarious, and infuriating.

While not strictly a crime novel, Smyer’s debut Knucklehead does contain a whole lot of guns, violence, and rage, as well as plenty of love and sadness. A black lawyer in the late 80s through the mid-90s deals with micro and macro aggressions from a society determined to treat him as a criminal. Also, there are cats. Lots of cats.