All the elements of Leon Forrest’s previous novels explode through the 1,135 pages of his recent epic novel Divine Days, which centers on one week in the life of aspiring playwright Joubert Jones in 1966. Tending bar in his aunt’s tavern on Chicago’s south side, Jones reflects on theology, African American history, and contemporary society as he observes the tragic, perverted, and often hilarious patrons. It’s Forrest’s own poetic blend of myth, folktale, and cultural insight, but wrapped in a great deal of humor.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
“This book seemed to just grow on its own energies,” Forrest says. “I couldn’t stop it, and I was having so much fun I didn’t want to stop it.” When he took the huge manuscript to New York City publishers, they balked. He wasn’t surprised. But instead of making draconian cuts, he took it to Another Chicago Press, a small nonprofit venture that, under publisher Lee Webster, has reprinted all of Forrest’s early novels.
So last year Webster, who receives no income from ACP (he works as an operations analyst at R.R. Donnelley), kept ACP’s stock in his office, which at the time was in the basement of his Oak Park home. Then on Christmas Day an electrical fire damaged nearly all of the books, including most of the copies of Divine Days.
