Sign-In
Cart
Medina Brown
Paperback
General FictionLiterary Fiction
Publisher: Mark Buchignani
Published: Feb 27 2025
Pages: 638
Weight: 2.38
Height: 1.28 Width: 7.50 Depth: 9.25
Language: English
Medina Brown is the daughter of an American man and a Turkish woman. Born in her namesake city, she grows up in the fictional town of Joseph, Illinois, an hour east of St. Louis, two west of Indianapolis. She meets Kevin Foster in kindergarten. Immediately best friends, they grow up together. He lives two blocks down. They're part of each other's families. He becomes her biographer.
Kevin records: She was extraordinary, superior, and I was... an adjunct, a plus one? No, that's not fair. She was driving and I was her passenger. That's better. She did love me too. How would she describe her feelings, describe me, if she were writing this?
Medina is energetic, attractive, participatory, electable. Where she looks, others gaze; where she goes, they charge; where she works, they labor. Her actions first help others, first share resources, first raise the less fortunate to her level. She makes many friends, some enemies. Her popularity is vast, not universal.
Twenty-first century politics shape their lives - bullies, violence, internet accusers, and homophobic trolls, who insist, despite contrary evidence, Kevin is gay.
The book, emblematic of these messy and disheartening times, explores gender dynamics and hate, while building to multiple conclusions: the consummation of Medina's and Kevin's relationship; the pinnacle of her fame and popularity; the long-brewing clash with increasingly-racist (and sexist) detractors; and the culmination of her political campaign.
By the end, you'll find yourself hoping your search engine can pull Joseph out of the Southern Illinois landscape. Maybe a drive... Maybe on August 10th. Yeah, Roosevelt Square on Medina Brown Day. I'm there!
This is a full-blooded, old-school novel, meaty and memorable, intensifying as the account progresses toward its conclusion. Long after you've closed the cover, you'll find yourself wondering about the culture you live in.
Also from
Buchignani, Mark
Also in
Literary Fiction
Elizabeth Spencer: Novels & Stories (Loa #344): The Voice at the Back Door / The Light in the Piazza / Knights and Dragons / Stories
Spencer, Elizabeth
Hardcover
James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales Vol. 1 (Loa #26): The Pioneers / The Last of the Mohicans / The Prairie
Cooper, James Fenimore
Hardcover
The Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy, Volume I: American Tabloid, the Cold Six Thousand; Introduction by Thomas Mallon
Ellroy, James
Hardcover
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Paperback
Philip Roth: Novels 1973-1977 (Loa #165): The Great American Novel / My Life as a Man / The Professor of Desire
Roth, Philip
Hardcover
The Patrick Melrose Novels: Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother's Milk
St Aubyn, Edward
Paperback