In this compact but searing and searching philosophical novel, McCoy (author of Conformityville) plunges the intellectual anguish of a young Black man stifled by an anti-intellectual community that willfully misunderstands him. Nineteen-year-old James W. Ford, dubbed “the bland loafer” by his detractors, resists accepting a housekeeping job on an estate, the Ebenezer Manor, near his family’s home in Alabama. Despite dreams of attending college and working in IT, he gives in at the behest of his strong-willed, evangelical grandmother. After his boss accuses Ford of being a rabble-rouser, the young man’s chance of succeeding at an upcoming interview for an IT position within Ebenezer Manor becomes at risk. Can he win over his employer and better himself? And is there even any point in doing so?

Inspired by a narrow-minded boss in real life who branded McCoy a “bland loafer”—defined as “that rare individual that ‘privilege’ has left in material, philosophical and spiritual shamble”—the novel poses incisive questions about power and culture in America, especially what it means to refuse, in McCoys words, to allow himself to be defined “as someone who others can simply extract labor from.” That’s from Mccoy’s introduction, which illuminates a novel where style submerges plot while offering powerhouse jeremiads against societal injustice and backwardness, against conventional wisdom and racial and class injustice, plus bursts of poetry, Ford’s surging inner thoughts, and debates with frustrated family members.

With subtle humor, principled outrage, polemical power, and an occasional zeal to “turn the anxiety of meaninglessness into courage,” the protagonists and his acquaintances enjoy contemplating the works of history’s greatest minds—Wittgenstein, Kant, and Niebuhr. The result is a highly intelligent, challenging, insightful exploration of history’s missteps and repercussions, and of a world seemingly set up to “crush the spirit of the Bland Loafer.” Readers of searching, discursive literary fiction will cheer as Ford stubbornly trudges after his intellectual dreams against the harsh tide of society.

Takeaway: Searing novel documenting the mind, debates, and outrage of a “bland loafer.”

Comparable Titles: Paul Beatty, Ralph Ellison.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A