Such Sweet Thunder

Such Sweet Thunder immerses readers in the life of a precocious infant, Amerigo Jones, and then tells the story of his first eighteen years as he becomes aware of the world, starts school, then begins to learn about and experience adult issues, from racism and crime to falling in love.

All the while, in one of the most moving homages to parents ever to appear in literature, Amerigo is protected by Viola and Rutherford, who are loving and, mostly, even-tempered, but also desperately young - teenagers themselves when Amerigo is born - and poor. With a new foreword by Jesse McCarthy, Carter's literary masterpiece is poised to take its rightful place in the American literary canon.