Time to wrap it up! This is Beach Read Book Club ’s final discussion of the summer. Our readers are talking about chapters 19 through 28 of Great Black Hope , Smith’s return to the city, and where they predict he might go from here. (And if you’re still catching up, here are sections one , two , and three .)

Should we start with O? What role do you think they are meant to play in the book?

Tembe Denton-Hurst: All Smith needed was the expansiveness of gender to really unlock whatever was deep within him. There is a little bit of a magical-Negro element with O.

Allison P. Davis: “Manic pixie dream Negro” is what I kept saying in my head.

Jason P. Frank: It’s giving fairy godmother.

T.D.H.: He found O randomly and they were like, “Come with me, my child. I’ll m

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