{"id":42838,"date":"2017-11-16T00:02:47","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T06:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=42838"},"modified":"2017-11-14T13:18:22","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T19:18:22","slug":"simeon-marsalis-at-thacker-mountain-radio-with-as-lies-is-to-grin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/simeon-marsalis-at-thacker-mountain-radio-with-as-lies-is-to-grin\/","title":{"rendered":"Simeon Marsalis at Thacker Mountain Radio with As Lies is to Grin"},"content":{"rendered":"

David, the narrator of Simeon Marsalis<\/strong>\u2019s singular first novel, is a freshman at the University of Vermont<\/strong> who is struggling to define himself against the white backdrop of his school. He is also mourning the loss of his New York girlfriend, whose grandfather\u2019s alma mater he has chosen to attend. When David met Melody, he lied to her about who he was and where he lived, creating a more intriguing story than his own. This lie haunts and almost unhinges him as he attempts to find his true voice and identity.<\/span><\/p>\n

On campus in Vermont, David imagines encounters with a student from the past who might represent either Melody\u2019s grandfather or Jean Toomer<\/strong>, the author of the acclaimed Harlem Renaissance novel Cane<\/em>. He becomes obsessed with the varieties of American architecture \u201cupon land that was stolen,\u201d and with the university\u2019s past and attitudes as recorded in its newspaper, The Cynic<\/em>. And he is frustrated with the way the Internet and libraries are curated, making it difficult to find the information he needs to make connections between the university\u2019s history, African American history, and his own life.<\/span><\/p>\n

In New York, the previous year, Melody confides a shocking secret about her grandfather\u2019s student days at the University of Vermont. When she and her father collude with the intent to meet David\u2019s mother in Harlem\u2014craving what they consider an authentic experience of the black world\u2014their plan ends explosively. The title of this impressive and emotionally powerful novel is inspired by Paul Laurence Dunbar<\/em>\u2019s poem \u201cWe Wear the Mask\u201d (1896): \u201cWe wear the mask that grins and lies . . .\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Simeon Marsalis<\/strong> will be at Thacker Mountain Radio<\/strong> November 16 at 6 pm.\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David, the narrator of Simeon Marsalis\u2019s singular first novel, is a freshman at the University of Vermont who<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":42839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2239],"tags":[5835,6795,642,4,1188,11187,3335,753],"class_list":["post-42838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-literary-events","tag-author","tag-event","tag-ms","tag-oxford","tag-radio","tag-simeon-marsalis","tag-thacker-mountain","tag-tlv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/2017-11-09-Simeon.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}