God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer

by Joseph Earl Thomas

A stirring, unsparing debut novel about black life in Philadelphia and the struggle to build intimate connections through the eyes of a struggling ex-Army grad student, from the "extraordinary [and] insightful" author of Sink (New York Times Book Review). After a deployment in the Iraq War, Joseph Thomas is fighting to find his footing. Now a MD/PhD student at The University of Pennsylvania, and an emergency department tech at a hospital in North Philly, he becomes interested in the Holmesburg Prison Experiments, in which the prison conducted scientific trials on their inmates. Through this curiosity he comes to know his estranged father, who is serving time for the statutory rape of his then-teenage mother. Meanwhile, his best friend Murray, a fellow vet, judges the journey he sets out upon, while simultaneously pushing him towards a ruinous self-discovery. Balancing single fatherhood, his studies, and long shifts at the hospital as he becomes closer than he ever imagined to his father, Joseph tries to articulate vernacular understandings of the sociopolitical struggles he recounts as participant-observer at home, against the assumptions of his more storied friends and colleagues.  GOD BLESS YOU, OTIS SPUNKMEYER is a powerful examination of every day black life—of health and sex, race and punishment, and the gaps between our desires and our politics.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Audiobook, Historical Fiction, Race, Adult Fiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published June 18, 2024

Reviews

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25/5
Gifted by the publisher

Very stream of consciousness writing style that could be a hit or miss for readers. The sentences are also super long and sometimes I have to reread a couple times to understand the meaning. Definitely not a quick read even though ifs only 230 pages.

It’s hard to write about Black trauma without making it read like trauma porn. The author does a really great job describing everything Black men experiences—racism, violence, poverty, etc—that doesn’t feel melodramatic.

The writing style also strikes a good balance between funny nonchalance, dark humor, and incisive social commentary. It reminds me of that GIF of a boy laugh crying, and that was my reaction too!

Some of my favorite quotes:

I think about what it means to die of natural causes, or really feel natural or get to decide what is natural or unnatural and under what circumstances and in whose language, as I return to Red Top's room.

The symbolic in politics, the racism, the sex-ism, these things had already bored us for so long, just like the guilt of those newly discovered liberals who just then, six months into a forever war that should have, like most all wars waged by the empire and elsewhere, been illegal-where the legal vs. illegal had already been a bit of a sardonic double bind-come to discover their conscience after one of these psychos mows down a human fleeing in an open field with a vehicle-mounted .50-cal just because he planted a small bomb that didn't even kill anyone. (Yes this is one sentence 🤣)

It was always this thing, having become the pseudo-educated one in the family, whether I was to believe all the shit proper folks of all identifications said or wrote about us, or whether I would believe what I felt, what my people said in real life, my people who would be shot tryna cross the threshold of the university, despite any kind of representational war waged in their name. Though I'd feel like a fraud either way.

Psych problem. The reason they need to be guarded, imprisoned, and restrained if necessary is of little importance compared to the fact that they need to be guarded, imprisoned or restrained immediately.

[Traci Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sort of stream of consciousness book. It is wildly creative and so voicey. Voicey is my favorite. The book has a lot of sex talk which is always hard for me (a prude) but it is well done. It is funny and fucked up and Thomas has such a unique and singular voice on the page. There were parts where I would zone out on the audio and think thats the nature of a book like this, but it didn't always hold my attention.

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I want to thank NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for this ARC. I needed a good book for a trip I was taking, and when I read the summary for this, I felt like it would be a good vacation read for all the different forms of transit I was taking. This was my first time reading the work of Joseph Earl Thomas; I had heard about Sink, but hadn't had the chance to read it yet.

Let's get to the nitty gritty: I give this a 3.5/5 (rounding up to 4), mainly driven by the fact that the story continued to pull me in every time I thought about taking a break. Thomas' writing style is unique and proselike. I sometimes found it hard to not get lost in the lines, but I ultimately felt that it gave the book an intimate feeling of being told a story in real time. Sometimes it's linear, sometimes you get lost on a tangent; but no matter what, it's real. I think my biggest difficulty was trying to keep all the of the side characters and their storylines straight while remembering where we were in the main plot. Some of the asides amplified the shock factor, peppering in salacious and or traumatic tidbits in otherwise standard paragraphs. I loved the continuous thread of Otis Spunkmeyer muffins; I think it perfect captured the idea that some of the most impactful joys in life can be the simplest (in this case, just your standard vending machine type muffin), and those same joys will be present at the most mundane and most traumatic moments in our lives. The ending was one that I had to re-read a couple of times to truly take in everything that was happening, but I felt that it wrapped the story up aptly.

In general, I think this should definitely be on your summer TBR list, and I look forward to more people becoming familiar with Joseph Earl Thomas' work. I'll be checking out Sink as soon as my library lets me!

[Cecelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. The writing style is a bit of a barrier at first. But, if you can let go and just go with it, it flows nicely. There is lots of humor, literally laughed out loud at some parts. There's also a lot of emotion and tragedy. It's not for the faint of heart.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Winner of the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, this is a superb audiobook performed by JD Jackson. Joseph Earl Thomas gives us a first-person portrait, beautifully written, of a Black Iraq War veteran’s complex character and life. More, please!

[Crystal (Melanatedreader) Forte' · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whewww talking about gritty, authentic, and just plain good stream of consciousness the entire ride? I have no idea what I was expecting but it wasn’t that and I definitely held on for a ride 👏🏾

[Ty Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful and stirring, heartfelt novel.
Relatable and understandable on many levels. Being Black, an army vet transitioning to civilian life, we are introduced to Joey Thomas. Starting his shift in a North Philly Hospital.
He tells us his life experiences that shaped him. His loves, his children, his mom- an addict released from prison, as well as his father who stumbles in as a patient that Joey must care for even though his father seems oblivious to who he is.
Lots of reminiscing that inserts itself into multiple situations throughout his daily routines.
Through his trials and shortcomings, highs and lows…. It all comes back with a gratefulness to the Otis Spunkmeyer muffins.

[Brooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciate the uniqueness of the narrative style (completely stream-of-consciousness based) but overall had a hard time following the characters and getting into the story.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this stream of consciousness narrative hard to get into.

[Donna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I abandoned this one fairly early in the reading. It was very hard to follow and very heavy. The constant foul language was enough to push me to abandon it.
Life is too short to read books one is not enjoying.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a drag to read.

[lids :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

woah! a story about how healing means something more than just physical wellbeing, and how sometimes the joys in life are found in the simplest things. i will definitely have to check out the other things joseph earl thomas has published.

[Bill Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stream of consciousness prose here is raw, visceral, and gripping…Thomas doesn’t pull any punches in this autofictional narrative that swings from dark humor to disturbing scenes of trauma and suffering and back again (sometimes all in a single extended passage). It took me a while to get into his style and to accept the lack of a unified story…but the connections became more obvious along the way, especially in the second half of the “novel,” and the power of Thomas’s writing and its emotional heft (and the starkness of the themes) for me ultimately carried the day.

[Carey Calvert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t wait for Joseph Earl Thomas’s debut short story collection, Leviathan Beach, due in August. Everything the author has touched has turned to gold beginning with his debut memoir, Sink, an enigmatic miasma of sorrow and joy which left the author unfazed, but the reader dazzled with equal parts fear and indifference. Not to the staccato with which Thomas delivers each word but to his matter-of-fact nonchalance, at the novel’s parlance – every word a dagger.

“My kitchen betta be tf clean.”

Each word wins and no word is left to linger.

In the meantime, I have feasted on Thomas’s debut novel, God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, which I’m embarrassed to tell I thought was a follow up, a second memoir – he has the stories, please believe; if that knowledge would’ve affected the intensity with which I read the work and absorbed every Otis Spunkmeyer muffin, I relished the aftertaste.

I also relished the undertones Thomas is willing to impart in every sentence.

“Sometimes I forget which tense I’m supposed to be in though, and struggle remaining compliant to forms of disciplinarity which shelter us from reality, but often open up into better things, like contingent employability.”

Starred reviews in Kirkus and Publishers Weekly should be enough to convince you to read this masterpiece; if not, what about the full page spread in the NY Times Book Review by none other than Danez Smith? (“… the chaos will start to show its pattern, its rhythm, its dimension and its awe-inspiring color.”)

You can take what you want from Thomas’s prose – as his protagonist (Thomas himself?) balances the joys and frustrations of single fatherhood, his studies, and ceaseless shifts at the hospital, but it’s the stream of consciousness on autopilot that grabs you at gunpoint and shakes you out of any self-imposed inertia.

There’s always a trauma coming.

“Y’all got any of them muffins?”

[Lillian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thomas’ debut novel is a provocative portrait of black life.

Told not strictly in alternating timelines, the story bounces between the protagonist’s deployment in Iraq as a medic, and the present where he works as an ER tech at a hospital in North Philadelphia, while also enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania as a MD/PhD student.

Through the narrator (also named Joseph), Thomas has created his own free-form narrative style of unapologetic, defiant, bold, flagrant language that matches the rhythm and energy of the people of his community. Not easily accessible, his prose is strong, clamorous and boisterous. It’s reflective of the chaos, intergenerational trauma, gender issues, sexuality, violence, and the search for identity of his family, friends, and colleagues amid the larger world not their own.

Along with his ER work and memories of Iraq, our narrator is curious to learn more about the father he never knew who is currently an inmate at the barbarous Holmesburg Prison.

Who or what is Otis Spunkmeyer? Read the book to find out.

[Angie Miale · Rating 3 out of 5]

An army vet returns from Iraq, comes to terms with his relationship with his absent father, strains into a relationship with his selfish and immature mother. He is a grad student in Philadelphia and also works in emergency services.

Is this a memoir? I can’t tell. It seems so, if not, it’s very personal and sort of a portrait of everyday black life. It feels very lovingly edited and poured over. As if it is the result of someone’s writers workshop where they spend two hours dissecting a single paragraph.

This isn’t as much a story as just an image. More like a very long poem than a story.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story of a US African American Iraq veteran who now works in a hospital emergency ward, where he is confronted with the presence of his drug addicted mother, grandmother and his estranged father , as well as a fellow veteran. He is a single parent and supports his wider co-dependent family members and some friends. I found the manner of writing raw and unfamiliar- I am not American and struggle with the racial bigotry expressed and even echoed by the African Americans themselves. The language and despair evident made it hard for me to engage with the novel.

[Lit_Vibrations · Rating 1 out of 5]

Special thanks to the author & @grandcentralpub for my gifted copy‼️ I DNF’d at page 62 cause what was this . . . No structure, no plot, no chapter titles not even a 1, 2, or 3 and the audio had me thinking I was listening to fast so I slowed the speed down and opened the book cause I could not understand what was happening and still don’t. Not sure who this book is for but it definitely wasn’t for me!

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not understand the appeal of this one, so I didn't finish it. Foul language that bombards me at the beginning often becomes a hurdle for me to get over. More often than not, I just move on to try my luck with another less curse-riddled novel.

[Eileen · Rating 1 out of 5]

The stream of consciousness did not make sense to me. The characters were hard to follow. I only finished it because I kept thinking this book got published, it must get better. It didn’t.

[Michael Sandstrom · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not get past the writing style; it was just not for me.

[Reagan Formea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was gifted a hardcover copy of this book through giveaways!
I tend to struggle with stream-of-consciousness books so I was a bit apprehensive going into this. I often feel books written in the nature lack motivation or flow of the narrative, but that was completely untrue for this novel. Everything the author wrote had deep meaning and purpose. It was such an interesting commentary on race and poverty and their impacts on everyday life. I will be trying to wrap my mind around all that was discussed in this book for quite a while.

[Theodore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas writes with no bounds!

[Lulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be both heartfelt and humorous, while remaining authentic as Otis learns that his gift of healing reaches beyond the physical.

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joseph Earl Thomas's God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer is a perfect read for Black History Month. It's contemporary history with an Iraq war veteran as the protagonist. Joseph is a medical assistant and grad student. He is also a parent and a member of family with complex relationships and needs. Joseph tries to be the one responsible family member. He works multiple jobs and gives, loans or pays money for their constant financial emergencies. He is also emotionally there for them to the extent he has any emotional currency left. They are beyond demanding. The plot includes war flashbacks and other past events. He and his "nigga" buddies (not sure I can use that word) have lived through a lot- some of them don't make it. The reference to "Otis Spunkmeyer" comes from the muffins his patrol team relied on to get through in Iraq. It is emergency snack food in his present day ER. Parts of the book feel like a Black version of the old Archie Bunker joke scenes from All in the Family. Not really funny, potentially hurtful, yet understood and accepted. A funny, sad and insightful book.

[Molly Jorgenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love his writing style.

[Cameron Tief · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was on display at my library so I said “why not.” Seemed different than what I typically read, which it definitely was. I enjoyed the Virginia Wolf-esque stream of consciousness, though I understand that it might be annoying to some readers. It covers the life of an army veteran turned trauma nurse and his life dealing with children from different women while also trying to find out who his father is. I really enjoyed the author’s poetic language and found myself rereading several lines due to how beautiful they were, even if they were sad. It was also a good way to close out Black History Month. Here are some of my fave quotes

Sometimes I forget what tense I'm supposed to be in though, and struggle remaining compliant to forms of disciplinarity which shelter us from reality, but often open up into better things, like contingent employability. 10

One of them middle management types watching your pockets like that check is subtracted straight from their check and not the throwaway change from some family who own the hospital network anyway and probably owned both your great-grandparents too, one of whom is still alive, wheezing to death in a double room next door with no privacy. 18

There’s a loneliness I can’t name, or that I can name but only to myself, which makes me want to be alone even more 61

He did not believe my dad could be person worthy of contemplation, which perhaps I saw as the real difficulty in a field of liberals decrying the evils of prison and rallying, even in the popular discourse toward abolition, the project of loving someone innocent found guilty or maimed in cold blood was just too easy; I wanted to learn how to love people through real conflict, not just of ideology or mistake, or of the obviously narrowing sphere of choice we are thrust against, but of deed and consistent material harm because otherwise, what was the point? 86

Tons of text messages had poured in which I'd promised to respond to more promptly one day, and I lingered on their one-sidedness, both from my end, toward a potential lover and on the other, from bill collectors and exes, fake friends in proximity or real friends who'd since moved away… 101

…so thankful not to be alone, to be here, in community, to feel held in my narrowing field of perception as I lean, with too much left undone, into something resembling rest. 226

it is more likely we hallucinate than identify a threat before a threat identifies the threat in us. 208

[Jeatherhane Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

“How could something so obvious and boring still be this infuriating?”

One year ago I tried to read this as a PDF (before NetGalley had send to Kobo) and I failed. It was too exhausting.

I’m glad I tried again, this time on audio, but I can’t say this was an enjoyable read. Stark and painful is what it was.

For 200-ish pages, we are inside Joseph’s head as he conducts an internal monologue during a single night working a shift as an Emergency Department Technician. He is also back on tour in Iraq. He is also reliving his sexual encounters with men and women, including being molested as a child, worried about raising his children from various baby mamas, looking after his crack-addicted mother (who was raped at 12), doing everything he can to avoid going to prison, wondering about his father who is in prison, worrying about the poverty and violence in his Philadelphia neighbourhood, and always looking for something to eat. Everyone he knows shows up on this night, and I’m not sure Joseph is the most reliable narrator.

“It surprises me that we’re not all here for psych problems.”

The writing, the voice, is exceptional and authentic. It had me laughing out loud occasionally. But be prepared for the trauma and suffering. It’s unrelenting.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gifted by the publisher.

I really don’t know what to say about this book. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever read before.
The stream of consciousness timeline shifting was confusing at first, but I came to see both as the way Joseph lives inside his head. Exhausting. Which is appropriate because he is exhausted.
I don’t know if there is an autobiographical nature to the story, but it is sad that a person (whether that person is the author or not) has to work so hard and feels the need to be everything to everyone…except to themselves. The story points out quite vividly the disparities in this country. The inequities that an obviously intelligent, hardworking person is born into and must struggle to even partially overcome. Unfair and heartbreaking.
I can’t say that I “enjoyed” the book, but I think it’s important.

[Kayla Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought about reading this book for awhile and when is a better time than after moving to Philly lol. Very stream of consciousness which was a little confusing at times given the jumps in time. There were some really great moments and times where I found Joseph very funny! Unfortunately that’s balanced by the moments where I struggled to pay attention. The lack of straightforward plot made me struggle to keep reading but I did enjoy how much we got to understand Joseph, his complex family relationships, and his own struggles with intimacy and expectations. The ending felt abrupt but it somehow made sense to me.