Sons of the Rapture

by Todd Dills

Billy Jones and his dad have a score to settle. Up in Chicago, Billy drowns his past in booze. In South Carolina, his father saddles up for a drive to reclaim him. Caught in this perfect storm is a ragged assortment of savants: shape-shifting doctor, despairingly bisexual bombshell, tiara-crowned trumpeter, zombie senator.

Genres: Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Todd Dills is the author of a novel (Sons of the Rapture, Featherproof 2006) and the 2013 Triumph of the Ape short-story collection. He's also the editor, publisher and founder of Nashville-based occasional book and online lit publisher THE2NDHAND (http://www.the2ndhand.com), for which he edited too book-length collections of short fiction, "All Hands On," published in 2004 and 2011, respectively. He lives in Nashville, Tenn., where he also works as senior editor for Overdrive magazine. He finished an M.F.A. at Columbia College in Chicago in 2003.

Reviews

[Shauna · Rating 5 out of 5]

READ. THIS. BOOK. Good grief. It's incredible. In parts Todd rivals Pynchon for audacity and madness, yet the organization and pace of the story are controlled, symphonic, clear. I'm not kidding. I'm going to need for you to read it and report back to me.

This isn't a ploy to help a nice guy sell copies, either -- drop me a line if you're flat broke, and I'll send you mine. I want you to read this book.

[Melanie Page · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you try to read this book out loud, you'll realize you find like you're trying to read for the first time. Sentences are confusingly worded in a way that doesn't add rhythm or meaning that I can see. Abandoned.

[featherproof · Rating 5 out of 5]

Told from various points of view—each unique, beautiful and strange—with his debut novel Dills has tapped into a zeitgeist unique to America. He explores the surly restlessness of youth, the repressed anger of a still-divided country, and the confused joy of perpetual drunkenness. Fans of Barry Hannah and Walter Kirn will recognize a similar investigation of America's jagged psychology.

"TOP 5 LOCAL BOOKS OF 2006"
- Newcity | full article

"Sons of the Rapture is a gloriously ambitious achievement."
-The Elegant Variation | full article

"Wildly entertaining, technically astounding and moving to the last."
- Punk Planet

"Part farce and part tribute to the southern culture that raised him."
- UR Chicago | full article

"Dills' writing is engaging."
- Gapers Block | full article

"An impressive booze-soaked debut, told from various perspectives with unapologetic frankness and raging fervor."
- Newcity | full article

[Zweegas]

I read all of Part 1 which is over half but less than two-thirds.

I'm so confused. Why did this get published? How did it make it into my public library system? It's so bad. If the point of this book is to immortalize the Two-Way Lounge (an actual real-life dive bar close to where I live) in literature, then at least this novel has some reason to exist.

That being said, one of the characters is named Artichoke Heart (or A.H. for short) and my favorite part of the whole thing is when Artichoke Heart assassinates an alderman. It's such a great name.

[Cate]

I had to force myself to finish this book.
It's so disjointed that it was hard to really become invested in it.
The second half of the book was much more enjoyable than the first half, to me.

[Tiah Keever · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes yes yes! I like it. Read it.