Great Expectations

A Novel

By: Vinson Cunningham

Narrated by: Aaron Goodson

Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

A historic presidential campaign changes the trajectory of a young Black man’s life in the highly anticipated debut novel from one of The New Yorker’s rising stars.

“Brilliantly written, piercingly smart, quietly subversive, Great Expectations will be one of the talked-about novels of the year.”—Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin, winner of the National Book Award

“Vinson Cunningham’s novel is a coming-of-age story that captures the soul of America.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

I’d seen the Senator speak a few times before my life got caught up, however distantly, with his, but the first time I can remember paying real attention was when he delivered the speech announcing his run for the Presidency.

When David first hears the Senator from Illinois speak, he feels deep ambivalence. Intrigued by the Senator’s idealistic rhetoric, David also wonders how he’ll balance the fervent belief and inevitable compromises it will take to become the United States’ first Black president.

Great Expectations is about David’s eighteen months working for the Senator's presidential campaign. Along the way David meets a myriad of people who raise a set of questions—questions of history, art, race, religion, and fatherhood—that force David to look at his own life anew and come to terms with his identity as a young Black man and father in America.

Meditating on politics and politicians, religion and preachers, fathers and family, Great Expectations is both an emotionally resonant coming-of-age story and a rich novel of ideas, marking the arrival of a major new writer.

©2024 Vinson Cunningham (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"This is a novel of so many things—love and pride and pity and politics and sex and God and fatherhood—but, ultimately, it is about the human ambition to make sense of the troubled waters of our times. Brilliantly written, piercingly smart, quietly subversive, Great Expectations will be one of the talked-about novels of the year. I couldn’t help thinking that there was a touch of Fitzgerald in Cunningham’s words, borne back not just ceaselessly but also gracefully into the too-recent past.” —Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin, winner of the National Book Award

“The aptly titled Great Expectations announces Vinson Cunningham as a novelist of singular style, wit, and ambition. Focused on one young man’s experience working on a historic presidential campaign, the novel is both a coming-of-age story for its narrator and—just as powerfully—a coming-of-age tale for the nation writ large. Cunningham has an uncanny ability to access the thoughts undergirding our thoughts, and his narrator is one that readers will wish they could keep by their sides to make sense of the world after the book’s final pages. Read Great Expectations and see our recent past, our present, and even our future anew.” —Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House, finalist for the National Book Award

“Vinson Cunningham’s Great Expectations is epic, intimate, and brimming with brilliance. Cunningham’s prose both soothes and scalds; he crafts a bildungsroman, a tragicomedy, and the panorama of an entire nation, juggling humor and sensitivity and honesty with ease. Great Expectations is a phenomenal, transfixing work, and Cunningham is a singular, dazzling writer.” —Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal and Memorial

Beautifully written, deeply engaging memoir / fiction

Beautifully written, personal account of a young man's experience as an insider in an icon's presidential campaign. Part coming of age memoir, part moral, spiritual and political exploration. This is a good read; I sped through it. High marks for the narrator.

Invisible Man vibes

The author’s rich use of language and his vibrant narrative style gave me the feeling I was reading Ellison’s Invincible set in our time. Wonderful work.

References to real people

Never felt really drawn to the primary character. Irritated that you require 15 words. I didn’t enjoy the book for 15 minutes.