Lee (novel)

Lee is a 1991 novel by the American writer Tito Perdue. It tells the story of an angry and well-read man who returns to his hometown in Alabama after 60 years in the North.

Reception

Publishers Weekly wrote: "Steeped in Greek classics, spouting cultured allusions to such subjects as Persian painting and Dostoyevski, Lee fancies himself a chastiser of humanity, satirist of the New South, a self-ordained Nietzschean prophet of the crumbling of the West. ... A solipsistic little parable of spiritual self-delusion, the novel starts out interestingly but sinks under the weight of its own pretensions."^[1]

Kirkus Reviews found that Perdue "writes convincingly and iconoclastically about a misanthrope who is frightening in his complete contempt for anyone who has not 'held on to their soul.'" The citic continued: "While Lee's critique of modernity seems to be deadly serious, Perdue offers a marvelous black comedy that is sometimes as astringent as John Yount's Toots in Solitude. A promising debut."^[2]

References