Fantasies of Future Things

In Jones’s resonant if underdeveloped debut, two young Black men uneasily take part in a real estate scheme to raze houses for the 1996 summer Olympics. Jacob and Daniel’s white boss, Beth, tasks them with knocking on doors in Atlanta’s Summerhill neighborhood—“not quite a ghetto, but almost,” Jones writes—to make offers on her behalf. After Jacob is beaten by disgruntled residents protesting against Beth’s development plans, he refuses to press charges out of sympathy for their position. Then Jacob is set up on a date with protest organizer Sherman, who is shocked to learn that he works for Beth. The episode adds to Jacob’s struggle with accepting his sexuality and coming out to his parents. Meanwhile, Daniel searches for his father, whom he never knew, and tension brews between the coworkers when he makes an unwanted pass at Jacob. Jones takes a deep dive into the effects of housing inequality on the city’s Black community, and he offers many perceptive insights into Black male sexuality, as Jacob tries to envision what his life would look like if he were openly gay. Unfortunately, as the men’s story lines converge, extensive flashbacks and narrative digressions reveal too little, particularly about Daniel, leaving the novel feeling unbalanced. Still, Jones is a writer worth keeping tabs on. Agent: Haley Heidmemann, WME. (Apr.)