Great Black Hope follows Smith who is in turmoil after being arrested for possession of cocaine. He is struggling after being pulled into the court system as his friend Elle dies at the same time. As a black man his race does not protect him but his class does. Smith returns to his hometown of Atlanta but ends up going back to New York and back to his old ways.

This really wasn’t for me. I can see this appealing to many people and I have to say the writing was really technically good, it felt high brow and classy. The story was quite dull to me and I was looking forward to the commentary on class and race as to how this affects the criminal justice system but I just don’t connect to this. I found it flat and just don’t have strong feelings towards this.