When Rob Franklin sat down to draft his first novel, “Great Black Hope,” the Atlanta native was staying in his childhood bedroom, about to celebrate his 26th birthday.
The award-winning writer, poet and teacher now lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches writing at the School of Visual Arts.
But while on his book tour in Atlanta, Franklin told WABE’s “Morning Edition” that this fictional but deeply personal novel is a timeless coming-of-age story in some ways. In others, it explores the broader theme of the American Black elite — and how often the young are put in a position to shun their privilege, rebel and ultimately sacrifice themselves.
The protagonist is Smith, a queer Black Stanford graduate in his mid-20s who is reeling in the aftermath of his best friend’s death. Smith is arrested for cocaine possession in New York and then returns to his hometown of Atlanta. Franklin tells WABE the book is a journey of existing between two worlds: where his class protects him, but his race does not.
“I definitely think that for people who are the products of this kind of upwardly mobile, Black professional class, there’s such preoccupation with achievement, with presenting a kind of polished external image, and that can become, I think, a bit oppressive to the people who are like, schooled in that logic,” Frankin told WABE’s “Morning Edition.”
