Visitation of Spirits, A by Randall Kenan; 1989. Softcover

Randall Kenan's daring and innovative first novel weaves a vivid and horrific tale through the generations of a black Southern family. Sixteen-year old Horace Cross is plagued by issues that hover in his impressionable spirit and take shape in his mind as loathsome demons, culminating in one night of horrible and tragic transformation. In the face of Horace's fate, his cousin Reverend James "Jimmy" Green questions the values of a community that nourishes a boy, places their hopes for salvation on him, only to deny him his destiny.