Pym: A Novel by Mat Johnson

This book revisits the story of Edgar Allen Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. Chris Payne, a college professor who has recently been denied tenure, discovers a narrative written before the Civil War by a free black man--Dirk Peters--and discovers that the story Poe told in Pym was true, if not entirely accurate. Payne convinces his cousin, friend, ex-wife, ex-wife's current husband, and two explorers to join him on a trip to the Antarctic to look for the Tsalals. Obviously, things don't go quite as expected, and the crew finds themselves taken prisoners by the Tekeli-li. While the story is very entertaining in its own right, I found it most valuable for its reflections on race in America in the current day--and the way academics deal with race.