Lamar, Jake 1961–

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Lamar, Jake 1961–

PERSONAL:

Born March 27, 1961, in Bronx, NY; son of Jacob Virgil, Sr. (a teacher and in business) and Joyce Marie (a personnel administrator) Lamar; married; wife's name Dorli, September 11, 1999. Education: Harvard University, B.A. (cum laude), 1983.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Paris, France. Agent—Kristine Dahl, International Creative Management, 40 West 57th St., New York, NY 10019.

CAREER:

Time, New York, NY, staff writer and associate editor, 1983-89; freelance writer, 1989—. Adjunct lecturer at University of Michigan, 1993.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Lyndhurst Prize, 1992, for Bourgeois Blues: An American Memoir.

WRITINGS:

Bourgeois Blues: An American Memoir (nonfiction), Summit Books (New York, NY), 1991.

The Last Integrationist, Crown (New York, NY), 1996.

Close to the Bone, Crown (New York, NY), 1998.

If 6 Were 9, Crown (New York, NY), 2001.

Rendezvous Eighteenth, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2003.

Ghosts of Saint-Michel, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2006.

Author of essays, including "Behind Enemy Lines: Post-War Notes of an American in Paris" and "The Road to Rendezvous Eighteenth." Contributor to magazines and newspapers, including Esquire, New York Times, and Details.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jake Lamar is a Bronx-born, Harvard-educated author who has made his home in Paris, France, since 1993. His first book, Bourgeois Blues: An American Memoir, is a memoir that focuses on his relationship with his father and on their lives as African American men in the United States. On the merits of this book, Lamar was awarded the Lyndhurst Prize. As he explained in an interview for Paris through Expatriate Eyes, the grant is "very obscure but a lot of famous writers have won it: Cormac McCarthy, Richard Ford, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker but no one knows about it…. You can't apply for it. Someone calls you out of the blue and tells you that you've won all of this money." The grant provided forty thousand dollars a year for three years. Lamar decided to spend a year in Paris but fell in love with the city and has continued to live and write there since that time.

Like his memoir, much of Lamar's fiction revolves around the perplexing issues facing young black professionals in modern society. His first novel, The Last Integrationist, is set in the near future and features African American attorney general Melvin Hutchinson, an ultra-conservative who favors televised executions and draconian boot camps for drug offenders. As Melvin seeks the U.S. vice presidency, he must come to terms with the white power brokers who back him as well as his own conflicted picture of himself. Salon.com reviewer Megan Harlan noted that Lamar "employs both empathy and a tough, critical eye in observing his large cast of characters," and concluded that The Last Integrationist "is a rare, intelligent, provocative novel on race in America." A Publishers Weekly reviewer called the book a "richly imagined … novel that features a lot of fine writing about race in America." Gene Lyons, reviewing the book in Entertainment Weekly, deemed Lamar "a fearless young talent to keep your eye on."

Lamar's Close to the Bone "examines the broader question of what is a person, of how identity is influenced by race, sex, and relationships," to quote Vanessa Bush in Booklist. Using the O.J. Simpson murder trial as a backdrop, the novel explores the lives of three black men who each face challenges in their personal and professional lives. BookBrowser contributor Lee Meadows characterized the work as "a wonderfully adult story of appealing characters driven by the memories of their past and their hopes for the future." A Powells.com reviewer stated that Lamar "cuts through the controversies surrounding the African American experience" with his tale of identity and interracial love. In her Library Journal review, Ellen Flexman praised Close to the Bone as "a sensitive and romantic look at race and relationships in the 1990s."

Lamar turned to the mystery format for his third novel, If 6 Were 9. The protagonist, Clay Robinette, finds his comfortable marriage and position in academia threatened when he agrees to help a colleague beat a murder rap. Unfortunately, Clay recognizes the victim as a student with whom he has just had an affair. Inevitably, scandal erupts and it is Clay who faces suspicion both in the workplace and at home. A Publishers Weekly critic described the book as "part mystery, part academic satire and part socioracial examination." Wes Lukowsky in Booklist noted that Lamar "brings to his first thriller the same sensitivity to racial issues evident in his earlier work." Gavin McNett of the New York Times wrote: "If 6 Were 9 is a page-turner of a murder mystery with a clear, breezy style. The book is also a wicked black comedy in both senses of the phrase—it's both caustically funny and a shrewd take on racial politics." And a Kirkus Reviews contributor stated: "The real strength here lies in [Lamar's] often feckless, always candid, deeply unheroic hero, hollow yet irresistibly human."

Rendezvous Eighteenth is Lamar's first novel set Paris. The title refers to a colorful, sometimes dangerous part of the city where the author makes his home. In the story, Ricky Jenks is an American expatriate content with his low-key life as a piano player. When his cousin appears with a request for help finding his missing wife, Ricky's peaceful existence is upended. In addition to telling a lively mystery story, "the African-American scene in Paris is dissected and laid bare" in this book, according to Bookloons reviewer Mary Ann Smyth.

Lamar's next novel, Ghosts of Saint-Michel, also illuminates the expatriate life in Paris. This story concerns Marva Dobbs, a 62-year-old American woman whose soul food restaurant is a huge success in the French capital. Marva's affair with Hassan, a young Algerian who works for her, has unexpected consequences when he is accused of being a terrorist. Marva and Hassan drop out of sight, and Marva's daughter, the Parisian police, and spies from various persuasions all go on the hunt for them. Lamar "writes of Paris with charm and authority," noted a Kirkus Reviews writer.

Discussing his choice to live in Paris in an interview with Paris through Expatriate Eyes, Lamar reflected: "Here I find that writers are appreciated just for being writers. Writing in and of itself is respected. And I think that in America it's only rich and successful writers that are respected. In France everybody from the baker to the literary critic respects people who write books and care about literature. That's a very nice thing for someone who is dedicated to the craft but not famous."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Black Issues Book Review, March-April, 2004, Melissa Ewey Johnson, review of Rendezvous Eighteenth, p. 48.

Booklist, December 1, 1998, Vanessa Bush, review of Close to the Bone, p. 651; December 1, 2000, Wes Lukowsky, review of If 6 Were 9, p. 696; October 15, 2003, Bill Ott, review of Rendezvous Eighteenth, p. 394.

Entertainment Weekly, April 5, 1996, Gene Lyons, review of The Last Integrationist, p. 77.

Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 1996, review of The Last Integrationist; November 15, 2000, review of If 6 Were 9, p. 1578; October 1, 2003, review of Rendezvous Eighteenth, p. 1202; May 1, 2006, review of Ghosts of Saint-Michel, p. 430.

Library Journal, December, 1998, Ellen Flexman, review of Close to the Bone, p. 157.

New York Times, January 28, 2001, Gavin McNett, review of If 6 Were 9.

People, June 26, 2006, review of Ghosts of Saint-Michel, p. 49.

Publishers Weekly, November 6, 1995, review of The Last Integrationist, p. 81; February 5, 1996, review of The Last Integrationist, p. 36; November 2, 1998, review of Close to the Bone, p. 69; December 4, 2000, review of If 6 Were 9, p. 56; October 20, 2003, review of Rendezvous Eighteenth, p. 38.