McCarthy’s analyses and observations are masterfully articulated, as are his dissents…[his] essays are richly varied, and one surmises the abundant intersections of art and race were in large measure informed by his own experiences growing up Black in America and in France… With a younger readership at the top of his mind but an open invitation to all, McCarthy seems determined to draw attention to African-Americans’ ‘true strength’ and ‘worth.’ He well knows that if despair brought on by a troubled world is to be kept in check, the right prescriptions must be offered, the right traditions advanced, the right lessons drawn, and from the right people.—Jerald Walker, New York Times Book Review
Remarkable. . . . [The] cumulative range and force [of these essays] are as exhilarating as they are compelling. . . .The finest essays in this book function like origami, folding together the apparently disparate into a unique and seemingly inevitable form. . . . In sum, they illuminate, almost like a guide for the novice, the rich contemporary cosmos of black American art, literature, and philosophy. . . . a revolutionary, almost joyful sense of mission suffuses the book.—Claire Messud, Harper’s Magazine
For its penetrating thought, its joyful language, and its eclectic wanderings among the peaks and valleys of high and low culture, this book is an act of sublime generosity from a brilliant mind. Essai? Triomphe.—J.J. Amaworo Wilson, New York Journal of Books
This is a very smart and soulful book. Jesse McCarthy is a terrific essayist.—Zadie Smith
Having grown up in Paris, where he moved with his parents, both journalists, when he was 8, the author bears witness to ‘the Paris of color, of difference’ that marginalizes Black immigrants. The tragic terrorist attacks at Bataclan in 2015, writes McCarthy, communicated ‘a desperate will to power’ by those who believe verbal expression impossible. Urbane, penetrating cultural analysis.—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
McCarthy puts himself in conversation with such contemporary figures as Ta-Nehisi Coates [...], and the musician D’Angelo, whose 2014 album Black Messiah McCarthy sees as 'a flash of black hope in the hour of chaos.' The result is an insightful collection as timely as it is original.
—Publishers Weekly
My vote for the most underrated young critic today goes to this Harvard instructor (and editor at the Chicago literary journal The Point) whose excellent collection of essays on Black aesthetics, from obvious (Toni Morrison) to fleeting (trap music), reads like a landmark.
—Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, "25 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2021"
Jesse McCarthy is an artist of the ear. In the essays collected in Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul? he shows us how to hear the anguish and strange joy in trap music, the verbal and rhetorical nuances in American political and poetic traditions, and even the minute change in meaning between “black” and “Black.” Out of these sounds and many others, McCarthy’s challenging and startlingly humane essays make a symphony. This is a beautiful and beguiling new voice, tuned perfectly for the troubles and opportunities of our moment. Listen up.
—Vinson Cunningham, New Yorker staff writer
Jesse McCarthy’s Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul? signals the rebirth of the golden age of Black cultural criticism. McCarthy is absolutely brilliant and this book is stunning. With an impressive breadth and depth of knowledge, McCarthy moves between popular culture, critical theory, scholarship, media, music, and art deftly and precisely in order to provide a historically informed assessment of our times. McCarthy is a beautiful writer and thinker and the world is better for his wisdom.
—Imani Perry, Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and author of Breathe: A Letter to My Sons
