Multiple worlds collide in Philadelphia-based author David Jackson Ambrose’s sophomore novel, A Blind Eye. The novel delves into various forms of domestic abuse, disability, the politics of racial and gender identity, and the complexities of police/civilian interactions. Ambrose says, “For me, ‘disability’ is a trigger word. My writing explores the ways that the inherent racism of Western patriarchy imposes a kind of disability for marginalized people – be they non-white, non-male, or any other identity outside the heteronormative paradigm.
About the book
Babe thought he had done all the right things. He works a respectable job, owns his own home, pays his taxes, and throws jury duty summonses in the trash just like every other fellow American. He even stays faithful to his promiscuous boyfriend. But even through all of the right things, he is unsatisfied with his life.
Chance, an Eminem wannabe, drops his pants low and listens to hip hop to show his alliance with Black culture, but Babe has to learn to accept him as more than the “W” word: a wigger.
Alise and her special-needs son, Rueben, have been evicted and reduced to living in a car when her husband runs out on them. They now have to rebuild their lives after losing all their earthly possessions.
Babe finds that Alise and Chance may represent an opportunity for a fresh start as they navigate the intricacies of race relations, working class disillusionment, and mental health.
About the author
DAVID JACKSON AMBROSE is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. He has an M.A. from Saint Joseph’s University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Temple University. He has presented at the National Conference for Teachers of English. His exploration of race and the mental health field was selected for honorable mention for AWP’s 2016 Intro Journals Project.
Ambrose was selected as a 2018 Lambda Literary Award finalist for his debut novel, State of the Nation. He describes his work as “a focus on marginalized people and the ways identities are shaped by a confluence of the prison industrial complex, the mental health factory, (both of which he refers to as neo-plantations) and police state apparatus as it collides with gender,
sexuality and the construct of race to impose disability and hierarchy as part of the design of American capitalism.”
David currently works in Performance Management for a governmental behavioral health oversight entity.
Pub. Information: A Blind Eye (pub. date April 5, 2021) NineStar Press
ISBN# eBook 978-1-64890-247-5 Print 978-1-64890-248-2
For more information visit www.davidjacksonambrose.com.
