America The Beautiful
by Billy Johnson

America The Beautiful is a historical fiction novel that takes place during the 1960’s. The novel follows Harlem resident, Zenith Honeycutt, a good-looking, streetwise young man with a voice that can soothe the sins of Satan. Zenith is a romantic who falls in love at least a dozen times a day, but something changes when he meets Sadie Walker, a deliciously beautiful dark-skinned church girl committed to civil rights. Sadie is the kind of woman men commit crimes for, the kind of woman who can unlock the future, the kind of woman dreams are made of.

Zenith is a rare entertainer with the ability to astonish professionals and the talent to take experienced listeners on a journey that encourages participation. While on tour he meets Alaina Amorette Renoir, a wealthy young white woman who roams the country, sleeping with fascinating men, notching invisible stripes in her imaginary belt before advancing onto the next conquest; that is, until Zenith.

Zenith and Alaina share a phenomenon known as synesthesia: the ability to see sounds, taste words, and see shapes when smelling certain scents. Zenith and Alaina are people who use sex for the sake of sex, people who won’t allow dank emotions like love to prohibit the necessity for physical fulfilment.

Zenith lives in a world of ideological contradictions; he loves Sadie but continues to sleep with other women. Zenith begins documenting the dichotomy ravishing his soul, detailing obvious racism and his longing to live in a world where a man can be judged by the content of his character. He writes about assumptions, doubts, flaws, obsessions, the difference between sex and love, and the desire to be one of the best performers to step on stage.

America The Beautiful is a sensually written, historical journey through what many consider America’s second revolution, incorporating the Cuban Missile Crisis, Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Medgar Evers’ assassination, The March on Washington, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, President Kennedy’s assassination, Vietnam, Harlem riots, and other events which seemed to define the era.

America The Beautiful examines the psychology between sex and love, and the change of social norms: religion, music, drugs, sexuality, and civil rights.