Imagine Alice tripping not in Wonderland but along the East Coast of Trump’s America.
Lilian, a rebellious highschooler from South Carolina, feels like an Instagram age granddaughter of Alice, Dorothy and Lolita, sucked into a Wonderland ruled by the wizard of Bros. Audacious, fearless, and oblivious to consequences, she navigates reality, and spine-chilling fantastic encounters like a social media feed.
With The Sweet East, Sean Price Williams joins the ranks of the likes of Todd Solondz and John Waters, as a chronicler of the supercharged far ends of the American life spectrum. Lilian is his Gen Z heroin, causing mayhem ploughing through a hotch-potch gallery of landmarks, picturesque landscapes, Qanon supporters, neo-nazis, hipster filmmakers, and portal-jumping young prodigies as if they were TikTok videos. Audaciously seductive, wanting for nothing, and caring for nothing, she is the perfect mirror carried along a high road (as Stendhal defined the goal of all great novels) reflecting Dorian Gray’s portrait of modern America.