Sarah's book
reviews can be heard on alternate Mondays on KMUW 89.1. Read a transcript
below of her most recent review or listen at:
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kmuw/.artsmain/article/16/59/1491810/Sarah.Bagby's.Book.Review./<BR><BR>Sarah.Bagby's.Book.Review/
"Sag Harbor" by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday, 9780385527651, $24.95)
"Sag Harbor," Colson Whitehead's delightful fourth novel, is a first.
Whitehead waited to write his "semi-autobiographical" first novel well into
the career that earned him a MacArthur Genius Award and numerous literary
honors.
It's 1985, and brothers Benji and Reggie, ages 14 & 15, inseparable since
birth, embark on a summer of change. There are no shocking dead bodies, no
depressing drug overdoses in this novel; this is a story of good kids. Old
enough for their parents to leave them unsupervised during the week at their
Sag Harbor summer home, Benjinreggie invent new rules for everything:
cleaning, sleeping, socializing with friends, getting along without the
tether of the other.
Benji works at the Jonni Waffle, and Reggie goes for the Burger King; Benji
has a fake ID, and Reggie is left behind--the time is ripe with opportunity
and turmoil-—both typical for teenagers on the verge.
Pop culture icons--New Coke, mix tapes, Buzzcocks t-shirts--transport the
reader in time, while the furnishings of Sag Harbor—-deck furniture covered
in dewy plastic, damp towels hanging over just about everything-—transport
us to the Long Island summer refuge for black urbanites.
Read "Sag Harbor" for its clever syntax, for its amusing and lovable
characters, for its inventive style, but most of all for the sheer pleasure
of it.
Review by Sarah
Bagby, April 30, 2009
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