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Title: John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead ISBN: 0-385-49820-9 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 14 May, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.71 (34 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Magnificent
Comment: Having read and loved Whitehead's first novel, I was waiting for his follow up with high hopes. All my expectations were met and surpassed by this extraordinary novel. John Henry Days is wideranging in its themes, characters, styles, you name it, clever as hell and ALWAYS funny. The journalist J., and the steel driving John Henry, couldn't be more different, yet Whitehead connects them in unexpected, thoughtful and often moving ways. I was mesmerised by this book, and there were some sections that, in the beauty and precision of their observation, could be read aloud as poetry. Now I can't wait to read his next book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Believe the Hype
Comment: John Henry Days has received so much attention lately (loved by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, as examples), so much so that I had to run right out and buy the hardcover. Does the novel live up to the hype. Yes, yes, definitely yes. There is so much to rave about in this novel. Whitehead writes like a dream. Each sentence is a work of art, and those sentences add up to a great story filled with uniquely believable characters, witty dialog and observations and an interesting story. J. Sutter is a journalist, a junketeer, taking up every invitation he receives to attend a free conference to cover whatever needs coverage. This time, it is John Henry Days, the celebration of a new postage stamp, in a West Virginia town where John Henry's legend is said to originate. The world and his job are beating J. down, just as John Henry's world and his job beat him down. But this time, it's not as obvious as grueling physical labor, instead it's the day to day grind of the junketeer's life. Whereas John Henry's world was obviously killing him, J.'s world is much more subtle. But J. has hope, whereas, we'll never know whether the legendary John Henry did. The novel juxtaposes tragedy with humor, bittersweet sadness with hopeful optimism. It embraces much of what it is to be American, as seen from J.'s perspective. All in all, a well told tale with much to recommend.
Rating: 4
Summary: Great Writing but Scattered Narrative
Comment: I loved Whitehead's debut, The Intuitionist, but for some reason it took me a few years to get to this second novel. This sprawling work shows that while his sheer talent and style are once again on display, his ability to sustain a narrative is not. Set in 1996, the book is loosely organized around the titular weekend festival±a grand celebration in a small West Virginia town to commemorate the release of a John Henry postage stamp. This is a center which only barely manages to hold on to the multiple storylines, vignettes, flashbacks, ghost stories and Great American themes that Whitehead spins from it.
A good portion of the story follows hack-for-hire J. Sutter, a freelance "journalist" who "covers" whatever product/personality/story pays for his airfare, hotel, and bar bills. A once-promising writer, he's since sold his soul for whatever freebies, access, and perks he can wrangle in exchange for a decent write-up. He's currently embarked on a junketeering streak, having attended press events every day for weeks on end. Clearly, the reader is supposed to draw some kind of parallel between his struggle to take on the corporate publicity machine and the struggle of steel-drivin' John Henry taking on the corporate steam-drill machine. Each is beat down by a grinding life, but John Henry literally dies, while J. Sutter is only spiritually dead. It's no accident that the story takes place at the start of the Internet boom, just as John Henry's legend takes place at the start of the industrial era. It's kind of an interesting gambit by Whitehead, but never really coalesces into a cohesive idea.
Meanwhile, there are a ton of other ingredients tossed in the pot. There's a section on competing academics in the 1920s attempting to determine the truth of the John Henry legend. An extremely lengthy digressive story told about the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont. The story of a mild-mannered collector of railroad stamps. A nice part about the early days of recording popular songs and the scams used to increase sales. Another piece tells the story of young girl from Striver's Row buying sheet music to "The Ballad of John Henry". The tale of a Chicago bluesman making a John Henry record. Paul Robeson's ill-fated attempt to do a play based on John Henry's life. And probably a few others I forgot. One very much gets the impression that Whitehead did a ton of research on the John Henry myth in America and fell in love with all these story ideas. Each is very well-written and imagined on its own, but the presence of so many tangential parts only acts to distract from the central story, and they kind of strobe in and out, sometimes overwhelming the main plotline by being far more interesting.
There's plenty to like here-tons and tons of great writing, brilliant sentences, and vivid scenes. However, the book is so crammed with fragmentary ideas and themes of race, class, capitalism, memory, and so on, that none is allowed to emerge as central. So it's one of those rare books that is well wroth reading, and yet is kind of disappointing on the whole.
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Title: The Intuitionist : A Novel by Colson Whitehead ISBN: 0385493002 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 04 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Colossus of New York: A City in 13 Parts by Colson Whitehead ISBN: 0385507941 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 21 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem ISBN: 0375724834 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 24 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Corrections: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen ISBN: 0312421273 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 27 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: True History of the Kelly Gang : A Novel by Peter Carey ISBN: 0375724672 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 02 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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