|
Search Catalog | My Account/Renewals | Databases |
|
|
||
Colson
Whitehead Native New Yorker
Colson Whitehead attended Harvard University before becoming a
television critic for The Village Voice. His first attempt at novel
writing went nowhere (his agent reportedly dropped him). However,
The Intuitionist, a novel about
a black female elevator inspector in pre-civil rights America,
gained him critical acclaim and won him the Quality Paperback Book
Club New Voices Award. Critics everywhere compared his work to
greats like Ralph Ellison, Kurt Vonnegut and Thomas Pynchon, yet
declared his one of the most original voices in years. Whitehead's second novel, John Henry Days centered around an event commemorating the release of the John Henry stamp in the West Virginia town that claimed to be the site of the original John Henry folk story. The cast of characters includes J. Sutter, a freelance journalist that will cover any event so long as his expenses are paid and Pamela Street, a young woman trying to decide whether to find a buyer for the John Henry collection her recently deceased father used to display to passersby in his apartment. Both of these books deal with race issues in new and unexpected ways, making his first two novels excellent choices for book groups. In 2003, Colson Whitehead released The Colossus of New York: A City in 13 Parts. This collection of vignettes include fiction and memoir written in a variety of narrative styles as the author captures many aspects of New York City life. His latest novel (as of 2006), Apex Hides the Hurt, deals with a man who makes his living coming up with catchy names for products. He is most famous for coming up with the name "apex" for band-aids that come in colors to match many skin tones. His latest job is to help the small town of Winthrop decide on a new name. Sound intriguing? Whitehead's novels are anything but routine. Click here to see what Colson Whitehead titles are held by the Escondido Public Library. On the Web
|
