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A review by ajkhn
John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead
4.0
Since it's a book that's all about air travel and americana, and was published in early 2001, it feels extremely dated in a way I don't know if the writer intended. And I don't mean that in a negative way! It's historic fiction, about 1990s America. We all become the weird side character who just talks about the past, sooner or later.
I thought it was a really incisive and interesting book about Blackness, masculinity, and labor, and alienation from one/two/all of those three. There's bits where it's sprawly, for sure, especially compared to other Whitehead books. But it's a really thoughtful approach to the 20th century that I enjoyed. As a novel, it kind of purposefully keeps its protagonist in the shade and does a lot of interesting stuff around the plot that ... I dunno, doesn't always work for me and my reading habits. But it's a good one, for sure.
I thought it was a really incisive and interesting book about Blackness, masculinity, and labor, and alienation from one/two/all of those three. There's bits where it's sprawly, for sure, especially compared to other Whitehead books. But it's a really thoughtful approach to the 20th century that I enjoyed. As a novel, it kind of purposefully keeps its protagonist in the shade and does a lot of interesting stuff around the plot that ... I dunno, doesn't always work for me and my reading habits. But it's a good one, for sure.