A review by coffeeandink
John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead

3.0

John Henry Days is more expansive and more diffuse than the other Whitehead novels I've read (The Intuitionist and Apex Hides the Hurt), each of which focuses on a single character -- indeed a single character solving or resolving a mystery, although not always one they're aware of in the beginning. The mystery driving John Henry Days for me was not "What happened?" or (as the structure invites by setting up a shooting whose victims are unknown) "What's going to happen?" but "Why are all these stories the same story?" Or, to be more precise, why is J.'s story the story that pulls it all together? Why is J. the center of the book, and not John Henry? Full review.