false 10029 16271 0385493002 9780385493000 171 <![CDATA[The Intuitionist: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166720297m/16271.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166720297s/16271.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16271.The_Intuitionist_A_Novel 3.71 1196 Lila Mae's good ol' boy colleagues in the Department of Elevator Inspectors are understandably jealous of the flawless record that her natural intelligence and diligence have earned, and understandably delighted when Number Eleven in the newly completed Fanny Briggs Memorial Building goes into deadly free fall just hours after Lila Mae has signed off on it, using the controversial "Intuitionist" method of ascertaining elevator safety. It is, after all, an election year in the Elevator Guild, and the Empiricists would do most anything to discredit the Intuitionist faction. Everyone on both sides assumes that Number Eleven was sabotaged and Lila Mae set up to take the fall. "So complete is Number Eleven's ruin," writes Whitehead, "that there's nothing left but the sound of the crash, rising in the shaft, a fall in opposite: a soul." Lila Mae's doom seems equally irreversible.

Whitehead evokes a world so utterly involving to its own denizens that outside reality does not impinge on its perfect solipsism. We the readers are taken hostage as Lila Mae strives to exonerate herself in this urgent adventure full of government spies, underworld hit men, and seductive double agents. Behind the action, always, is the Idea. Lila Mae's quest reveals the existence of heretofore lost writings by James Fulton, father of Intuitionism, a giant of vertical thought, whose fate is mysteriously entwined with her own. If she is able to find and reveal his plan for the Black Box, the perfect, next-generation elevator, the city as it now exists will instantly be obsolescent. The social and economic implications are huge and the denouement is elegantly philosophical. Most impressive of all is the integrity of Whitehead's prose. Eschewing mere cleverness, resisting showoff word play, he somehow manages to strike a tone that's always funny, always fierce, and always entirely respectful of his characters and their world. May the god of second novels smile as broadly on him as did the god of firsts. --Joyce Thompson

]]> 10029 3.57 3274 664 1998 4428988 0385527659 9780385527651 228 <![CDATA[Sag Harbor: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255912709m/4428988.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255912709s/4428988.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4428988.Sag_Harbor_A_Novel 3.43 698 The warm, funny, and supremely original new novel from one of the most acclaimed writers in America

The year is 1985. Benji Cooper is one of the only black students at an elite prep school in Manhattan. He spends his falls and winters going to roller-disco bar mitzvahs, playing too much Dungeons and Dragons, and trying to catch glimpses of nudity on late-night cable TV. After a tragic mishap on his first day of high school—when Benji reveals his deep enthusiasm for the horror movie magazine Fangoria—his social doom is sealed for the next four years.

But every summer, Benji escapes to the Hamptons, to Sag Harbor, where a small community of African American professionals have built a world of their own. Because their parents come out only on weekends, he and his friends are left to their own devices for three glorious months. And although he’s just as confused about this all-black refuge as he is about the white world he negotiates the rest of the year, he thinks that maybe this summer things will be different. If all goes according to plan, that is.

There will be trials and tribulations, of course. There will be complicated new handshakes to fumble through, and state-of-the-art profanity to master. He will be tested by contests big and small, by his misshapen haircut (which seems to have a will of its own), by the New Coke Tragedy of ’85, and by his secret Lite FM addiction. But maybe, with a little luck, things will turn out differently this summer.

In this deeply affectionate and fiercely funny coming-of-age novel, Whitehead—using the perpetual mortification of teenage existence and the desperate quest for reinvention—lithely probes the elusive nature of identity, both personal and communal.]]> 10029 3.57 3274 664 2009 259065 038550795X 9780385507950 89 <![CDATA[Apex Hides the Hurt: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173214702m/259065.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173214702s/259065.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/259065.Apex_Hides_the_Hurt_A_Novel 3.41 403 John Henry Days and The Intuitionist comes a new, brisk, comic tour de force about identity, history, and the adhesive bandage industry

When the citizens of Winthrop needed a new name for their town, they did what anyone would do—they hired a consultant.

The protagonist of Apex Hides the Hurt is a nomenclature consultant. If you want just the right name for your new product, whether it be automobile or antidepressant, sneaker or spoon, he’s the man to get the job done. Wardrobe lack pizzazz? Come to the Outfit Outlet. Always the wallflower at social gatherings? Try Loquacia.

And of course, whenever you take a fall, reach for Apex, because Apex Hides the Hurt. Apex is his crowning achievement, the multicultural bandage that has revolutionized the adhesive bandage industry. “Flesh-colored” be damned—no matter what your skin tone is—Apex will match it, or your money back.

After leaving his job (following a mysterious misfortune), his expertise is called upon by the town of Winthrop. Once there, he meets the town council, who will try to sway his opinion over the coming days.

Lucky Aberdeen, the millionaire software pioneer and hometown-boy-made-good, wants the name changed to something that will reflect the town’s capitalist aspirations, attracting new businesses and revitalizing the community. Who could argue with that?

Albie Winthrop, beloved son of the town’s aristocracy, thinks Winthrop is a perfectly good name, and can’t imagine what the fuss is about.

Regina Goode, the mayor, is a descendent of the black settlers who founded the town, and has her own secret agenda for what the name should be.

Our expert must decide the outcome, with all its implications for the town’s future. Which name will he choose? Or perhaps he will devise his own? And what’s with his limp, anyway?

Apex Hides the Hurt brilliantly and wryly satirizes our contemporary culture, where memory and history are subsumed by the tides of marketing.]]> 10029 3.57 3274 664 2006 16276 0385498209 9780385498203 44 <![CDATA[John Henry Days]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166720303m/16276.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166720303s/16276.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16276.John_Henry_Days 3.63 392 John Henry Days is an acrobatic, intellectually dazzling, and laugh-out-loud funny book that will be read and talked about for years to come.]]> 10029 3.57 3274 664 2001 16275 1400031249 9781400031245 44 <![CDATA[The Colossus of New York]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166720302m/16275.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166720302s/16275.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16275.The_Colossus_of_New_York 3.70 233

A masterful evocation of the city that never sleeps, The Colossus of New York captures the city’s inner and outer landscapes in a series of vignettes, meditations, and personal memories. Colson Whitehead conveys with almost uncanny immediacy the feelings and thoughts of longtime residents and of newcomers who dream of making it their home; of those who have conquered its challenges; and of those who struggle against its cruelties.

Whitehead’s style is as multilayered and multifarious as New York itself: Switching from third person, to first person, to second person, he weaves individual voices into a jazzy musical composition that perfectly reflects the way we experience the city. There is a funny, knowing riff on what it feels like to arrive in New York for the first time; a lyrical meditation on how the city is transformed by an unexpected rain shower; and a wry look at the ferocious battle that is commuting. The plaintive notes of the lonely and dispossessed resound in one passage, while another captures those magical moments when the city seems to be talking directly to you, inviting you to become one with its rhythms.

The Colossus of New York is a remarkable portrait of life in the big city. Ambitious in scope, gemlike in its details, it is at once an unparalleled tribute to New York and the ideal introduction to one of the most exciting writers working today.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 10029 3.57 3274 664 2003 3267288 193336890X 9781933368900 41 <![CDATA[The Customer Is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3267288.The_Customer_Is_Always_Wrong_The_Retail_Chronicles 3.08 86 The Customer Is Always Wrong is a tragicomic and all-too revealing collection of essays by writers who have done their time behind the counter and lived to tell their tales. Jim DeRogatis, author of Let It Blurt, for example, describes hanging out with Al himself at Al Rocky's Music Store, while Colson Whitehead explains how three summers at a Long Island ice cream store gave him a lifelong aversion to all things dessert-like. This book not only shines a light on the absurdities of retail culture but finds the delight in it as well.]]> 600318 3.13 90 42 47517 3.32 442 160 36483 3.53 646 112 51038 3.53 577 143 445848 3.33 166 57 262084 3.60 3464 451 252053 3.41 215 91 111012 3.61 533 147 335573 3.23 132 48 316318 3.20 96 42 1021440 3.09 87 41 2580354 3.08 86 41 10029 3.57 3274 664 634465 3.10 107 49 70162 3.21 239 79 2580353 3.08 86 41 183493 3.54 243 77 2580355 3.08 86 41 823555 3.08 86 41 634835 4.37 309 83 41185 3.37 904 225 150768 3.26 126 49 2580352 3.08 86 41 2008 7043174 0982498012 9780982498019 1 <![CDATA[Electric Literature No. 2]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7043174-electric-literature-no-2 4.00 6 10029 3.57 3274 664 2009