The warm, funny, and supremely original new novel from one of the most acclaimed writers in America
The year is 1985. Benji Cooper i... read full description
The year is 1985. Benji Cooper i... read full description
reviews
Mar 08, 2009
Mike
rated it: 
I just got a copy of this, and I'll be coming to it shortly... and then, noodling about online, found Whitehead pissing up James Wood's leg, which whets the appetite.
Finished. I think I fell in love with Colson Whitehead before I even cracked a spine, just looking at that moniker on the cover -- the name and title (The Intuitionist) in retrospect seem like the kind of thing he'd make up, language that catches you up, slows you down to pay attention, even as you delight in the surpri More...
Finished. I think I fell in love with Colson Whitehead before I even cracked a spine, just looking at that moniker on the cover -- the name and title (The Intuitionist) in retrospect seem like the kind of thing he'd make up, language that catches you up, slows you down to pay attention, even as you delight in the surpri More...
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Oct 04, 2010
Elizabeth
rated it: 
I couldn't get into it. Text just kept going on and on and on. Ugh! Put it down after 40 pages.
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Jan 31, 2009
kira
rated it:
I'm glad I read this book in the dead of winter - it is so evocative of the atmosphere of a little beach town and of a kid's experience of coming of age during the long, restless and wondrous days of summer. Though the novel focuses primarily on Benji's coming of age in an upper middle class African American community, so many of his experiences and the themes in the book cross race lines, and Whitehead makes Benji's experiences feel almost universal. This novel presents the complex and delicate
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Jan 29, 2011
Roy
rated it: 
Colson Whitehead is a wonderful writer. Although I wasn't a Sag Harbor summer kid myself, the author and I are about the same age so much of his reminiscing about his experiences as a 15 year old stirred similar memories I possess. Sag Harbor is a work of fiction, not a memoir, but it reads as much like the latter than as a novel, and no doubt it was largely inspired by the author's youthful days. Not a whole lot happens in Sag Harbor, basically a group of teenagers kill the abundance of time
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Sep 15, 2011
drey
rated it:
Sag Harbor was my first B&N First Look book club books. I have been very remiss in my club "duties". While I dutifully read each chapter on the assigned week, I did not really participate in the discussions as much as I want to.
I've only made it through 2/3 of the book. I think I lost interest with the slower reading pace of the book club. And while I kept meaning to, I never picked it up again. So, this review's based on a partial read.
Sag Harbor follows Benji and More...
I've only made it through 2/3 of the book. I think I lost interest with the slower reading pace of the book club. And while I kept meaning to, I never picked it up again. So, this review's based on a partial read.
Sag Harbor follows Benji and More...
Jan 26, 2012
Kyle
rated it: 
My biggest mistake might have been reading Whitehead's The Intuitionist
as an introduction to his body of work. Neither Zone One or Sag Harbor
even come close to how brilliant The Intuitionist is. Granted Zone One
is a apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic novel and Sag Harbor is a trip to
a summer island resort-like town where dorky teenage boys live out
the best/worst of the 80s--(spoiler alert: nothing really happens.)
The Intuitionist, on the other hand, goes much deeper t More...
as an introduction to his body of work. Neither Zone One or Sag Harbor
even come close to how brilliant The Intuitionist is. Granted Zone One
is a apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic novel and Sag Harbor is a trip to
a summer island resort-like town where dorky teenage boys live out
the best/worst of the 80s--(spoiler alert: nothing really happens.)
The Intuitionist, on the other hand, goes much deeper t More...
Jan 04, 2012
Christina Marie
rated it:
Colson Whitehead captures the spirit of Long Island's Summer Out East combined with the spirit of "oh man that was the 80s!". He reminisces about mixed tapes that are not complete without the seconds of DJ banter cut in between songs, Lisa Lisa, man hunt (well, he talks about a BB gun war--we played man hunt in my past), bonfires, clubs, and brotherhood. He talks about growing up, and how each summer, everyone old is new again. He wonders if we can have nostalgia for something we never
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Jan 11, 2011
Mac
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Oct 18, 2010
Alan
rated it:
Dag... I really liked this hyperrealistic hybrid between autobiography and fiction (from its internal consistency and from the author's Acknowledgements, it seems likely that much of the background and many of the events were drawn from his own growing up). It begins at the intersection of two alien worlds—alien to me, anyway. The first: growing up black in America. The second: growing up wealthy—or affluent, well-to-do, at worst upper middle-class... definitions differ, but families who live in
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Sep 20, 2010
Stefani
rated it: 
This book captivated me completely, forcing involuntary and often embarrassingly loud bursts of laughter out of me in inappropriate places across the NY tri-state area, my shame mitigated by the anticipation of yet another entertaining passage. The novel follows Whitehead as he fondly remembers blissfully long summers-surprisingly bereft of parental supervision-at his family's beach house in Long Island, drinking Coke, eating Swanson TV dinners, and swigging Bartles & Jaymes, relics of the not
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Aug 03, 2010
Bethany
rated it:
2.5 stars
For as long as he can remember, Benji’s family has spent their summers in Sag Harbor. It is the summer of 1985 and Benji is fifteen, which to him means that he is done being Benji and is ready to become Ben. Throughout the summer, Benji has many “coming-of-age” experiences: he and his slightly younger brother begin to drift apart, he gets a job, he touches a girl’s breast, he realizes his parents’ shortcomings as well as his own. He spends times with his friends, gets sh More...
For as long as he can remember, Benji’s family has spent their summers in Sag Harbor. It is the summer of 1985 and Benji is fifteen, which to him means that he is done being Benji and is ready to become Ben. Throughout the summer, Benji has many “coming-of-age” experiences: he and his slightly younger brother begin to drift apart, he gets a job, he touches a girl’s breast, he realizes his parents’ shortcomings as well as his own. He spends times with his friends, gets sh More...
Jul 15, 2010
Michael
rated it:
Why do I think this is more autobiographical than novelistic? Whitehead's book is the perfect summer read. My boyhood memories of summer at the beach are of a Padre Island that probably no longer exists with vast stretches of deserted beaches populated only with sand dollars, Scotch bonnets, moon snails, and other prizes tossed up by the Gulf of Mexico. Coyotes roamed the dunes behind the beach, with the only people in evidence being the occasional solitary angler casting in the surf or the arti
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Mar 02, 2010
Lynne
rated it:
Growing up can be hard, confusing and, at times, downright dangerous. Those who get through their teen years with their psyches intact often look back at those days through rose-tinted lenses.
Such is the case in Colson Whitehead's semi-autobiographical novel. The summers his family spent being out there, as opposed to life in NYC, are luminously preserved in a series of vignettes that form a loose-limbed narrative in which the sum may be less than its separate parts. But it's a lovel More...
Such is the case in Colson Whitehead's semi-autobiographical novel. The summers his family spent being out there, as opposed to life in NYC, are luminously preserved in a series of vignettes that form a loose-limbed narrative in which the sum may be less than its separate parts. But it's a lovel More...
Jan 03, 2010
Kat
rated it:
This was my week for books with adolescent narrators. Of the three (The Magicians, Swimming and this one), this one is by far the best. I tried reading Apex Hides the Hurt by this author and found it v. gimmicky, but I am glad I read this book. It presents the realities of middle class black life in the 1980s v. vividly (in that is v. reminiscent of Stephen Carter books), and is a great portait of a boy on the verge of adolescence. The protagonist is the only black child in a prestigeous private
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Nov 24, 2009
Sarah Joyce
rated it:
This is a wonderfully written coming of age story. The prose is thought-provoking, humorous, and engrossing. Colson Whitehead uses humor to effectively bring important issues to the reader's consciousness. He brings the reader back to the 1980's and all the quirky happenings of that time; New Coke - need I say more. We also get a view into the issues that race and class present for teenagers just trying to learn how to fit in to such a complicated world. Also important is the realization and sub
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Oct 05, 2009
Robin
rated it:
This is the story of a 1985 upper-middle class, private school goin', bauhaus listenin', d&d playin', black kid who spends his summers in Sag Harbor in the house his family has had for three generations. This author does an AMAZING job of setting the scene. His use of the language/slang, music/lyrics, styles, and feeling of the times puts you IN 1985. Whitehead's ability to set the scene and create an atmosphere is one of the best I have read. BUT.....nothing happens! I was completely there.
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Sep 09, 2009
John
rated it:
A coming of age tale which spans the early to late teenage experiences of Benji and his brother revealed during one summer-long break. The brothers are the mostly sole inhabitants of their parents' second home found in the middle class, racially segregated black wonderland of Sag Harbor, NY.
Whitehead explores the values and differences of middle class African-American culture in the mid 80's. The auto-biographical style offers a palpable sense of teen-gangly, boy angst while the pr More...
Whitehead explores the values and differences of middle class African-American culture in the mid 80's. The auto-biographical style offers a palpable sense of teen-gangly, boy angst while the pr More...
Aug 20, 2009
Ray
rated it:
I am not as big a fan of speculative/alternate reality stuff as some of my nearest and dearest though I did quite like the Intuitionist. However a straight piece of fiction by Whitehead seemed just the ticket.
And at first I was way down with this book. Loved the early-80s hip-hop nostalgia, beach town, gangs of boy friends, middle-class talented-tenth black folks, etc.
And then it got to be too much. Too memoiry, too detailed. It was sort of like hanging out with tha More...
And at first I was way down with this book. Loved the early-80s hip-hop nostalgia, beach town, gangs of boy friends, middle-class talented-tenth black folks, etc.
And then it got to be too much. Too memoiry, too detailed. It was sort of like hanging out with tha More...
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Jul 29, 2009
christa
rated it:
Colson Whitehead's coming-of-age novel "Sag Harbor" defies the conventional definition of novel in that it doesn't have one of those pesky plots weighing it down. This is something a reader should understand before reading to avoid all sorts of failed Aha! moments: Nope. This isn't going to be about an 80s child, fatally wounded in a BB gun fight. Nope. This isn't going to be about coveting thy friend's summer girlfriend.
Whitehead admits this himself in his video pitch: " More...
Whitehead admits this himself in his video pitch: " More...
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Jun 08, 2009
Meave
rated it:
Heavier than the reviews promised. Obviously I get most of my book recommendations from published reviews, and either I am interpreting them incorrectly, or they are doing a terrible job communicating the substance of the books, because I swear every time I write about a book here I start with a comparison to the review I read, and how that review didn't properly reflect the book and its themes/plot/characters/essence/&c.
Specific to this book, the reviews I read made it sound like be More...
Specific to this book, the reviews I read made it sound like be More...
Jun 01, 2009
Bookmarks Magazine
rated it:
Critics have been waiting to get truly excited about a Colson Whitehead novel. Most have decided that Sag Harbor is the oneóeven though it operates on a smaller scale. The Dallas Morning News described the novel as "a love letter not only to the Long Island town and African-American summer enclave but to 1980s culture and adolescence and brotherhood." On the surface, this autobiographical novel contains more pastiche than substance; reviewers expecting a strong plot were disappointed.
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May 21, 2009
Stephanie
rated it:
At one point in American author Colson Whitehead's fourth novel, the 15-year-old protagonist Benji succinctly sums up the strangeness of his social circle: "According to the world, we were the definition of paradox: black boys with beach houses."
The year is 1985, more than two decades before the Obamas would step into the White House as America's First Family. Then, as now, spending summer vacations in your family's beach house on Long Island was something strongly associat More...
The year is 1985, more than two decades before the Obamas would step into the White House as America's First Family. Then, as now, spending summer vacations in your family's beach house on Long Island was something strongly associat More...
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May 01, 2009
Valorie
rated it:
Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead is the semi-autobiographical story of a young boy named Benji and his summers spent in the New York summer town of Sag Harbor. Benji is a young African American struggling to fit into a world that he straddles varied sides of. As an African American, he doesn’t fit into the white prep school world that populates the school he attends, but he also defies African American expectations that confront him as he spends his summers in Sag Harbor. Benji is an avid playe
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Jan 20, 2011
Miri
rated it:
I thoroughly enjoyed this novella as seen through the eyes of a adolescent Black male growing up in the 80's. The story features multiple sagas chronologically heralding a young man's coming of age as told by the main character 15 y/o Benji and brother, Reggie who attend an elite prep school in Manhattan and spend school vacations at the family's vacation beach home in Azurest, the all Black community in the Hamptons, Long Islands. The reader is entertained by these well described, humorous ca
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Jul 11, 2010
Rivka
rated it:
The first 50 pages I was mostly annoyed, another story about kid with a beach house with too many feelings. Boring. But I liked the voice- the older Benji (maybe he'd finally become the Ben that he'd hoped) telling about the summer of his fifteenth year. The conversation tone, the nostaglic melancoly mixed with humor and the relief of "thank god we grew up" was comforting. So I read it slowly. A hundred pages in I saw Colson Whitehead read a passage from the book and chat about it. He
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May 06, 2009
Jennifer
rated it:
The writing in this fictionalized memoir of one teen's summer in the black bourgeois enclave of Sag Harbor is superb. Spot on observations of race, class and family relations are expertly woven through the time-honored experiences of summer jobs, first kisses and beach barbecues. My favorite sections detailed the narrator's experience working at the local ice cream shop, an ill-fated bb gun war between friends, and a tension-filled family dinner that almost erupted into violence due to the tempe
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Aug 03, 2009
Jodi
rated it:
Dear @colsonwhitehead,
I’m sorry for doubting you. I was going to write this apology/review in a series of 140 character paragraphs (ala tweet) but that’s too much of a pain in the ass and would do your beautiful book, Sag Harbor, a great disservice. It deserves better.
I’m sorry for wondering about the story-ness of your story. I was getting scared. From the beginning you set up a certain kind of story, the summer Benji and Reggie went to Sag Harbor and were the kids in the em More...
I’m sorry for doubting you. I was going to write this apology/review in a series of 140 character paragraphs (ala tweet) but that’s too much of a pain in the ass and would do your beautiful book, Sag Harbor, a great disservice. It deserves better.
I’m sorry for wondering about the story-ness of your story. I was getting scared. From the beginning you set up a certain kind of story, the summer Benji and Reggie went to Sag Harbor and were the kids in the em More...
Oct 21, 2010
Brad
rated it:
Sag Harbor, by Colson Whitehead, is an absolutely delightful novel that must be drawn on personal experience--the details are just too wonderful. Set in 1985, it covers one summer in the life of Benji, a fifteen-year-old African American boy as he and his brother enjoy their vacation in their summer home in the Long Island town of the title.
With an anthropologist's eye, Whitehead explores the interesting community of black professionals who have settled in the former whaling port. We l More...
With an anthropologist's eye, Whitehead explores the interesting community of black professionals who have settled in the former whaling port. We l More...
Jul 14, 2010
Piotr
rated it:
So, my Colson Whitehead streak ends with a whimper, and all-too much familiarity. Granted, a known mise en scene is not what I like in my fiction, and a book about middle-class city kids in the mid-'80s who hang out in Eastern LI summer encampments, is always gonna be way too close to the actual homestead (like the turgid "Squid & Whale"). And, granted2, close-to-the-vest memoiristic digressions never been my cup of meat. (Note: conservative does not mean Nabokov or Sebald - a club tha
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Jun 22, 2009
C.E.
rated it:
If not quite the masterwork one might be led to believe by some of the fawning reviews, Sag Harbor is still a pretty darned good coming-of-age story. An African-American in the summer of 85, Benji is 15 and essentially living alone with his brother Reggie in the family's beach house in Sag Harbor and he encounters growth experiences both typical (jobs, girls, beers, crafting an identity) and more specific (particularly the way he learns to navigate issues related to his race). If you need a pl
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