We follow Benji as he grows into being Ben he's maybe fifteen or sixteen. While middle-class black America may not seem as immediately relevant to us here in Britain, a coming of age theme has a universality that's sure to appeal. As literature or ethnography, it's a wonderful record of black consciousness in a microcosmic world.
Whitehead's writing teeters along the edge between fiction and non-fiction. The book was first published in the US in 2009, serendipitously coinciding with an Obama-fuelled interest in hitherto unexamined disregarded matters black. Within easy reach of New York, in 1985 it was an affluent black enclave within a large, white middle-class holiday area. It has a history of whaling and an association with John Steinbeck. Sag Harbor really does exist - at the far end of Long Island and next to the up-market Hamptons. Colson Whitehead wanted to write something personal for his fourth book, so he chose an autobiographical novel, based on his experiences as a vacationing youngster.
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