John Henry Days is a literary fiction book by author Colson Whitehead.
J. Sutter is a true snacker – a freelance writer who travels from city to city. He yearns for other people’s free meals and discarded sales receipts to claim his expense account.
Traveling into the remote woods of West Virginia to write an article about the launch of the new John Henry postage stamp and the John Henry Day festival that followed, J. continued his near three-month binge. like setting his own record. As he begins to choke on a delicious rib at a press dinner, shadows from the past are summoned and he leaves the mountain with a changed man.
The Days of John Henry is both an ingenious retelling of the American legend of John Henry and a fascinating look at the world of contemporary journalism.
This is not a novel but a series of works on American popular culture that interweave fantasy scenes from the life of the legendary steel truck driver, collectors’ obsessions, and scenes from the past. late 20th century pop culture (the novel is set in July 1996 at a “Days of John Henry” festival in West VA – and not coincidentally at a time when dotcom startups established start). Modern scenes are about a black freelance journalist, J. Sutter, who wants to set a record for snacking while denying to his writer friends that this is what he’s doing.
Colson Whitehead, who seems to know the life of addicts very well, did a brilliant job. There are scenes that will make you want to put the book down and appreciate his writing skills. Most of the jazz-like installations are excellent (the piece in which the freelance Sutter, collecting remote dial-up receipts of his answering machine messages from his WVA model, is a masterpiece). independent writer) although Mr. Sutter’s editor should probably urge him to let go of the hotel owner’s wife, whose ghost sightings and endless county fair scenes tell us nothing new about county fairs.
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John Henry Days
