Sag Harbor
A Novel
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3.8 • 107 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FINALIST • From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys: a hilarious and supremely original novel set in the Hamptons in the 1980s, "a tenderhearted coming-of-age story fused with a sharp look at the intersections of race and class” (The New York Times).
Benji Cooper is one of the few Black students at an elite prep school in Manhattan. But every summer, Benji escapes to the Hamptons, to Sag Harbor, where a small community of Black professionals have built a world of their own.
The summer of ’85 won’t be without its usual trials and tribulations, of course. There will be complicated new handshakes to fumble through and state-of-the-art profanity to master. Benji 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, and by his secret Lite FM addiction. But maybe, just maybe, this summer might be one for the ages.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Colson Whitehead’s autobiographical fourth novel is a sweetly nostalgic coming-of-age story. In a black enclave of upper-middle-class Long Island in 1985, Benji Cooper—a 15-year-old budding intellectual who loves both The Cosby Show and The Smiths—spends the summer hanging with his friends and discovering the opposite sex while enjoying the newfound freedoms of adolescence. Whitehead has a lot of fun with the era—minor ’80s pop star Lisa Lisa, now-horrifying fashion trends, and New Coke all make appearances—but Sag Harbor is also a thoughtful, socially conscious meditation on black identity, class, and acceptance that represents for the outsiders.
Customer Reviews
Prose
Say what you will about story and subject matter. This author writes extremely well. It is not often that one comes across an author whose prose are so very descriptive and poetic. Read this book for the enjoyment of its writing, laugh out loud as it speaks to you.
Good, not great
The book is okay but was a bit of a hard read. I liked his other books much better.
Not a story
Not an enjoyable book. It had no main plot line and just felt very random