| Apex Hides the Hurt | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Colson Whitehead |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | American culture |
| Genre(s) | Humour |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
| Publication date | March 21, 2006 |
| Media type | Novel |
| Pages | 212 |
| ISBN | ISBN 038550795X |
| OCLC Number | 60671865 |
| Preceded by | The Colossus of New York |
Apex Hides the Hurt is a 2006 novel by American author Colson Whitehead. The novel follows an unnamed nomenclature consultant who is asked to visit the town of Winthrop, which, rather conveniently for the nomenclature consultant, is considering changing its name. During his visit, the main character is introduced to several citizens attempting to persuade him in favor of their preferred name for the town.
The novel has received mostly positive reviews from critics, with few negative comments. In a positive review for American magazine Entertainment Weekly, Jennifer Reese called the book "a blurry satire of American commercialism," adding that "it may not mark the apex of Colson Whitehead's career, but it brims with the author's spiky humor and intelligence."[1] The book was featured among the 100 Most Notable Books of The Year for 2006, as published by The New York Times.[2]
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Colson Whitehead (born 1969) is an American author. Whitehead was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and wrote for The Village Voice for two years during his early career,[3] and has since authored three other novels: The Intuitionist, John Henry Days and The Colossus of New York.[4] Since Whitehead began writing, he has had his books and writing reviewed and mentioned in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Harper's Magazine and has been a recipient of the MacArthur and Whiting Award.[5]
The book is set in the fictional town of Winthrop.[6] The protagonist of the book is an unnamed African-American "nomenclature consultant" who has had recent success in branding and selling Apex bandages, which come in multiple colors to better match a broad array of skin tones.[7][8][9][10] The novel begins with the main character being contacted by his former employer, which he had left after losing a toe.[11] He travels to the town of Winthrop after requests from the town council, which has proposed that the town be renamed. However, three key citizens disagree what the name should be: Albie Winthrop, descendant of the town's namesake (who'd made his fortune in barbed wire); Regina Goode, the mayor (descendant of one of the town's two founders); and Lucky Aberdeen, a software magnate who's leading the drive to rename the town. Winthrop wants to keep the name; Goode wants the town to revert to the name it bore at its founding as a town of free blacks, Freedom; while Aberdeen wants to call it "New Prospera."
In an interview with Alma Books, Whitehead states that the concept of the book originated from an article about the naming process for new pharmaceuticals such as Prozac. The article made Whitehead question how a similar process is used to assert a certain control over one's environment (his example is a boulevard named after a particular person), and yoking the two concepts was the beginning of the ideas that led to his composition of the novel.[12]
Overall, the novel was critically well-received. It was highlighted among The New York Times' 100 Most Notable Books of the Year,[2] and also highlighted among 100 noteworthy books from 2006, as published by The Charleston Gazette.[13] In a review in The Boston Globe, Saul Austerlitz called it a "wickedly funny new novel."[14] USA Today noted that "no novelist writing today is more engaging and entertaining when it comes to questions of race, class and commercial culture than Colson Whitehead,"[15] concluding that the novel "gets to the heart of the thing, but in a delightfully roundabout way."[15] The San Francisco Chronicle gave the novel a mixed review, commenting that "It's pure joy to read writing like this, but watching Whitehead sketch out a minor character's essence with one stroke, while breathtaking, makes one wish the same treatment was afforded the people who ostensibly inhabit the novel's complex ideas."[11] American trade news magazine Publishers Weekly reacted negatively to the book, writing that "Whitehead disappoints in this intriguingly conceived but static tale of a small town with an identity crisis."[16]
Erin Aubry Kaplan of the Los Angeles Times noted that "too often, [Whitehead] can't resist the temptation of irony, and his big ideas are sometimes overwhelmed by one wink-wink or metaphor too many."[16] Kirkus Reviews praised the book, writing that "while making no attempt at depth of characterization, Whitehead audaciously blurs the line between social realism and fabulist satire."[16] The Library Journal praised the book, noting that "In spare and evocative prose, Whitehead does Shakespeare one better: What's in a name, and how does our identity relate to our own sense of who we are?"[16] The New York Observer was critical of the book but noted that "readers not looking for direct emotional access to the characters may find it gratifying to solve the intellectual puzzle set here by Colson Whitehead."[17]
Scott Esposito of webzine PopMatters gave the novel mixed comments, writing that "it is no surprise that Apex Hides the Hurt, Whitehead's third novel, is packed with a number of allegorical elements blended into a multi-layered structure. What's unfortunate, however, is that all this technical artistry is in the service of unremarkable themes and ideas.[18] Entertainment newspaper The A.V. Club complimented the book, writing that "perhaps taking his cues from his protagonist's profession, Whitehead keeps his prose as streamlined as it comes, and he uses it to craft a satiric novel in tune with a moment where marketing overshadows content and even the lowliest blogger thinks in branding terms."[19] Michael McGirr of The Sydney Morning Herald called it "a book of abundant irony."[20]
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