| Sag Harbor | |
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1st edition |
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| Author(s) | Colson Whitehead |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel, |
| Publisher | Bantam Doubleday Dell (HB) & Anchor Books (PB) |
| Publication date | April 28, 2009 |
| Media type | Print Hardback |
| Pages | 288 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-385-52765-9 (hardback edition) |
| OCLC Number | 213766008 |
Sag Harbor: A Novel is a 2009 novel by award-winning African American author Colson Whitehead.
Sag Harbor takes place in Sag Harbor, a small village in the exclusive Hampton Beaches of New York's Long Island. The novel's main character is Benji, an African American teenager spending the summer in a black enclave of this predominately white and close-knit town along with his brother Reggie. Set in 1985, the novel balances themes of race, class, and commercial culture.
Contents |
School is over and summer begins and the return to Sag Harbor is finally in full swing. Doors are unlocked, yards are mown, and kids are yelling in the street. Teenagers Benji and Reggie Cooper finally escape their majority white preparatory academy in Manhattan. Still clad in Brooks Brothers polos and salmon colored pants, the pair remeet all of their friends. This summer is to be filled with new haircuts, handshakes, and brand new curse words that all must not only be remembered but become part of life. Like most well-to-do kids at their family's beach houses during the summer, most of the teens in Sag Harbor go the entire summer with very little contact with their parents besides a weekend visit or two. The lack of authority allows for plenty of interesting run-ins. Benji constantly remakes himself to become the coolest in town. The competition to be the freshest teen on the block is like fighting for freedom, but really he is a wealthy black teen just coming of age.
Sag Harbor has drawn a lot of attention because it speaks to a new generation of wealthy young blacks, which is explored in the NY Times Review."[1] In the wake of the election of President Barack Obama and the success of other African Americans in the national spotlight, this story of a wealthy black teenager presents a story more similar to today's "black boys with beach houses" culture than could have been imagined in 1985. The paradox comes with the fact that it actually did happen in 1985 and this story provides a fictional account of that time. It is noted that the publication of Sag Harbor comes in the period known as the Post-Black Period, a time in which blacks are less noticed for their color and more for their public achievements.
It has been noted that Colson Whitehead wanted to take up a different path when he began writing Sag Harbor, a novel named after the town in which he used to vacation with his family. In a January WSJ article, Whitehead said "Having written a string of books that were heavy on the ideas and social critique, I wanted to try something more modest and personal."[2] His previous books The Intuitionist and John Henry Days are quite different works compared to Harbor as they explore an increasingly different style, whether it be science fiction or other fiction. Harbor, on the other hand could be considered a shadow of Whitehead's own life as a teenager, as he shared quite a similar experience to Benji during his youth. This allows for a much more vibrant context for the book since the author dealt with many of the same episodes the protagonist faces such as young love, young hate, as well as the trivial New Coke event of 1985. The above section noted the arrival of this novel coming in today's Post-Black Period, which Whitehead ushers in with his story at Sag Harbor.
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