Friday Black
Ratings24
Average rating4.2
15
Ratings24
Average rating4.2
"An excitement and a wonder: strange, crazed, urgent and funny...The wildly talented Adjei-Brenyah has made these edgy tales immensely charming, via his resolute, heartful, immensely likeable narrators, capable of seeing the world as blessed and cursed at once." -- George Saunders "This book is dark and captivating and essential...A call to arms and a condemnation. Adjei-Brenyah offers powerful prose as parable. The writing in this outstanding collection will make you hurt and demand your hope. Read this book." -- Roxane Gay A piercingly raw debut story collection from a young writer with an explosive voice; a treacherously surreal, and, at times, heartbreakingly satirical look at what it's like to be young and black in America. From the start of this extraordinary debut, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's writing will grab you, haunt you, enrage and invigorate you. By placing ordinary characters in extraordinary situations, Adjei-Brenyah reveals the violence, injustice, and painful absurdities that black men and women contend with every day in this country. These stories tackle urgent instances of racism and cultural unrest, and explore the many ways we fight for humanity in an unforgiving world. In "The Finkelstein Five," Adjei-Brenyah gives us an unforgettable reckoning of the brutal prejudice of our justice system. In "Zimmer Land," we see a far-too-easy-to-believe imagining of racism as sport. And "Friday Black" and "How to Sell a Jacket as Told by Ice King" show the horrors of consumerism and the toll it takes on us all. Entirely fresh in its style and perspective, and sure to appeal to fans of Colson Whitehead, Marlon James, and George Saunders, Friday Black confronts readers with a complicated, insistent, wrenching chorus of emotions, the final note of which, remarkably, is hope.
Reviews with the most likes.
A really impressive debut and a quick but recommended read! The Finklestein 5 was stunning - I'm definitely sharing with my ELA classes and hope to get this in front of students for discussion - so much to unpack and study here. Same with Zimmerland - so much to grapple with. I liked the zombie consumerism theme of Friday Black and the 2 other retail stories taking place in that world. Not all of the works were as strong, but I found myself thinking about them frequently and wanting to discuss them with other readers. The last story is the most graphically violent, though it made sense to the story it's certainly stomach-turning.
3.5 Uneven, from distasteful sympathies (the anti-abortion Lark Street and the entitled white male murderer redemption story Light Spitter) — to scintillating acuity
The first story in this collection (The Finkelstein 5) was really powerful and visceral. There were a couple of stories that suffered from the same problem I had with Chain Gang All Star, they were more universe exploration than story, which is just not my thing. There's a story with ghosts (?) of aborted fetuses talking which was really uncomfortable but not in a good way.
There's no questioning that Adjei-Brenyah is very skilled at creating universes and giving characters their unique voices but ultimately I just think his storytelling style isn't really for me.
Breathtaking. Really: I found myself forgetting to breathe a few times.
The stories are hit or miss. The hits, though, are wallops; frightening; the kind of writing where you're not entirely sure if it's fiction, where you gulp and realize that you can envision the U.S. sliding into as reality. Dystopian not in the zombies-and-mutants sense but something much worse instead: worlds built from indifference, shallowness, blind self-centeredness.
Race plays a central role in some, but not all, of the stories. When it does, if you're Black, you'll probably just nod in recognition; if you're not, you may get some glimpses into what everyday life is like for some of our neighbors. You may recoil, maybe reassure yourself that things aren't really that bad. Aren't they? Take some time to ponder. And let's all of us see what we can do to move away from those possibilities.
Quick note: there is violence. Some of it is gruesome. You should read this anyway. You should read this.
