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The
2003 Award
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John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead
Nominated by:
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Publisher of Nominated Edition: Doubleday ISBN 0385498195 |
| the complete A-Z listing of nominated authors. |
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ABOUT
THE BOOK
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| Immortalised
in folk ballads, John Henry has been a favourite American hero since the
mid-nineteenth century. According to legend, John Henry, a black labourer
for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, was a man of superhuman strength
and stamina. He proved his mettle in a contest with a steam drill, only
to die of exhaustion moments after his triumph. John Henry Days transforms the simple ballad. The narrative revolves around the story of J. Sutter, a young black journalist. Sutter is a "junketeer", a freeloading hack, who roams from one publicity event to another, abusing his expense account and mooching as much as possible. It is 1996, and an assignment for a travel Web site takes Sutter to West Virginia for the first annual 'John Henry Days' festival, a celebration of a new U.S. postal stamp honouring John Henry. And there the real story of John Henry emerges in graceful counterpoint to Sutter's thoroughly modern adventure. As he explores the parallels between the lives of these two black men, and between the Industrial Age, which literally killed John Henry, and the Digital Age, which is destroying J. Sutter's soul, Whitehead adds multiples dimensions to the myth of the steel-driving man. John Henry Days is a novel of great scope and mythic power that juxtaposes history with popular culture, the blatant bigotry of the past with the more insidious racism of the present, and laugh-out-loud humour with unforgettable poignancy. |
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR |
| Colson Whitehead was born in New York City. His first novel, The Intuitionist, won the QPB New Voices Award and was an Ernest Hemingway/PEN Award finalist. He is also the recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. |
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