Sag Harbor

by Colson Whitehead

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307455165
• ISBN13: 9780307455161
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Perfect Summer Read

I loved this book. It's an absolute perfect read for lazy, summer days. Sag Harbor, drenched in nostalgia, wry humor, and lyrical prose, tells the story of Benji, a teenage African-American boy from NYC, who spends the school year attending a mostly white prep school and spends every summer in Sag Harbor, a corner of Long Island and the summer retreat for a community of upper middle class African-Americans. Whitehead is a wonderful writer, although he may not be to every taste. There's not really much of a focused narrative drive, and the plot is mostly incidental, so people looking for a page-turner may be disappointed. Instead, Whitehead is more interested in characterization and scene building, using a meandering, almost stream-of-consciousness style to depict Benji's recollections of one Sag Harbor summer in 1985. He masterfully portrays the typical confusions and fumbles of adolescence, while also exploring the complexities and difficulties of being an ethnic minority. My favorite aspect of Whitehead's writing is his keen eye for detail and his ability to transform the ordinary minutia of everyday life into symbols of the profound. A description of drinking ice-cold Coca-Cola is both breathtakingly sensuous and a symbol for the pure pleasure in life-the memories of joy in the past and the anticipation of the joy to come down the road. A viewing of the film "The Road Warrior" on TV becomes both an escape from and a metaphor for abusive family conflict. All in all, a lovely, beautifully written book. I highly recommend it, and I will definitely be seeking more of this author's work in the future.

When Did You Get Out

Sag Harbor is the perfect novel to read during the start of a summer. It's a coming of age story that has been written a thousand times, but never quite like this. The story of Benji Cooper and his summer, filled with a search for identity, a need to fit in, and the shennanigans that always pursue in these types of stories. That the story remains original, uniquely, and a page turner, is a showing of Colson Whiteheads power of the written word. A unique author, his novels have all been good, if not bordering great, but Sag Harbor takes the cake. A fabolous story. Benji Cooper is a black kid in a largely white world during the school year, and in a way he's a white kid in a black world during his trips to sag harbor. An outsider constantly. Well trying to fit in and hook up, master the art of profanity, deal with his poor haircut that leaves him looking awkward and weird, he is left with his friends for three months to his own devices. The novels moves fluently though without much of a direct plot, the characters leave an impression on you every time you put down the book. There is not a moment that went by while reading about Benji Cooper's journey into coming-of-age, that I wasn't wondering what next. It reads as only good fiction reads, like a far great truth. The novel still remains with me, it's anticdotes, which I don't want to betray and cheapen, and don't have enough room to lay out the text with, is funny and hillarious, emotional and connecting. This book left me wanting more, wishing the summer was just a little bit longer--like I used to do when I was in High School.

Thought-Provoking, Humorous, Engrossing

This is a wonderfully written coming of age story. The prose is thought-provoking, humorous, and engrossing. Colson Whitehead uses humor to effectively bring important issues to the reader's consciousness. He brings the reader back to the 1980's and all the quirky happenings of that time; New Coke - need I say more. We also get a view into the issues that race and class present for teenagers just trying to learn how to fit in to such a complicated world. Also important is the realization and subsequent respect of our history and what generations before us went through and accomplished so that we may live as we do today. It is coming to terms with/recognizing that things we take for granted now were fought for and a price was paid by those who fought for them. The book starts out somewhat light-heartedly and then slowly weaves in the darkness that comes with family dysfunction and alcoholism. It is a well-rounded, funny, and sometimes heart-breaking story of growing up in a world full of choices and consequences.

Cure for the summertime blues

This is a superbly written 1980's coming of age story, at turns comical (e.g., possessing the Afro from hell) and poignantly sentimental (e.g., the fleeting memory of when one's family life seemed blissfully normal for fifteen whole minutes). Everyone will relate to some part of Benji's story. It was quite something to experience Colson Whitehead's flow of conscience - his musing on the secret life of a firefly, or his logic behind imagining himself as Greedo's "good" cousin. This author's unique style of writing grabs hold of you from the first few pages, and doesn't let go. Sag Harbor is a very immersing and memorable book.

A Thoroughly Enjoyable Novel by a Highly Talented Writer

Colson Whitehead can write like few other authors. His prose flows beautifully and hooks the reader (at least this reader). I opened this novel at midnight intending to read ten pages or so. I found myself halfway through a few hours later seriously debating whether I should get some sleep before work or continue reading. Sag Harbor takes the reader back to the summer of 1985 as experience by Benji, a 15 y.o., skinny, nerdy, insightful, African American kid, who is obviously a stand-in for Whitehead himself. He and his brother are the children of an affluent couple--a doctor and a lawyer. They spend their school years at private schools in Manhattan. But, they live for the summer when they get to visit their beach house in Sag Harbor and hang out with other African American kids--mostly boys--their age. This summer is particulary intriguing because it seems to mark a transition for the entire group from boys to young men--and all that goes with that transition. One of the many thing that makes this book so appealing (to this reader at least) is that Whitehead packs in so many thoughts, feelings, escapades, references, etc. that are specific yet universal to the coming-of-age experience. Though I grew up far from Long Island and in a decidedly different social milleu, there was much I could identify with. Aside from that universality and the exceptional charm of Whitehead's prose, this is a downright funny book. There is memorable scene after memorable scene. Further, no one who lived through 1985 will be able to read it without having several "Oh yeah, I remember that!" moments. In many writer's hands this might have been a trite and stereotypical semi-autobioghraphical novel. In the hands of a master like Whitehead, it is a thoroughly entertaining examination of the steps we all take from childhood into whatever comes next. This is a writer at the height of his powers reveling in the joys of telling (or re-telling) a story (or stories). I am just glad that Whitehead invited us all along for the ride.