I'm a Whitehead completist save the poker book. I loved John Henry Days too and wish it was more appreciated. Colossus and Apex were not as successful for me, but I'm never disappointed that I took the time to read one of his books.
I'm a Whitehead completist save the poker book. I loved John Henry Days too and wish it was more appreciated. Colossus and Apex were not as successful for me, but I'm never disappointed that I took the time to read one of his books.
I think _Apex Hides the Hurt_ actually sneaks up on you after multiple readings. I think there's something going on in that novel with a much bigger commentary on historiography that is in many ways obscured by our understandable readerly focus on which name the nomenclature consultant is going to pick for the town.
A lot of his books since the first two actually do that to me. I was underwhelmed by _Zone One_, _The Underground Railroad_,_The Nickel Boys_, and both of the Ray Carney books until I read each of them a second and third (and fourth and...) time. He does so much narrative layering and easter-egging in his textual construction that it really bears, if not requires, multiple reads. I look at the reviews of _Sag Harbor_ and _The Nickel Boys_ especially and see so many instances of readers who just accepted the face value of what they saw in a first (often cursory) pass and got hoodwinked as a result.
I'm a Whitehead completist save the poker book. I loved John Henry Days too and wish it was more appreciated. Colossus and Apex were not as successful for me, but I'm never disappointed that I took the time to read one of his books.
I think _Apex Hides the Hurt_ actually sneaks up on you after multiple readings. I think there's something going on in that novel with a much bigger commentary on historiography that is in many ways obscured by our understandable readerly focus on which name the nomenclature consultant is going to pick for the town.
A lot of his books since the first two actually do that to me. I was underwhelmed by _Zone One_, _The Underground Railroad_,_The Nickel Boys_, and both of the Ray Carney books until I read each of them a second and third (and fourth and...) time. He does so much narrative layering and easter-egging in his textual construction that it really bears, if not requires, multiple reads. I look at the reviews of _Sag Harbor_ and _The Nickel Boys_ especially and see so many instances of readers who just accepted the face value of what they saw in a first (often cursory) pass and got hoodwinked as a result.