Apex Hides the Hurt

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Apex Hides the Hurt
Author	Colson Whitehead
Country	USA
Language	English
Subject(s)	American culture
Genre(s)	Humour
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	March 21, 2006
Media type	Novel
Pages	212
ISBN	ISBN 038550795X
OCLC	60671865
Preceded by	The Colossus of New York

Apex Hides the Hurt is 2006 novel by American author Colson Whitehead. The novel follows an unspecified nomenclature consultant who narrates the novel who is asked to visit the Midwestern town of Winthrop, which is under disputes over its name. During his visit, the narrator is introduced to several citizens attempting to make him make his decision adjudicate in favor of their personal preference. The novel satirizes culture, memory and history throughout.

The novel received mostly positive reviews from critics, with few negative comments. In a positive review for American magazine Entertainment Weekly, Jennifer Reese called the book "a blurry satire of American commercialism," adding that "it may not mark the apex of Colson Whitehead's career, but it brims with the author's spiky humor and intelligence."^[1] The book was featured among the 100 Most Notable Books of The Year for 2006, as published by The New York Times.^[2]

Contents 1 About the author 2 Plot 3 Themes 4 Reception 5 References

[edit] About the author

Colson Whitehead (born 1969) is an American author. Whitehead was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and wrote for the The Village Voice for two years during his early career,^[3] and has since authored three other novels: The Intuitionist, John Henry Days and The Colossus of New York.^[4] Since Whitehead began writing, he has had his books and writing reviewed and mentioned in the The New York Times, New York Magazine, Harper's Magazine and has been a recipient of the MacArthur and Whiting Award.^[5]

[edit] Plot

The book is set in the fictional town of Winthrop.^[6] The narrator of the book is an unnamed African American "nomenclature consultant" who has had recent success in branding and selling Apex bandages, which are designed for multi-cultural skin tones."^{[7][8][9][10]} The novel begins with the unnamed character being contacted by a company at which he used to work, but had quit after losing a toe.^[11] The character travels to the Midwestern town of Winthrop after requests from the town council. The area is in need of a new name, but the citizens are at dispute among each other, unable to decide whether it should keep its current, or be renamed to "New Prospera" or "Freedom", which slaves originally called the town when residing their after the Civil War.

Members of the council include Mayor Regina Goode, a black descendant of the former slaves who founded the town; she wishes to revert the name of the town back to "Freedom." The second council member, Arbeine is in favor of "New Prospera" on the basis of it being more professional. The third council member, Albie Winthrop wishes not to change the name, but rather to keep it as it is, supposedly because that is his name, too.^[9] All of the council members attempt to persuade the narrator to their views so he will make a decision in their favour. Ultimately, the values of the consultant are tested, as him being an African American himself and going against the proposed name of Freedom which was established by slaves, as well as his personal belief that changing the name of the town makes no difference to the actual character of it.^[10]

[edit] Themes

In an interview with Alma Books, Whitehead states that the concept of the book originates from an article about the naming process for new pharmaceuticals for items such as prozac. The initial article made Whitehead question how one can exert [through a similar process] control over certain parts of the city, and using these two ideas, attempted to join them together to include in a novel.^[12]

[edit] Reception

Overall, the novel was received well by critics. It was highlighted among The New York Times' 100 Most Notable Books of the Year,^[2] and also highlighted among 100 Noteworthy books from 2006, as published by the The Charleston Gazette.^[13] In a review for The Boston Globe, Saul Austerlitz called it a "wickedly funny new novel."^[14] USA Today noted that "no novelist writing today is more engaging and entertaining when it comes to questions of race, class and commercial culture than Colson Whitehead,"^[15] concluding with "It [the novel] gets to the heart of the thing, but in a delightfully roundabout way."^[15] The San Francisco Chronicle gave the novel a mixed review, commenting that "It's pure joy to read writing like this, but watching Whitehead sketch out a minor character's essence with one stroke, while breathtaking, makes one wish the same treatment was afforded the people who ostensibly inhabit the novel's complex ideas."^[11] American trade news magazine Publishers Weekly reacted negatively to the book, writing that "Whitehead disappoints in this intriguingly conceived but static tale of a small town with an identity crisis."^[16]

Erin Aubry Kaplan of the Los Angeles Times noted that "too often, [Whitehead] can't resist the temptation of irony, and his big ideas are sometimes overwhelmed by one wink-wink or metaphor too many."^[16] Kirkus Reviews praised the book, writing that "while making no attempt at depth of characterization, Whitehead audaciously blurs the line between social realism and fabulist satire."^[16] The Library Journal review it well, noting that "In spare and evocative prose, Whitehead does Shakespeare one better: What's in a name, and how does our identity relate to our own sense of who we are?"^[16] The New York Observer was critical of the book, believing that "readers not looking for direct emotional access to the characters may find it gratifying to solve the intellectual puzzle set here by Colson Whitehead."^[17]

Scott Esposito of webzine PopMatters gave the novel mixed comments, writing that "it is no surprise that Apex Hides the Hurt, Whitehead's third novel, is packed with a number of allegorical elements blended into a multi-layered structure. What's unfortunate, however, is that all this technical artistry is in the service of unremarkable themes and ideas.^[18] Entertainment newspaper The A.V. Club complimented the book, writing that "perhaps taking his cues from his protagonist's profession, Whitehead keeps his prose as streamlined as it comes, and he uses it to craft a satiric novel in tune with a moment where marketing overshadows content and even the lowliest blogger thinks in branding terms."^[19] Michael McGirr of The Sydney Morning Herald called it "a book of abundant irony."^[20]

[edit] References