Author | Colson Whitehead |
---|---|
Language | English |
Publisher | Doubleday (HB) & Anchor Books (PB) |
Publication date | April 28, 2009 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print hardback |
Pages | 288 pp |
ISBN | 0-385-52765-9 |
OCLC | 213766008 |
Sag Harbor is a 2009 novel by author Colson Whitehead.
Sag Harbor takes place in Sag Harbor, New York, a small village in the exclusive Hamptons on the east end of Long Island. The village of Sag Harbor is on the bay side (northern part) of the South Fork of the tip of Long Island, and an old whaling port where several African-American families have bought property over many years despite the area's history of segregation. The novel's main character is Benji, an African American teenager spending the summer in this black enclave of the predominantly white and close-knit town along with his brother Reggie. Set in 1985, the novel touches on themes of race, class, substance abuse, and commercial culture.
At the start of summer vacation, teenage brothers Benji and Reggie Cooper escape their majority white preparatory academy in Manhattan for the Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Ninevah Beach Subdivisions Historic District. Still clad in Brooks Brothers polos and salmon colored pants, the pair re-meet all of their friends. Like most well-to-do kids at their families' beach houses during the summer, most of the teens in Sag Harbor go almost the entire season with virtually no contact from their parents, including allowances. Benji and Reggie get summer jobs to cover basic expenses, getting around on old bicycles and, sometimes, in a friend's old car. With the lack of parental supervision, the boys manage to get into trouble, like being stuck out of town when their car won't start, and having a BB gun fight that nearly takes out an[ who? ] eye. Racism and the boys' family dysfunctions also haunt them, though Benji finds solace in music and his friends.
According to Touré's New York Times review of the book, Sag Harbor speaks to a new generation of wealthy young black people. [1] In the wake of the election of President Barack Obama and the success of other African Americans in the national spotlight, this story of a wealthy black teenager depicts a situation that was anachronistic for its 1985 setting. [1] Himself the son of wealthy parents, the novel is a fictional account of Whitehead's life at that time. The 2009 publication of Sag Harbor coincides with what Touré terms the post-black period, when blacks are less noticed for their color and more for their public achievements. [1]
In writing Sag Harbor, named after the town in which Whitehead used to vacation with his family, he wanted to take up a different path, writing for The Wall Street Journal in 2009 that "Having written a string of books that were heavy on the ideas and social critique, I wanted to try something more modest and personal." [2] His previous books, The Intuitionist and John Henry Days , differ in style and genre. [1]
In 2024, the novel was recognized by the Phi Beta Kappa honor society as one of the most assigned books for first-years in the category of contemporary fiction. [3]
In August 2021, it was reported that a television series adaptation of the novel was in development at HBO Max. The project was set to be produced by Boat Rocker Media with Laurence Fishburne as executive producer. [4] There has been no new information since the announcement and HBO Max rebranded as Max in May 2023.
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Sag Harbor is an incorporated village in Suffolk County, New York, United States, in the towns of Southampton and East Hampton on eastern Long Island. The village developed as a working port on Gardiners Bay. The population was 2,772 at the 2020 census.
The Hamptons, part of the East End of Long Island, consist of the towns of Southampton and East Hampton, which together compose the South Fork of Long Island, in Suffolk County, New York. The Hamptons are a popular seaside resort and one of the historical summer colonies of the northeastern United States.
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Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead is an American novelist. He is the author of nine novels, including his 1999 debut The Intuitionist; The Underground Railroad (2016), for which he won the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; and The Nickel Boys, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction again in 2020, making him one of only four writers ever to win the prize twice. He has also published two books of nonfiction. In 2002, he received a MacArthur Fellowship.
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Amaza Lee Meredith was an American architect, educator and artist. Meredith was unable to enter the profession as an architect because of "both her race and her sex" as an African-American woman, and worked primarily as an art teacher at Virginia State University, where she founded the art department. Sex and race wasn't the only factor that was challenging at the time. Amaza Lee Meredith lived authentically as an African-American Queer artist despite at the time heterosexual norms. She is best known for her residence, Azurest South, where she and her partner, Dr. Edna Meade Colson, resided together. Moreover, she co-founded the Azurest Syndicate Inc., a vacation destination for black middle class Americans on Sag Harbor, New York. As an educated black woman, Meredith is a rare example of a financially and socially independent black woman living in the time of Jim Crow Segregation Laws.
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Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Ninevah Beach Subdivisions Historic District (SANS) is an African American beachfront community in Sag Harbor, New York. Founded following World War II, the SANS community served primarily as a summer retreat for middle-class African American families during the post-WWII and Jim Crow era. African American families were not allowed at beachfront resorts, pools or beaches, and SANS began as a place of refuge from racial strife. The historic district is bordered by Hempstead Street, Richards Drive, Hampton Street, Lincoln Street, Harding Terrace, Terry Drive and the eastern end of Haven's Beach in Sag Harbor. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 10, 2019.