'The fiction debut of the year. Bravo young man. We await your encore' Mary Karr
'The writing in this outstanding collection will make you hurt and demand your hope' Roxane Gay
Racism, but "managed" through virtual reality. Black Friday, except you die in a bargain-crazed throng. Happiness, but pharmacological. Love, despite everything.
Friday Black tackles urgent instances of racism and cultural unrest, and explores the many ways we fight for humanity in an unforgiving world. In the first, unforgettable story of this collection, The Finkelstein Five, Adjei-Brenyah gives us an unstinting reckoning of the brutal prejudice of the US justice system. In Zimmer Land we see a far-too-easy-to-believe imagining of racism as sport. And Friday Black and How to Sell a Jacket as Told by Ice King show the horrors of consumerism and the toll it takes on us all.
Fresh, exciting, vital and contemporary, Friday Black will appeal to people who love Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad, the TV show Black Mirror, the work of Kurt Vonnegut and George Saunders, and anyone looking for stories that speak to the world we live in now.
Well, I made it to the anti-abortion propaganda story, and then I looked at a few reviews to see what else was in store … apparently in another story there is a school shooting, and the shooter tries to force one of his female victims to take the blame by claiming that it's women's collective fault for the shooting because he was bullied and sometimes the bullies were women and the story takes his side … or something. I can't quite remember what the review said, and I honestly don't care enough to go back to check.
I'm super disappointed, because this collection has won so many awards and that first story, The Finkelstein Five, was spectacular. Incredibly heartbreaking, painful to read, but well written and amazing nonetheless.
