What do You think about The Colossus Of New York (2004)?
A hard read, but worth it... This is an odd book. It's written in some kind of peculiar free-form writing style, with different sentences in the same paragraph switching from first person to third person, and just to confuse further switches fluidly from one person ("he") to another ("she") but you are either he or she, depending on whether... you know. Anyway, writing style aside, this is an interesting essay on life in modern-day New York. I read this on holiday in New York, and finished it when I'd got back home. The second half was much more fun - perhaps because I'd got to know NYC by then, so appreciated some of the little clever things in the book. So - good if you know NYC, though a little hard-going. Keep your wits about you when reading.
—James Cridland
Wow.I'd had this sitting on my shelf for five years or so, waiting to be read. I'm glad I finally pulled my finger out and gave it a whirl; Whitehead has managed to bottle the Big Apple in this slim volume. Other reviewers give him crap for being a peacock - preening and artificial. But I think this misreads his intentions. I thought it more a reflection of the city itself - loud, self-inventing, chopping, changing, never quite staying the same. It feels more Beat-like than some of the Beats (a bunch I'm not terribly in love with, I must say) but hums along with that sort of highly caffeinated energy that NY does so well.Some of these stories, I must admit, are less about New York in particular and more about the minutiae of living in a big city. No matter where you live, you'll recognise the rainy day scurry, the inner voice chatting on public transport, the personal mapping of environment by landmarks that have changed name, or gone completely. So in that respect it's not -strictly- a NYC work. But hell, it made me want to go back, so it has to have some strange power of the land of yellow cabs inside it, right?It's short and sweet - there's something transient in the work, like a lost weekend in town. I found myself wanting to read particular passages to my partner, wanting to push it onto other likeminded people and say "See, you would dig this!" - that desire to spread the word is well-earned. Whitehead's prose sounds like the city, with all its bustle, flatulence and come-on. A wonderful read. If you've ever been there or ever wanted to go, this is for you.
—Luke
Colson Whitehead delivers yet another course in strong writing. The Colossus of New York is a love letter to New York city. Whitehead captures the ebb, flow, and character of JFK, rain in the city, and Times Square. The collection - a series of short pieces linked by gymnasticaly clever language and topic, to form a pre-twitter, twitter-styled novella. Though less fluid than the other writing I've read by Whitehead - the clipped sentences, point of view changes, and clever language, all together, can be at first disorienting, the book remains a delight. I appreciate Whitehead's creativity - and of course, his hallmark skills with language and uncannily perceptive insight, are again on display - and here, as in other works, it results in some truly poetic phrasing and sharp observations. As when he desribes everyone's favorite city dweller: the hipster."Hipsters seek refuge in church, Our Lady of Perpetual Subculture. There is some discussion as to whether or not they are still cool but then they are calmed by the obscure location and the arrival of their kind. Keep the address to yourself, let the rabble find it for themselves. Wow, this crappy performance art is really aking me feel not so terrible about my various emotional issues."Whitehead evocatively draws the city - and the special nuances of city life. The possessiveness, routines that declare belonging, and the humor in being shoved so close to one another, and yet busy with our own "rich interior lives."Each time I read something by Whitehead, I feel lucky to have found out about him.
—Izetta Autumn
