Synopsis:
A Publisher’s Weekly Most Anticipated Book for Fall 2018
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.
My Review: 5/5 where do I even begin stars!
Oh my goodness, where do I even begin to write this review?
First of all, I have never read a book like this before (to say the least!!!), it truly is eye opening and every time I think about it I feel goosebumps all over. The magnitude of what it tries to represent in the book is beyond words, so before I go into a bit more details of the book, I just want to congratulate the author for such outstanding debut novel and for what he has achieved so far. It truly is amazing.
Friday Black consists of 12 short stories. What I am most impressed about is all 12 short stories are completely different from each other. Contemporary, futuristic, dystopian and so on. Each story uses the form of fiction to tell a different social / culture / racial phenomenon or problem. I am seriously in awe of the author’s ability to write so many different genres in one book!
These stories are shocking, dark, twisted, weird, strange, eye-opening, heavy, brutal and so very painful. It cuts deep to your soul. Some of the stories have such deep meaningful message that I have to reread it again to truly appreciate everything the author is trying to convey. Some of the stories make you so uncomfortable, you want to close the book and just leave it but you know you have to go on reading because you know similar things are really happening nowadays and you can’t just turn a blind eye towards it! Some of the stories are so very painful to read. But it is these exact pains that the author wants us to experience and understand.
The first story is shockingly painful, the last story is mind-blowingly brutal, everything in between is cutting edge and powerful. This is a very unique book that I will remember for a very long time to come.
Thank you so much Quercus for sending me this stunning proof copy of Friday Black. Seriously this is one special special book. I wish all the best to the author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, I cannot wait to see what comes next!
Sissi Reads 