Verse Chapter Verse is The Stranger‘s reading series in which we combine a big-name author with a hot local band. If you’ll recall, we packed out Chop Suey with the pairing of China Miéville and Tomten at the end of May. Now I’m going to tell you about what we’ve got planned for the next one. I’m really excited about this.
None of Colson Whitehead’s novels are like any other of Colson Whitehead’s novels. He’s written books about semi-mystical elevator inspectors, crazed stamp enthusiasts, well-paid experts in the art of naming things, and a tight-knit clique of young African-American kids in a mostly white vacation community. His next book looks to be a dive into a new genre for him: Zone One is a novel about a group of survivors trying to re-colonialize Manhattan in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by zombies. Whitehead is one of his generation’s best novelists, and he’s a witty, clever speaker, too, so this should be a lot of fun.
Of course, the author is just part of Verse Chapter Verse. If you haven’t attended before, here’s the setup: The featured band plays three or four songs, the author reads for a little bit, I’ll interview him for a little bit, you’ll interview him for a little bit and then, while the author signs your books, the band comes back onstage and plays us out with a set of four or five songs. This time around, we’ll be pairing Whitehead with The Curious Mystery, a psychedelic, garage-y outfit whose atmospheric songs should be a great complement to Whitehead’s creepy, funny ode to the months after the end of the world.
So save the date: This edition of Verse Chapter Verse will be Thursday, October 27th at Chop Suey. It’ll just cost you $5. Third Place Books will be selling copies of all of Whitehead’s books, there will be plenty of booze for everyone, and I guarantee you’ll have a good time. I’ll let you know when tickets go on sale right here on Slog.
Ooh, this sounds great. Haven’t read much Whitehead, but the excerpt of this book in Harper’s had me hooked. And of course TCM are fantastic. Well done sir!
Correction: “a tight-knit clique of young African-American kids in a traditionally African-American(wealthy) vacation community near year-round African American(not wealthy) communities.” In part Sag Harbor was lamenting the changes to that part of Long Island starting in the 1980s when it was set. (Don’t worry it’s not an anti-gentrification screed)
I’m there.
Lest time Whitehead was in town, I had just decided to pick up The Intuitionist, a book a friend had lent me months if not years before, and within 20 pages was enthralled enough to look up the author to see if he had any other books – only to find that Whitehead had had a reading the PREVIOUS NIGHT at Elliott Bay Books. Fortunately, that night he was reading (for Sag Harbor) at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, so I took an adventure on Metro to go see him. In the middle of the reading he realized that the 2nd half of his notes were missing and he flew around the shop looking for them, came back and winged it for the rest. It was amazing.
Am currently reading John Henry Days, which is not as zippy as the other two but has a great story at its center.
So yeah, I’m excited about this.
“re-colonialize”?
Oh snap! I love Whitehead, and unfortunately had to miss him last time he was in town (at Elliott Bay). Of course, this is conflicting with a show I want to see, but I think I’m going to really kick myself if I don’t go. Sag Harbor feels so familiar to me (as another kind of weird and geeky African American middle-class kid growing up on the Northeast — NJ instead of NY — during pretty much the same time as that of the narrator and immersed in a lot of the same general popular and suburban culture) that I think of Whitehead as my much more talented and witty older brother. I’m excited about this…