Sag Harbor (Doubleday, 2009) by Colson Whitehead
Sag Harbor is a Hampton vacation enclave for mostly black New York City families, many of whom have had homes on the shore for generations. Benji and his brother head out to Sag early each May to wile away their summer hours, mostly unsupervised, living lazy days that hinge on a “paradox of black boys with beach houses.” The novel focuses on the summer of 1985, when Benji is 15 and gets his first job at Joni Waffle, has BB gun fights and GoKart races with his long-time Sag friends, drinks beer and gets his braces off. A coming-of-age novel veined with amusing anecdotes and 80’s iconography, nothing important actually happens in the novel – it’s like a Seinfeld episode – funny, but lacking point and drama (7/10).
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