![]() ![]() ![]() Winthrop wants to keep the name Goode wants the town to revert to the name it bore at its founding as a town of free blacks, Freedom while Aberdeen wants to call it "New Prospera".Īs the consultant talks with the residents of the town and investigates its history, the backstory of his injury is gradually revealed. #APEX HIDES THE HURT SOFTWARE#However, three key citizens disagree what the name should be: Albie Winthrop, descendant of the town's namesake (who'd made his fortune in barbed wire) Regina Goode, the mayor (descendant of one of the town's two founders) and Lucky Aberdeen, a software magnate who's leading the drive to rename the town. He travels to the town of Winthrop after requests from the town council, which has proposed that the town be renamed. The novel begins with the main character being contacted by his former employer, which he had left after losing a toe. #APEX HIDES THE HURT SKIN#The protagonist of the book is an unnamed African-American "nomenclature consultant" who has had recent success in branding and selling Apex bandages, which come in multiple colors to better match a broad array of skin tones. The book is set in the fictional town of Winthrop. In a positive review for American magazine Entertainment Weekly, Jennifer Reese called the book "a blurry satire of American commercialism", adding, "it may not mark the apex of Colson Whitehead's career, but it brims with the author's spiky humor and intelligence." The book was included among The New York Times 100 Most Notable Books of the Year for 2006. The novel has received mostly positive reviews from critics, with few negative comments. During his visit, the main character is introduced to several citizens attempting to persuade him in favor of their preferred name for the town. He is asked to visit the town of Winthrop, which is considering changing its name. The novel follows an unnamed nomenclature consultant who specializes in creating memorable names for new consumer products. (Mar.Apex Hides the Hurt is a 2006 novel by American author Colson Whitehead. Whitehead's third novel attempts to confront a very large problem: How can a society progress while keeping a real sense of history when a language for that history doesn't exist and progress itself seems bankrupt? But he doesn't give the problem enough room enough to develop, and none of his characters is rich enough to give it weight. The bickering runs its course listlessly, and a last-minute discovery provides a convenient, bittersweet resolution. The Apex backstory spins out in a slow, retrospective treatment that competes with the town's travails. "Lucky" Aberdine, a white local boy turned software magnate, favors the professionally crafted New Prospera and no-visible-means-of-support "Uncle Albie" Winthrop (also white) sees no sense in changing the town's long-standing name which, of course, happens to be his own.Quirky what's-in-a-name? style pontificating follows, and it often feels as if Whitehead is just thinking out loud as the nomenclature consultant weighs the arguments, meets the citizens and worries over the mysterious "misfortune" that has recently shaken his faith in his work (and even taken one of his toes). Of the three council members, Mayor Regina Goode, who is black and a descendant of the town's founders, wants to revert to the town's original name, Freedom. ![]() Winthrop's town council, locked in a dispute over the town's name, have called in the protagonist to decide. The "hurt" of the Apex tag line is deviously resonant, poetically invoking banal scrapes and deep-seated, historical injustice both types of wounds are festering in the town of Winthrop, which looks like a midwestern anytown but was founded by ex-slaves migrating during Reconstruction. Following the novels The Intuitionist (1998) and John Henry Days (2001), and the nonfiction The Colossus of New York (2004), a paean to New York City, Whitehead disappoints in this intriguingly conceived but static tale of a small town with an identity crisis.A conspicuously unnamed African-American "nomenclature consultant" has had big success in branding Apex bandages, which come in custom shades to match any skin tone. ![]()
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