2020: I should have been clued in by the title being the setting of the book that this novel would follow in the same footsteps as Cannery Row: all observations and no plot.

Okay, so there's SOME plot. Essentially, this novel follows one summer in the life of Benji, a young Black teen whose family has a summer home out on Sag Harbor. A Long Island girl myself, I loved revisiting summers of my own youth. I spent a lot of time reflecting on how these young Black men described the white people they interacted with, and how my younger self was most likely interpreted.

That being said, I listened to the audiobook, and I could tune out for ten+ minutes at a time, and not miss a single thing happening. That's not the highest recommendation I can give a book.

Not passing the Bechdel test is always a big negative for me. Even though this story follows in the same vein as Moonlight, whereas the main character is a young man with other male friends, it's not like there aren't women in this book! If only the cousins in the ice cream parlor had any conversations that weren't about the boys they were dating... There was also a little too much of men describing women as they would in the late 70's / early 80's for me.

If you're new to Colson Whitehead's work, I would definitely start with The Underground Railroad. Whitehead will be on my list in the future, for sure, and I can't wait to see the film version of TUR (especially since Barry Jenkins is directing it!). But Sag Harbor didn't check off all of my boxes (even with a great John Boyega-defecting stormtrooper reference!)