BOOK REVIEW
TITLE: APEX HIDES THE HURT
AUTHOR: COLSON WHITEHEAD
PUBLISHER: FLEET/HATCHETTE INDIA,
PAPERBACK, 2018
PRICE: Rs. 599/-
What’s In A Name?
The
prestigious New York Review of Books calls this book by Colson Whitehead
written in 2006, published in hardback first in 2007 by Anchor Books, “A
brilliant , witty and subtle novel”. And in this instance, it fits the bill
exactly.
It is a
story of a young man who creates brand names for products and even places
looking for a makeover. The protagonist’ s fancy work name is, a little improbably: A
Nomenclature Consultant.
However, the
name of anything or anyone, the reader will realize, goes a tremendous length
of the way to the future success or failure of that which it adorns. It is not
an easy thing to come up with. It is a gift if one can do so with some flair,
and encapsulates insight, catchiness, recall, aspiration, promise, reassurance,
freshness and many other intangible things.
Colson Whitehead,
the author, who lives in New York City, has written seven previous books, the
last of which, called The Underground Railroad, won the Pulitzer Prize and the
American National Book Award in 2016.
The striking
and highly visual turn-of-phrase Whitehead employs with such apparent ease is a
constant delight in this slim volume.
For example,
he describes an “establishment” by writing: “that dressed itself in rustic
sincerity,” but, “where expense crouched behind the subterfuge of calligraphic
price tags”.
And again,
elsewhere: “the tallest building on the square, the looming accusation”. There
isn’t a page in this 212 page paperback that does not reward the reader with
this kind of style and mastery of the use of language.
You don’t
read a book like this for plot, though there is a slim plot in it. There is an
unsentimental poignancy:“The things you
name go on without you” says the protagonist, who does not care to reveal his
own name but goes on at length about the necrosis he developed in a toe. It had
to be amputated but it all began with a neglected stubbed toe. The protagonist
limps, and his toe hurts all the time. This limp and missing toe is a metaphor
for his personal struggle as a solitary, if brilliant misfit, that has
difficulty walking.
The social
commentary in the novel is sometimes banal, but also subtly fascinating and
humorous. It constantly paints a picture. There you see the quirks of small
town Middle America, its somewhat stifling rigidities, its inelastic Community,
the individuals bracketed by that context.
This is
central to the novel because that’s where Whitehead sets it, in the town of
Winthrop. A town that is looking for renewal, a new image, a surge of visitors
and business, only, maybe. Not everyone in the Community is not on board for the
new name.
There is a
frowning Black barman who makes a powerful if indeterminate Winthrop Cocktail,
at the oldest building in the town, its hotel.
The
protagonist calls him Muttonchops. He says: “I’ve worked here ever since I was
a boy. Used to have a shoeshine over in the men’s and that’s where I got my
start. Liker my father and his father. And then they moved out here, behind the
bar. They were bartenders behind this very bar and now I’m here too. My family
goes back to the first settlers. This was a colored town once. Founded by free
black men and women, did you know that?”
The title of
the book then- Apex. The protagonist describes
it: “the summit, human achievement, the best of civilisation, and of course,
something you could tumble off of, fall fast”. But “Apex was a name you could
rely on”. And like Band-Aid, it hides the hurt- that is the hurt of its history,
or is it histories? And it is how he covers his hurt toe also.
The
protagonist had a stipulation before he took on the job of finding a new name
for Winthrop that skirted around New Prospera, Freedom, and even Struggle,
especially Struggle, that seemed to encapsulate the work and lives of its
original free black settlers.
Then, much
later, came the White Winthrops, with its various sections of the family
enterprises and their opinionated executives and advisors.
The
protagonist’s original stipulation, before he goes down on the bus from New York
City, said that the town had to keep the name he came up with unilaterally,
after all his research and investigations were done with - for a year. This,
even if some in the decision-making positions did not like it.
The
protagonist didn’t expect to get the job after this demand, but the clients
agreed to it quite readily.
The
protagonist describes the name America, after Amerigo Vespucci, to give the
reader an insight into how he thinks and comes to a decision: “ He couldn’t
argue with America. It was one of those balloon names. It kept stretching as it
filled up, getting bigger and bigger and thinner and thinner.What kind of gas
it was, stretching the thing to its limits, who could say. Whatever we dreamed.
And of course one day it would pop. But for now, it served its purpose. For now
it was holding together”.
Eventually,
he leaves an envelope “at the front desk” addressed to the City Council.
Whitehead does not make clear what is in it. Did he call the town Apex or did
he call it Struggle- “the anti-apex”, which he allowed “got to the point with
more finesse and wit”.
“They will
say,” said the protagonist to himself: “I was born in Struggle. I live in
Struggle and come from Struggle. I work in Struggle. We crossed the border into
Struggle. Before I came to Struggle. We found ourselves in Struggle. I will
never leave Struggle. I will die in Struggle.”
He leaves
after depositing the envelope, heading for the bus stand with his luggage ,
showing the middle finger to Muttonchops in his bar as he passes.
Apex-
probably not. Struggle it is. Memorable,
isn’t it?
For: The Sunday Pioneer, AGENDA,
BOOKS
(987 words)
July 21st, 2018
Gautam Mukherjee
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