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Book Overview
This Description may be from another edition of this product.
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELER
A National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, chosen by Colson Whitehead
An unbelievable debut, one that announces a new and necessary American voice. --Tommy Orange, New York Times Book Review
An excitement and a wonder: strange, crazed, urgent and funny. --George Saunders
Dark and captivating and essential . . . A call to arms and a condemnation . . . Read this book. --Roxane Gay
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Award for Best First Book
A piercingly raw debut story collection from a young writer with an explosive voice; a treacherously surreal, and, at times, heartbreakingly satirical look at what it's like to be young and black in America.
From the start of this extraordinary debut, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's writing will grab you, haunt you, enrage and invigorate you. By placing ordinary characters in extraordinary situations, Adjei-Brenyah reveals the violence, injustice, and painful absurdities that black men and women contend with every day in this country.
These stories tackle urgent instances of racism and cultural unrest, and explore the many ways we fight for
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Frequently Asked Questions About Friday Black
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How long does it take to read Friday Black?
It takes about 4 Hours and 25 minutes on average for a reader to read Friday Black. This is based on the average reading speed of 250 Words per minute.
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How long is Friday Black?
Friday Black is 256 pages long.
- Who wrote Friday Black?
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Book Reviews (15)
Did you read Friday Black? Please provide your feedback and rating to help other readers.
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A Horrific Commentary
Derived From Web , Feb 12, 2022
This book was unlike any I have ever read before. The writing is tight and stories are often difficult to look at. We begin with the Finkelstein 5, where a trial beyond understanding ends with a horrific verdict. And once you are there, it is impossible to climb out. Amusement parks, retail shopping and school shootings are all written by a voice we have never heard before.
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Recommended to buy:
No
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Black horror in the style of Peele's
Derived From Web , Jan 9, 2022
Good horror can come from various places and from a variety of effects. Scares, gore, serial killers, quiet seeing. In some cases, it can come from just exaggerating the conditions of a class of people. The latter is obviously Friday Black. A series of short stories, all connected more or less loosely by the horror of being black under the particularly vicious capitalism adopted by the United States. All stories offer a particularly unflinching examination of the violence of this, ranging from the direct violence of black people being lynched to the indirect violence of a consumerist society, one that worships Mammon. To say much more, I feel like spoil too much. You just have to read the stories and hopefully with this trigger, warn that it is not for the faint of heart.
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Recommended to buy:
Yes
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Fantastic and unusual
Derived From Web , Dec 31, 2020
This collection of short stories is very good and very short. It is sort of a mash up of magical realism and gritty realism and science fiction and current events. Characters are well drawn, the plots are pretty flawless, the themes are important and the way they are presented opens one's mind. Moreover, the writing is mostly smooth and fun to read. I am not going to say that every story hits you out of the park, but that is to be expected in a new writer, but don 't let the vast majority of the people are amazing.
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Recommended to buy:
Yes
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Darker than Black
Derived From Web , Sep 5, 2020
I was really excited to start reading this book. This slim volume of short stories took longer to finish than I expected, mainly because I hung up on the fantasy sci-fi language. The take-away is bloody-black as in the hue of oxidized blood from the business-usual work of death via hacked heads, aborted fetuses, clean-up crew for the dead, murder-suicide and gruesome torture. In a mother's love, the good-loaded injector, a return of the glimmers, glimmers of humanity shine. I was disappointed to not arrive after reading this at this transcendent spiritual place.
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No
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Powerful
Derived From Web , Aug 2, 2020
Each kept me on my toes as dove into each, not sure what to expect each time. I am so grateful to read this creative book!
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Recommended to buy:
Yes
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Ready for more
Derived From Web , Mar 10, 2020
While some stories left me more confused than others, they all stretched my imagination and kept me searching for the deeper meaning, like a great and sad movie that leaves you sitting in your seat, still wondering about what they are, even though they are, in only a few pages. I hope in the future to read more from this author.
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Yes
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A few gems
Derived From Web , Dec 24, 2019
This is a collection of short stories and I have made it only half the way through before putting it down. The Boers starts strong with a story based on events that could be rushed straight from the headlines, but the stories that followed were diverged in far too many ways and felt very much distorted.
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No
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Tough to rate since multiple stories
Derived From Web , Aug 2, 2019
Absolutely loved the stories of The Finkelstein 5, Zimmer Land, Friday Black, Light Spitter and Through the Flash. For almost all of them, I wanted more... for those top 5, because they were great and could be good, thought provoking novels or novellas each. The others felt incomplete because they felt the same. A fascinating read in general.
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A very unpopular but honest opinion from me
Derived From Web , Feb 24, 2019
The author's dark and twisted thoughts actually concerned me. Others may say I am probably not qualified to write a review, but I felt like sharing my thoughts anyway, because I'm thinking that there are others out there who hesitate to speak up because we are definitely in the minority. Anyway, I would not want to face this guy face to face, because I would feel very uncomfortable not knowing what dark thoughts may be behind the physical appearance.
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Recommended to buy:
No
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High expectations, low returns
Derived From Web , Dec 12, 2018
When two of my favorite writers, Ralph Ellison and George Saunders, write a book, when the book is compared to Lynne Tillman in the NY Times, I have high expectations. Friday Black seems to be one of the better manuscripts to come out of an MFA writing program. The transformation is not the exaggeration. My disappointment helped me to clarify what it is about the books I love that makes them singular.
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Recommended to buy:
No
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