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Emmanuel had grown up with a strength his parents nurtured.
They taught him everything they knew about keeping a young
Black man alive; because of that, Emmanuel rarely presented
his “Blackness” at the top of a one-to-ten scale. At most,
he kept it somewhere near the middle. But in “The
Finkelstein 5,” when a white man was acquitted of
killing five black kids with a chainsaw, Emmanuel doubted if
he was strong enough to keep his Blackness at anything less
than a “10.”
Anything less than the blunt truth is a bad thing in “The
Era,” and Ben knows it. He was not “optimized” at birth,
however, so no matter how truthful he is, he’ll never be as
cool as some of the boys in his “HowItWas class.” He’ll
never make anyone happy, and that’s fine. He’ll get by
because the New Federation makes sure everyone has access to
a daily syringe full of Good. Ben gets his at school every
day. He wishes he could get more. He’s in danger of becoming
a “shoelooker” and it will take strength to avoid that.
The gates in front of the store were holding – for now.
It’s Black Friday and as customers press forward, there’s a
stampede and a little girl falls. Lance is working clean-up,
and he tries to get her body out of the way but the child’s
mother grabs the dazed girl first, and heads for any bargain
she can find. Whatever. The narrator of Friday Black
doesn’t care. Bodies will pile up even higher before the
day’s over and shoppers are gone home. In the meantime,
he’ll sell more coats than anybody else; he’ll see more
drooling, half-crazed buyers than anyone; and he’ll win the
annual contest.
The strongest always does…
Picking up Friday Black won’t be difficult. Opening
it is a piece of cake. It doesn’t weigh much at all, but the
stories inside are heavy, so beware.
In a dozen short tales and just under 200 pages, author Nana
Kwame Adjei-Brenyah takes readers on quite the ride. It
starts with a tale that, if you squint, isn’t so very
implausible at all, and moves toward the dystopian before
slyly commenting on greed and American consumerism. If that
sounds like a two-ton book, well, you’re almost
right: most of these tales are hefty, but they’re also
infinitely entertaining and irresistible. Reading them is
like nibbling at futuristic fiction, but the future is
tomorrow.
For a fan of stick-with-you stories, this book is a winner.
It’s perfect for readers who don’t want the same old thing,
or want something quick to read. If you’re looking for an
early gift to give, Friday Black is a pretty strong
bet.
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