Apex Hides the Hurt Audiobook

" Apex Hides the Hurt by Colson Whitehead is a book that had a clever idea but didn't quite pull it off. Featuring a town with an identity crisis a consultant is brought in to rebrand it could have been an interesting commentary on modern society but instead drifted along aimlessly. It failed to keep my attention and took me far longer to read than it should have because I kept putting it down and wandering off. "

" I love all the language play "

" An underwhelming ending, good if sometimes overwrought writing, but entertaining nonetheless. "

" This book just didn't keep my interest. "

" Bits of cleverness, but so facile that it was hard to believe that this was the author of Sag Harbor. Guess it's good that he's getting better not worse. "

" The never-named narrator is a nomenclature consultant, in charge of naming things, and by naming them defining them. He named the bandaid that hid his festering toe wound so that it didn't heal. He's been hired to rename a town, a place settled by free slaves, then renamed, and transformed, by a white commercial class, and recently colonized by a software company that wants to rename it again. Everyone he meets has a connection to one of the names, and one of the potential identities, of the town. The novel is sly and at times quite funny, but it is also a profound and interesting meditation on identity, on what's in a name, on how what we choose to call things can shape a future, or erase a history. "

" Whitehead's ideas and frame of reference are fascinating. This was less complex and metaphysical than The Intuitionist, but I'll be thinking about product labeling for a long time! "

" It had a pretty good political message, but I wouldn't say I enjoyed reading it . . . "

" Quirky, yet thoughtful. Makes one think about names and what they really mean. Funny in places and yet deeper than one would think. The title has a double meaning that one recognizes in this story. "

" A "nomenclature consultant" comes to a small, primarily black, town to help them select a new name for the community. "

" An unnamed nomenclature consultant is hired to rename a midwestern town that wants to bring in big companies. Like his other books, the idea behind it is brilliant, funny and sad all at once, but it is very difficult to connect with any of the characters. "

" I went back and forth quite a bit on my feelings toward this book - the first I have ever read by Colson Whitehead - there were parts that were very well-written and I really enjoyed, but overall it fell flat for me, but I'd be willing to try another book by Whitehead "

" Dude's pen game is ridiculous. "

" This is a really neat book and a quick and pleasurable read -kind of pomo cynical anonymous numb narrator (which I'm usually not fond of) but it works here for me, to my amazement. Something resonates about how we use language. "

" A very light book, probably would have been better had I read it, as it didnt translate well to a book on tape. The characters were a bit flat, but the overall writing style was quirky and fun. "

" Some nice imagery. It never seems to get to the point. "

" Really great, wish they had chosen this for B1410. "

" Here's a man (the author, not the protagonist) who loves English words and does magnificent things with them. But his aching urge for cuteness has tarnished my respect for this wordlove. As have certain of the sillier plot elements. Too bad there are no band-aids for wounded prose. "

" I hate when I write a name of a book down in summer of 2006, pick it up in 2008, and just hate it. Sigh. "

" I loved this, loved the writing, the emptiness of modern consumption, the way we all search for something real and find it in names that are false, names that create illusions of what could be. Contrasted with real racism, real people, real struggle... "

" An unnamed "nomenclature" specialist goes to the midwest to rename a town. This got a decent review in the NY Times so I thought that it might be a fun turn on language -- au contraire! No character development. Very disappointing. See review in Publishers Weekly. "

" Read it for the second time. Whitehead just gets better with each read. "

" Bits of cleverness, but so facile that it was hard to believe that this was the author of Sag Harbor. Guess it's good that he's getting better not worse. "