I just started reading a new collection of short stories titled Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and man, they are intense. The first story has to do with a young black man who lives in an America that is essentially our own, in present day, but just ever so heightened in its horrid racism. Adjei-Brenyah creates this incredible tight-rope of tone wherein at first you react to the turns of the plot / setting by saying, “my god, that is absurd” but as the characters discuss these events and we hear news coverage and testimony within the story, you start to realize - it is technically more absurd but the truth of it is all the same for what’s happening in our country today. These stories are brutal and electric, to say the least. I’m looking forward to reading the rest, though it’s the sort of experience that is both invigorating, tragic, and tiring. I can’t imagine what sort of mindset he must’ve been in to immerse himself and write this collection. But at the same time, just my asking that question is, I believe, the intended effect on the white American reader. Because that mindset is the daily reality for Adjei-Brenyah and anyone like him.
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