John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead

First published: 2001

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Experimental

Time of work: 1870’s, 1920’s, 1940’s, and 1996

Locale: Summers County, West Virginia; the South Side of Chicago, Illinois; Washington, D.C.; New York, New York

Principal Characters:

• J. Sutter, an African American freelance journalist from Brooklyn whose “three-month junket jag” takes him to the John Henry Days festival in West Virginia
• John Henry, a hero of American folklore around whom the novel is framed
• Pamela Street, the Harlem-born daughter of a John Henry memorabilia collector, who attends the festival because of local interest in her father’s collection
• Alphonse Miggs, a railroad stamp collector from Silver Spring, Maryland, who attends the festival with ulterior motives
• Lucien Joyce, the president of a successful public relations firm and the creator of an infamous list of journalists who are willing to attend any public relations gathering
• Josie, the co-owner, with her husband Benny, of the Talcott Motor Lodge, who believes a ghost haunts the rooms and casts a pall over the festival
• Postal Employee #1, and
• Postal Employee #2, who serve as a chorus, commenting on the events in Talcott from the nation’s capital

The Novel

Loosely based on the printing of the John Henry Folk Hero stamp and the 1996 John Henry Days festival in Talcott, West Virginia, Colson Whitehead’s second novel comprises a prologue and five parts. The prologue consists of fourteen accounts proclaiming the pervasiveness of John Henry work songs and ballads and either claiming or disclaiming the actual existence of John Henry. Narrated in the third person, each of the novel’s five parts is composed of a series of vignettes, several focusing on John Henry himself. The rest focus either on a specific character who has an interest in or passion for the legend of John Henry or on the escapades of J. Sutter and other journalists in search of their next byline. The story line is layered and convoluted, and it unfolds incrementally.

The legend of John Henry is interspersed throughout the novel. The feats of the “steel-drivin’ man,” who was instrumental in building the Big Bend Tunnel in 1872 for the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railroad, are depicted in distinct contrast to “junketeer” journalist J. Sutter’s pursuit of “the Record,” as he attempts to surpass the mark for successive days spent attending publicity events. It is the launching of a Time Warner travel Web site and Sutter’s writing of an online article that brings him to Talcott. In order to piece together the series of vignettes and the novel’s five parts, a reader must determine how the panorama of characters relates to both J. and John Henry.

Inevitably, the novel builds to a climax. True to the legend, John Henry accepts the challenge of racing the Burleigh steam drill, defeats it, and dies. J. helps Pamela Street bury her father’s ashes in an urn at an unkempt and uncared-for site near the tunnel where John Henry purportedly was buried. She has asked J. to return to New York with her before the festival ends. During the final event, Alphonse Miggs opens fire with a handgun he purchased in Maryland. Chaos ensues, and people are wounded, some fatally. While John Henry’s fate has become legend, J. Sutter’s future is unclear.

The Characters

The novel’s principal characters show growth and development only as they gain a greater understanding of John Henry. As a pulp journalist of the information age, J. Sutter serves as a modern-day antihero to John Henry, for whom “ballads, railroad hammers, spikes and bits, playbills from the Broadway production, statues of the man and speculative paintings” have been created and preserved. Through conversations with Pamela, who overcomes her hatred of a childhood sacrificed to her father’s obsession with John Henry, J. asks: “How long does it take to forget a hole in your self?” When J. and Pamela begin to recognize each other as more than festival-goers, they start to see beyond their egocentric selves.

Conversely, Alphonse Miggs and Lucien Joyce never overcome their egotism. Miggs sees only an opportunity for his Alphonse Miggs Liberation Front. Joyce views the festival as a “slice of Americana,” worthy only of a public relations boon. Even Josie, whose premonition from the ghost is that some thing tragic will happen during the festival, remains at the hotel throughout, choosing instead to ingest combinations of pills left by her guests. The unnamed postal employees advance the plot, serve as vehicles for Whitehead’s experimental narrative technique, and show how contemporary society has become fearful and disengaged.

Several minor characters are depicted to illustrate the broad historical and contemporary impact of John Henry in American culture. Among the panoply of supporting characters, Whitehead incorporates such historical figures as former postmaster general Marvin Runyon, who issued the John Henry stamp; sociologist Guy Johnson, who visited Talcott as part of the research for his book-length study of John Henry, published in 1929; and actor and social activist Paul Robson, who played the role of John Henry on Broadway in 1940. Noteworthy fictional characters include Jake Rose, who published a broadside of the John Henry ballad for Yellin Records in the 1920’s; J. Sutter’s mother, Jennifer, who as an adolescent purchased a copy of Rose’s ballad serendipitously from a Harlem music store in the 1940’s and learned to play the song against her mother’s wishes; and Moses, a blues musician from Mississippi who recorded a version of the song for Goodman’s Records in Chicago during the 1920’s.

The novel also includes a series of vignettes devoted to J.’s fellow junketeers. Bobby Figgis, the holder of “the Record” J. is out to break, eventually “disappear[s] . . . devoured by pop.” Dave Brown survives and writes about the Rolling Stones’ 1969 concert at Altamont Speedway in California. He retells his experience as part of “junketeer lore,” which Whitehead parallels with the folklore surrounding John Henry. Only the journalist nicknamed “One Eye” is willing to risk everything to remove his name from “the List,” Joyce’s infamous list of journalists willing to attend any public relations gathering.

Critical Context

John Henry Days met with minimal critical analysis upon publication. What has been written about the novel focuses on Whitehead’s creative use of John Henry, his satirizing of advertising and the language of public relations, and his probing of the historical and contemporary conflicts between humans and machines. As a postmodern, urban writer, Whitehead is often compared to Don DeLillo. Within the African American literary tradition, John Henry Days can be read favorably in relation to Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo, and Toni Morrison’s Jazz. The ongoing fascination with the legend of John Henry and its importance to American culture suggests that Whitehead’s novel will continue to be read, taught, and studied.

Bibliography

Cobb, William Jelani. “If I Had a Hammer.” Crisis 108, no. 4 (July/August, 2001): 66-67. Favorable review that emphasizes the novel’s satirical elements.

Porter, Evette. “Writing Home.” Black Issues Book Review 4, no. 2 (May/June, 2002): 36-37. Explores Whitehead’s use of New York City in his novels, including John Henry Days.

Thompson, Clifford. “Almost There.” Threepenny Review 23, no. 1 (Spring, 2001): 8-9. Argues that Whitehead’s first two novels show his promise as a writer, but his best is yet to be written.

Whitehead, Colson. Interview by Suzan Sherman. Bomb 76 (Summer, 2001): 74-80. Interview conducted shortly after the publication of John Henry Days. Focuses on the novel’s theme of mechanization, the importance of the setting, and the author’s decision to use John Henry as a focal point.

Wood, James. “Virtual Prose.” New Republic 225, no. 6 (August 6, 2001): 30-34. Compares John Henry Days with Don DeLillo’s Underworld, focusing on style, structure, theme, and characterization. Reads Whitehead’s novel allegorically.