Celebrated in Catalonia with the giving of a rose and a book; St. George's Day has caught on in other parts of the world as the International Day of the Book. As you can imagine, a reader and bookseller like myself gets excited about this sort of holiday. The same can be said for BookPeople, the store where I work.
Every April we put up a display of staff favorites that, for whatever reason, haven't been big sellers in the past year. This year, I was surprised to discover that Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist was one of those books.
Whitehead is an excellent writer and his debut is among my favorite works of fiction written this century. Set in the curious world of elevator operators and a universe parallel to our own, The Intuitionist is a brilliant bending of genre, a subtly spooky neo-noir. It's moody and mysterious, but also philosophical and political; think Jonathan Lethem meets Ralph Ellison.
St. George's Day is April 23rd. Drop by BookPeople (or your local independent bookstore) and pick up a book for a friend or loved one (or stranger, for that matter). And, if I may make a recommendation, have that book be Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist.
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