Apex Hides the Hurt: A Novel

About this book

From the MacArthur and Whiting Awardwinning author of John Henry Days and The Intuitionist comes a new brisk comic tour de force about identity history and the adhesive bandage industry When the citizens of Winthrop needed a new name for their town they did what anyone would dothey hired a consultant. The protagonist of Apex Hides the Hurt is a nomenclature consultant. If you want just the right name for your new product whether it be automobile or antidepressant sneaker or spoon hes the man to get the job done. Wardrobe lack pizzazz? Come to the Outfit Outlet. Always the wallflower at social gatherings? Try Loquacia. And of course whenever you take a fall reach for Apex because Apex Hides the Hurt. Apex is his crowning achievement the multicultural bandage that has revolutionized the adhesive bandage industry. Flesh-colored be damnedno matter what your skin tone isApex will match it or your money back. After leaving his job (following a mysterious misfortune) his expertise is called upon by the town of Winthrop. Once there he meets the town council who will try to sway his opinion over the coming days. Lucky Aberdeen the millionaire software pioneer and hometown-boy-made-good wants the name changed to something that will reflect the towns capitalist aspirations attracting new businesses and revitalizing the community. Who could argue with that? Albie Winthrop beloved son of the towns aristocracy thinks Winthrop is a perfectly good name and cant imagine what the fuss is about. Regina Goode the mayor is a descendent of the black settlers who founded the town and has her own secret agenda for what the name should be. Our expert must decide the outcome with all its implications for the towns future. Which name will he choose? Or perhaps he will devise his own? And whats with his limp anyway? Apex Hides the Hurt brilliantly and wryly satirizes our contemporary culture where memory and history are subsumed by the tides of marketing.