I was fortunate to spend some time on the far reaches of Long Island this fall and in conversation the book Sag Harbor was brought up. Being vaguely familiar with all-black towns such as Nicodemus, Kansas, formed in the post-civil war era and more recently all-black beaches, I checked it out. Very much the traditional coming-of-age story with the usual hijinks and the expected teenage humor. Colson does more as he interweaves the founding of the community and the travails of being the other in a very exclusive enclave, and the varied and complex characters who end up on a spit of land at the end of the Eastern seaboard. But this is not sociology wrapped in a memoir, it is a humorous read with just enough pathos to make you think and connect with the author and his community.
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