A small town has a festival honoring John Henry, who may have existed, and who may have entered into a duel with a machine near this town long ago. While the ending is always the same, the actual story seems to exist in infinite versions. Many of those are presented here with someone obsessed with all the versions of John Henry in song; someone else has a fascination with railroad stamps; another is trying to win a contest of his own and survive off junketing expenses a long as he possibly can.
Whitehead writes from several different viewpoints in this book, alternating from chapter to chapter. While the expense account loving magazine writer J Sutter is the main character, he often rides on the periphery of the story, which really, is about John Henry. We even get a few chapters from Mr Henry's point of view, a mythical (?) black man looking for recognition in a white world. Race is outwardly a minor component here, but J Sutter is an African American as well, and lives with problems associated with that day in and out. John Henry died in a race against a technology that if it didn't get him that day, would surely come back soon after and be better than before, until it would defeat him. Sutter's problems are more subtle, and he ultimately figures out that he, unlike, Henry, has a bit of a way out. Not that all the foreshadowing is wrong about how this ends; like most mythology, there has to be something tragic. But it might not be quite as expected.
There is a lot to like in this book. If you are looking to identify, or become familiar with a character, this isn't for you - even J Sutter is hard to define by the end - he's too worn out to give much of himself, and he disappears for large chunks of the novel. But the other characters who fill in are endlessly interesting, from the various fanatics, to his colleagues and the various town members whom all are involved in the goings on. For a book that hangs on postage stamps, it is unique take on American mythology and its effects on us all in defining who and what we are.
