![]() ![]() ![]() “The Finkelstein 5” makes for a wrenching read because it feels somehow more plausible than surreal. The central character is George Wilson Dunn, who is on trial for “allegedly us a chain saw to hack off the heads of five black children outside the Finkelstein Library in Valley Ridge, South Carolina.” The jury votes to acquit, because “it was reasonable that Dunn had felt threatened by these five black young people, and, thus, he was well within his rights when he protected himself, his library-loaned DVDs, and his children.” I mention this because the first story in Friday Black, “The Finkelstein 5,” lays bare how the laws of this land don’t always protect the rights of all its citizens. I opened the book after watching an orientation video that declared we must “always remember that our grand jury system is designed to protect the rights of citizens and uphold the laws of the land.” ![]() I started reading Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s debut short story collection Friday Black (Mariner Books) at the Kings County Supreme Court, waiting to hear if I would be selected for grand jury duty (I was). ![]()
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