Susie Anderson
Staff Writer
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah began with a short story: a gladiator battle starring prisoner Loretta Thurwar. But as he began researching the industrial prison complex and developing his speculative world, the project grew. It demanded a bigger stage.
“It was like I was digging for gold in a small cave, the size of a closet. And then by doing research, I hit a wall in that closet, and it opened up a cavern that’s the size of a football stadium,” Adjei-Brenyah said.
The stadium expanded into Adjei-Brenyah’s debut novel and the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle’s Week Six selection, Chain-Gang All-Stars. Adjei-Brenyah will present the selection at 3:30 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy.
In addition to being one of The New York Times Ten Best Books of 2023, a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, among other recognitions, Chain-Gang All-Stars was a finalist for the 2024 Chautauqua Prize. For Stephine Hunt, managing director of literary arts, it was a favorite from last year’s submissions as it married the genre of speculative fiction with real-world consequence.
“It is a brilliant look at systemic racism, capitalism and mass incarceration in this country, and thinking through the way we conceptualize freedom,” said Hunt.
In a week themed “The Global Rise of Authoritarianism,” Chain-Gang All-Stars examines a privatized prison system in near-future America, presenting a leap from fact to fiction in authoritarian control that is unnervingly small.
“I think carceral institutions are an integral and essential part of authoritarianism. You see that right now with what they call ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ is being built as the way to support a violent policy against immigrants,” said Adjei-Brenyah.
Raised by a defense attorney father, Adjei-Brenyah was exposed to the ins-and-outs of the U.S. carceral system at a young age. As he began to recognize systems of oppression, he extended the consequence of those systems through speculative fiction.
“Rather than having an individual be a villain, I got attached to these systems that we adopt that are informed by bad policy or misguided ideas that sometimes come in a package of love,” Adjei-Brenyah said.
In his award-winning short story collection, Friday Black, Adjei-Brenyah examined the intersection of Black identity and consumer culture, capitalism and criminal justice. In Chain-Gang All-Stars, he digs deeper into his critique of the industrial prison complex.
Adjei-Brenyah knows that, in theory, many people believe in the prison system. While researching his novel, he stepped into the minds of those who support incarceration, although they might not have fully reckoned with its reality.
“I think there is a genuine desire and belief in the potential of these spaces, at least on paper,” he said. “… Sometimes it’s important to see that, in practice, your philosophical ideas don’t pan out.”
In Chain-Gang All-Stars, the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment system transforms death battles into a spectacle of sport and entertainment. Designing CAPE, Adjei-Brenyah drew upon his own understanding of the allure of violence.
“I understand why people care to watch boxing matches. I remember in high school, when people would crowd around fights,” he said. “There is drama, and it’s inherently interesting.”
The intensity of the battle sequences throughout Chain-Gang All-Stars took several Chautauquans by surprise last year, said Hunt. She urges readers to go further than gut-reactions to the content and examine their own responses to a story reflecting a world only a few frightening degrees away from modern America.
“It’s a gladiator story, of course,” she said. “I would implore any reader who wants to put it down to think more critically about what that sensationalization of violence is doing to illustrate just how violent the system is for the people who are incarcerated.”
Situating readers alongside an audience captivated by the violent spectacles was intentional, said Adjei-Brenyah.
“I understand that my ability to represent action and fight sequences can be alluring, and it can be useful to show that we’re all infected with this sort of attention,” he said.
Chain-Gang All-Stars “breaks the spell” of its speculative world with footnotes that ground fictional events in real historical context. One footnote highlights a loophole in the language of America’s 13th Amendment. Another mentions George Stinney Jr., a Black 14-year-old who was wrongfully convicted and remains the youngest person ever executed in the United States.
“I wanted to make it almost impossible to think about Chain-Gang All-Stars outside of the real-world implications that informed it,” Adjei-Brenyah said.
Instead of leaving the political and social critiques to a subtext, Adjei-Brenyah uses the footnotes to point fingers at injustice in America’s past and present.
Balancing poignant social critique with multidimensional characters, Adjei-Brenyah said that adding humanity to prisoners was a practice in compassion — a practice inspired by his mentor from when he studied at Syracuse University, author George Saunders.
“I think George does a great job of implicating extenuating circumstances and not letting people totally off the hook, but still holding them with some type of grace,” Adjei-Brenyah said.
While Adjei-Brenyah does not exonerate characters who commit horrific deeds, he said he lets his own compassion win out when writing their stories.
“Even with the worst characters in the book, it was like, ‘What do I believe this person deserves?’ ” he said. “Do I want him to get tortured for the rest of his life? No, I don’t want that.”
When characters are humanized, the capitalist and authoritarian systems that encroach upon them — systems that use prisoners’ skin as advertisement space and use floating cameras to capture their every intimate moment — become the antagonists of the story.
“I think unchecked capitalism will always be one of the main villains in my projects because I think it’s one of the main villains on this planet,” Adjei-Brenyah said.
In his work, Adjei-Brenyah leans into the power of speculative fiction to combat systems that encourage violence, consumption and dehumanization.
“Authoritarian power closes down people’s imaginations,” he said.
Instead of giving up the power of imagination, Adjei-Brenyah encourages readers to keep their minds open to the power of fiction to arm readers with compassion in the battle against authoritarianism.
“Active reading is generally important for building focus and empathy,” he said. “But I think fiction in particular reminds us of our human power — imagination — which is the precursor to creation.”
