Initially confident that their local councilman, Chandler Flowers, would protect their small business and deny Goode building rights, they are shocked and betrayed when he green lights the project. Their business runs into trouble when Gibson Goode, a famous ex-NFL player now getting his fingers into the business world, seeks out a nearby plot of land to construct the second store in his budding chain superstore called Dogpile Thang. Their friendship is fast and relatively unusual: Nat is Jewish, and Archy is black, and each comes from very different families and systems of privilege (and lack thereof). When it begins, Archy and Nat are in their twelfth year as co-owners of Brokeland Records in north Oakland. The novel incorporates early-2000s current events, including the senatorial campaign of Barack Obama and problems of racism, poverty, and violence in urban areas. A “slice of life” novel, Telegraph Avenue’s focal point is its unique characterizations of the inhabitants of the two neighboring cities. The novel’s plot begins with Archy and Nat’s attempt to keep their used vinyl store from going out of business, then branches into several parallel subplots. Set in San Francisco and the north side of Oakland, California, it follows Archy Stallings, Nat Jaffe, and their acquaintances, whose lives become tied together, symbolized by the titular Telegraph Avenue which runs between both cities. Telegraph Avenue is a 2012 novel by American author Michael Chabon.
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