Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time Ralph Elllison's Invisible Man is a monumental novel, one that can well be called an epic of modern American Negro life. It is a strange story, in which many extraordinary things happen, some of them shocking and brutal, some of them pitiful and touching--yet always with elements of comedy and irony and burlesque that appear in unexpected places. It is a book that has a great deal to say and which is destined to have a great deal said about it. ...
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Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time Ralph Elllison's Invisible Man is a monumental novel, one that can well be called an epic of modern American Negro life. It is a strange story, in which many extraordinary things happen, some of them shocking and brutal, some of them pitiful and touching--yet always with elements of comedy and irony and burlesque that appear in unexpected places. It is a book that has a great deal to say and which is destined to have a great deal said about it. After a brief prologue, the story begins with a terrifying experience of the hero's high school days, moves quickly to the campus of a Southern Negro college and then to New York's Harlem, where most of the action takes place. The many people that the hero meets in the course of his wanderings are remarkably various, complex and significant. With them he becomes involved in an amazing series of adventures, in which he is sometimes befriended but more often deceived and betrayed--as much by himself and his own illusions as by the duplicity of the blindness of others. Invisible Man is not only a great triumph of storytelling and characterization; it is a profound and uncompromising interpretation of the Negro's anomalous position in American society. From the Hardcover edition.
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Very good read, especially for someone other than a minority. A minority would understand but others would become more aware of the feeling of minorities while gaining some insight and depth into the psyche of others.
The Pageturner
Aug 17, 2009
Invisible Man Remains Transparent
Ellison's book is full of exquisite figurative language and even though my copy had 503 pages, I read it until the end. I was amazed at how he presented all types of personalities in his books, ranging from revolutionary Blacks such as Ras the Exhorter to communistic groups like the Brotherhood. It seems that each situation the Invisible Man is in is a dilemma to its most extreme. Still, at the end of the book, it seems he still hasn't learned his way. The overall lesson I think is "They don't like you, they'll never like you. Be with your people." This book is excellent to use for discussion and I can see why it is one of the most honored books in literature.
kafkesque
Mar 18, 2007
a study in alienation
Isolation, alienation, hate, fear, loneliness, America. All of these emotions and places swirl in a virtual maelstrom throughout the classic Invisible Man. This is a novel that no one should die not having read. I cannot think of a book that sums up the racial fears of a nation better than this. Ralph Ellison is a national treasure, a voice of a generation. His voice should never be forgotten and always turned to. His necessity has not dimmed with the passing years. New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina proved how much things have not changed since the time he wrote about life in Harlem.
