Reading 1001 discussion

5 Stars

This book is amazing on so many levels. It definitely belongs on the list. It is the story of a young African American man as he struggles to find his place in the world. He strives to always do the right thing, but things never turn out how he expects them to. From giving a speech to leading white citizens in his hometown, to driving Mr. Norton, a trustee for his college, nothing turns out as he thinks it should. He is sent to New York City under the impression, if he works hard during the summer, then he can return to college in the fall. When he finally faces the fact that it will not happen, he falls in with the Brotherhood. Thinking he finally found his place and purpose in life, he is unprepared for the truth. He has been used by the Brotherhood to promote their own agenda, not help him or his race. They are being sacrificed for the greater good, according to the Brotherhood. He was so naive in the beginning. His pride in the letters from Dr. Bledsoe was heartbreaking. As the book progresses, you can see him losing his naivete and the rage beginning to form. I feel I definitely need to re-read this.

Rating: March 7, 2017 – Finished Reading
Rating: 5 stars
Review: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, published in 1952 and winner of the National Book Award in 1953 is a book written by a black author about racism and invisibility. The story starts with the unnamed narrator who tells you he is invisible. The reader is introduced to the rage that this man is filled. He lives underground and is stealing electricity and listening to Louis Armstrong jazz, particularly “what did I do to be so black and blue”. The introduction is difficult. The narrators rage made me want to put aside this book rather than read it. The introduction sets up the metaphor of invisibility and blindness. Whites refuse to see the narrator. Because he is black, no one sees him. The narrator then begins to tell us his story. He starts out with such hope. He is going to go to college and make something of himself only to find this dream is dashed. He then heads for Harlem and the majority of the book deals with his involvement with the Brotherhood or an ideology that is going to make white and blacks better for their cooperation for the greater good. Through the story, the reader is taken through every stereotype that a black man can face; mugger, southern bumpkin, rapist and savage. The narrator struggles to find his own identity. He learns that ideology is limited and will not save the people but will sacrifice the people for the ideology.

I've read this twice now, the second time was the audio read by Joe Morton. Absolutely fantastic. This book is so rich, I am glad I read it for the second time and now I have to buy this book because there are so many great ideas especially in the last chapter that I need to copy down, highlight and just "own". This book is the foundation for all the other books that I've read this year that address similar issues. It is a testimony to the greatness of this book written in 1950's and sadness that not much has really changed.

In this novel a young, black, undergraduate college student from the South moves north to live in New York City after he is expelled from college near the end of his junior year. He somehow has survived his whole life so far as a seriously naive, trusting soul who has no clue that rich White dudes might not be acting in his best interests. So, when he is handed a stack of sealed 'letters of introduction' to rich White dudes in New York City, and he's told to take a year off of college and gain some life experience up north, he takes all this at face value and heads off on a bus the very next day to enjoy this new adventure he's been granted. And, of course, the reality of his situation is a lot less rosy than he imagines.
I found this book annoying, because of the main character mostly. I know college kids can be awfully naive and dense, but it was still hard to believe that a young man growing up steeped in the heavily racist South, and attending college there, would not have developed some more survival traits in his young life prior to his New York adventure. His trusting nature seemed overly contrived. The situations he finds himself in once in New York might have happened anyway, trusting nature or not, so the story held together, but this was not the best book I have read in the US race relations vein. It was ok, though, probably worth reading, and an interesting perspective on the intersection between race activism and Communist activity during the mid-20th century.
I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads. I did like that this book is set in about the same time as Middlesex, which I read last month, so the 2 books provide different perspectives on the experiences of marginalized people in the US in the same era. And, the activism part of this book makes an interesting comparison with that of Tipping the Velvet. I could definitely see this book as a part of a great literature-based history class.

I gave this book 5 stars and like Kristel, I think that I need to purchase a physical copy of the book to reread again and understand further.
Our young narrator takes us slowly and methodically through his transformation from an incredibly naive and easily manipulated individual, by both circumstances and authority figures, into a man who realizes how invisible he is to white people and becomes full of anger. The narrator has been purposely made to seem contrived in the beginning as in an almost absurdist vein he falls into traps that really any person with any sense would see through. He takes a Mr. Norton on a ride into the worst part of town which (surprise, surprise) makes his principle who needs Mr. Norton thinking highly of his school and his race in order to continue to get his money finds beyond stupid. Again and again our narrator makes these kind of decisions; a decision about a chemical in a paint factory when clearly he had not a clue, he takes a job as a spokesperson when he did not know of the motivations behind The Brotherhood. He decides to adhere to a "yes" strategy toward the white authorities in the brotherhood when only a bit of thought would tell him that it would lead to chaos....When our narrator finally wakes at the end of the book, he realizes not only that he is invisible but that his self of sense is close to invisible to himself. He has no purpose left without the optimistic ideology that he so wanted to believe. He is consumed with rage for the white race which can not see him as an individual and which can not see his race as equal to their own.
Well worth reading again.

This is a novel of powerful ideas, written with such imagery that there are scenes I will never forget. The Invisible Man of the title has decided that he is so because he realises that others are blind to the complexities of the individual. It is beyond sad that the riots about the senseless killing of black people in America has resulted in Black Lives Matter marches in 2020, 70 odd years since this novel was written. It is a novel packed with symbolism. The unnamed narrator goes through several manifestations, memorably becoming mistaken for a colourful conman when he dons dark glasses and a large felt hat. The scenes which I find particularly compelling are the "battle royal" which seems unbelievable but is probably not, and the protagonist's reactions when he arrives in the North and finds that his servile survival tactics are not necessary. I realise that this is a VERY IMPORTANT NOVEL but I found it excruciating to read.

Pre-2017 review:

****

I was expecting something more pamphleteering. But it was not. Instead, we follow the tribulations of a black narrator who is searching for identity as well among white as among black people, from the end of his college days in the Deep South to his efforts in establishing himself in New York. Despite the many messages contained within the narrative and the narrator's experiences, the writing is quite entertaining and very funny at times, especially in the choice of some of the characters' names ("I'd out-Tobitt Tobitt and as for that outhouse Westrum - well.") or places (the Chthonian, clearly referring to the underworld). Its main message is still very relevant not only with respect to the conditions of the black people in the USA, but also to all populations living under leaderships who want at various degrees to (ab)use them.