The Invisible Man
While on the topic of a first novel, did you know "The Invisible Man" is Ralph Ellison's first novel?
I was shocked when I read that. The man paints with words. You would have thought it was his hundredth work.
If you decide to read this book, don't make the mistake I made in ninth grade. I had to do a book report, which I loathed, and I thought, "Hey! A book about an invisible dude, just like those horror movies I saw on TV!"
Nope, not like that at all. I got a few hundred pages in before I realized that the term "invisible man" was a metaphor. Oh well, I liked it much better this time around. And I didn't skip tens of pages at a time like I did in '86.
A nameless black man, his life chronicled from his illusioned days in college to his sobering, premature adulthood. I can't even begin to imagine what it's like to be a black man in the '50s, but this book did a pretty good job of giving me the jist of it.
Read it for the imagery. Ellison's prose is elegant and incisive.
I was shocked when I read that. The man paints with words. You would have thought it was his hundredth work.
If you decide to read this book, don't make the mistake I made in ninth grade. I had to do a book report, which I loathed, and I thought, "Hey! A book about an invisible dude, just like those horror movies I saw on TV!"
Nope, not like that at all. I got a few hundred pages in before I realized that the term "invisible man" was a metaphor. Oh well, I liked it much better this time around. And I didn't skip tens of pages at a time like I did in '86.
A nameless black man, his life chronicled from his illusioned days in college to his sobering, premature adulthood. I can't even begin to imagine what it's like to be a black man in the '50s, but this book did a pretty good job of giving me the jist of it.
Read it for the imagery. Ellison's prose is elegant and incisive.
posted by Bill at 1:51 PM
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