Product Description
Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952.A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century.The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.Amazon.com Review
We rely, in this world, on the visual aspects of humanity as a means of learning who we are. This, Ralph Ellison argues convincingly, is a dangerous habit. A classic from the moment it first appeared in 1952, Invisible Man chronicles the travels of its narrator, a young,nameless black man, as he moves through the hellish levels of American intolerance and cultural blindness. Searching for a context in which to know himself, he exists in a very peculiar state. "I am an invisible man," he says in his prologue. "When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination--indeed, everything and anything except me." But this is hard-won self-knowledge, earned over the course of many years.

As the book gets started, the narrator is expelled from his Southern Negro college for inadvertently showing a white trustee the reality of black life in the south, including an incestuous farmer and a rural whorehouse. The college director chastises him: "Why, the dumbest black bastard in the cotton patch knows that the only way to please a white man is to tell him a lie! What kind of an education are you getting around here?"Mystified, the narrator moves north to New York City, where the truth, at least as he perceives it, is dealt another blow when he learns that his former headmaster's recommendation letters are, in fact, letters of condemnation.

What ensues is a search for what truth actually is, which proves to be supremely elusive. The narrator becomes a spokesman for a mixed-race band of social activists called "The Brotherhood" and believes he is fighting for equality. Once again, he realizes he's been duped into believing what he thought was the truth, when in fact it is only another variation. Of the Brothers, he eventually discerns:"They were blind, bat blind, moving only by the echoed sounds of their voices. And because they were blind they would destroy themselves.... Here I thought they accepted me because they felt that color made no difference, when in reality it made no difference because they didn't see either color or men."

Invisible Man is certainly a book about race in America, and sadlyenough, few of the problems it chronicles have disappeared even now. But Ellison's firstnoveltranscends such a narrow definition. It's also a book about the human race stumbling down the path to identity, challenged and successful to varying degrees. None of us can ever be sure of the truth beyond ourselves, and possibly not even there. The world is a tricky place, and no one knows this better than the invisible man, who leaves us with these chilling, provocative words: "And it is this which frightens me: Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?" --MelanieRehak ... Read more

Customer Reviews (300)

The invisible common sense
The invisible man should instead be named the man without common sense. The narrator fumbles into one bad situation after another through an idiot savant-like ability. How often can you blame others without looking at yourself?

Invisible no longer...
I first acquired this book compliments of the US Army, while I was in Vietnam. Every 10 days or so,a large box of books would arrive for troops "in the field"; mainly the books were westerners, mysteries, pulp fictions, but bless whoever packed the box, because they always included a few worthwhile one, and one day, down at the bottom of the box, lay Ellison's classic book.

How far we have come now, since the times depicted; and yes, how far we still have to go. I've been re-reading the triumvirate of Black, or Afro-American writers if you will, best known for there searing accounts of the injustices that were still being perpetrated, as a legacy of America's "original sin," slavery, during the days of segregation, legal and de facto. There is Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison, and I'd welcome reader comments if others should be included.

I normally mark the books I read, for memorable passages; concise and pithy formulations; or just beautiful prose. On this re-read, I noticed a mark I made 42 years ago, at the beginning of a paragraph. But there was no corresponding closure mark...until 16 pages later! It was the first time I had ever mark a passage that long - the entire first chapter. Re-reading it again I felt the same awful, horrible unease that I did the first time - that people nominally like me, white men, could do... no, far more than do, derive pleasure from the actions described towards black men and a white woman. It remains a brilliant depiction of the awful corrupting influence of power.

The next chapters are equally disconcerting. The unnamed narrator - invisible, you understand - goes off to a Black college (a thinly disguised Tuskegee Institute?) intent on "succeeding." He plays "the game" to his utmost ability, but "fate" has a different outcome in mind, as he is assigned as the driver to one of the rich, white, Northern trustees. The trustees periodically come South, in part, to feel good about their efforts in funding this educational institution for Blacks. The narrator inadvertently shows the trustee the `underbelly' of Black Southern life. The trustee is profoundly disturbed. Bledsoe, who is the ingratiating, hat-in-hand, President of the college tells the narrator that it was his duty to lie to the Whites, and tell them what they want to hear. The narrator is expelled from college, and is later betrayed by Bledsoe.

There is a prescient observation at the beginning of the chapters involving college life, and it concerns a bronze statue at the front, with a Founding Father figure apparently lifting a veil from the eyes of a slave: "...and I am standing puzzled, unable to decide whether the veil is really being lifted, or lowered more firmly in place." With the emphasis on football, and the coach's salary, so many years later, this observation may well be true of all colleges.

Like so many other Blacks before him, the narrator seeks solace in the North, fleeing to Harlem. He has a stint trying to work in a paint plant, but it is ultimately his visceral oration which occurred when he witnessed the eviction of an elderly Black couple that led him to "The Brotherhood," (a thinly disguised Communist Party?), and his new career as a community organizer (hum, speaking of invisible no longer).

Ellison presents a wide-range of insights into New York, society, and the human condition. One scene describes the simple, almost Proustian pleasures that can be derived from smelling and eating yams on the street. From that he renders now time-honored insights into the Party or as he calls it, the Brotherhood; the endless machinations of those who desire and exercise power on behalf of that wonderful abstraction: "the People." There are two separate sections that address that ancient `taboo', miscegenation; the mutual attractions and dynamics of a white woman - black man relationship way back when it was considered "radical." Ellison also manages to portray the "street-hustlers," in the personification of Reinhart, who is a numbers man, a pimp, and, of course, a preacher too. The climatic portion of the book dealt with the murder of Clifton, as topical as last week's trial in Oakland, whereby a white policeman guns down an unarmed Black man. There was so much anguish in that scene, since Clifton had once been one of the most influential Brotherhood workers on behalf of their youth movement, but had suddenly left, only to be found by the narrator, selling dolls that ridiculed his race.

Numerous quotes are worthwhile, and they may serve as antecedents for similar sentiments in other books, or, they may be derivatives also. Consider: "...as the defeated come to love the symbols of their conquerors."Or, "Play the game, but don't believe in it..." Or, "I could glimpse the possibility of being more than a member of a race." Or, "After the Struggle: The Rainbow of America's Future." (amen). Or, "I'd been so fascinated by the motion that I'd forgotten to measure what it was bringing forth."

I'm evolving my "top ten American novel list," and have identified three others that will make the list for certain; this one will be the fourth, an essential read for anyone concerned with what Gunnar Myrdal once called "The American Dilemma."And shouldn't we all be concerned? A 6-star read.

This printing: Full of typos!
This is NOT an editorial review. The criticism is for the terrible quality of this particular printing. My daughter is reading this book for a class, and she has found an unacceptable number of typos: Letters missing, zero's instead of "o"s, 1'sinstead of L's. Ten dollars is a very reasonable price, but the typo's are distracting in such an intellectually intense work and we would have purchased a different issue if we had known about the poor quality of this one.

A Brilliant, Dark, Complex, and Ambiguous Masterpiece
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is many things, all of them great:one of the twentieth century's best novels, a landmark identity exploration, one of the most brilliantly vivid dramatizations of existentialism and other Post-Modern intellectual concerns, one of the most relevant sociopolitical works since World War II, a revolutionary novel in structural terms that proved highly influential, and a milestone of African American art. It is essential for anyone even remotely interested in such things and, indeed, anyone even slightly concerned with twentieth century literature.

Invisible is often called a "black novel," and while this sells it incredibly short, it has much to admire in this regard. The protagonist and most major characters are black, and the book gives a fascinating peak at mid-century African American culture, especially black intellectuals, political dissidents, early black power movements, and urban blacks.We get a good idea of such movements' ins and outs as well as their members' thoughts, speech, and behavior. The novel memorably deals with many themes of great importance to African Americans, from poverty to racism to identity issues. It is also steeped in black history. However, it is important to realize that Ellison did not set out to write a "black novel" in the sense of Richard Wright or James Baldwin. He was in fact disturbed by those pressing such strict sociopolitical readings, stressing that he wished Invisible could be seen "simply as a novel." To be sure, it has much to say about African Americans and their status then and now and is at least as political in its way as anything overtly meant as such. However, it is extremely complex and ambiguous; critics and readers still debate just what Ellison meant more than half a century later. This was clearly intentional; nearly every aspect of the book has great sociopolitical relevance, but it never even comes close to didactic. Ellison dramatizes supremely meaningful themes and raises many profound questions but knows better than to give answers; that is up to us. As with Zora Neale Hurston, his refusal to take a definite stand on "black" issues did not sit well with the more forceful politically engaged black leaders, but this is to the book's literary benefit. Released in 1952, it is an important link between Modernism and Post-Modernism; its relentless staging of profound philosophical issues with an existential awareness of the impossibility of definitive answers is distinctly Modern, while its political aspect is very Post-Modern. It walks a similar line between African American literature and general literature with the former's trappings and the latter's breadth. The bottomline is that it has the strengths of both and is great on both fronts.

Important as Invisible is to black concerns, it is also grandly universal - politically, philosophically, and otherwise. Above all, it is an eloquent illustration of the underdog in all facets - an extremely vivid account of what it is like to be an outcast in various societies. The Invisible Man symbolizes everyone who is downtrodden, whether from race, class, beliefs, or whatever else. It is thus a supremely searching and stirringly affecting portrait of modern alienation; whether in the rural South or Harlem, the Invisible Man is essentially down and out and in the most fundamental sense alone. There is a strong criminal, even revolutionary, element to his plight that shines a much-needed light on the vast dark side of a mid-century era that many think of as idyllic. A far cry from the official Leave It to Beaver world, it was a loud wake-up call to a complacent society and remains a vibrantly relevant paean to outcasts everywhere.

Many Post-Modern themes abound - paranoia, distrust of authority, etc. -, but identity crisis is preeminent. One of the most truly existential novels, Invisible focuses largely on the prime existential question - how to find oneself in a world where traditional authority, from government to religion, has become extinct. One can no longer rely on higher sources but must find the answer in one's own heart and mind. Invisible is thus a bildungsroman on top of everything else - one's man's struggle to find the answer. Traditional fallbacks fail one after another, and he is left truly alone but not without a certain dignity and even a certain (very unconventional) strength. His fight for true independence has some success, and the self-awareness and clear-sightedness he gains is in many ways at least as valuable as the illusions he loses. Probably no one would want to be him, but all honest thinking people can see themselves in him - a disturbing thought reinforced in the unforgettable closing words. We certainly do not envy him, mainly because we can see ourselves becoming him so easily; he is an extreme version of the darkness that can befall an intelligent, capable person unable to fit into modern society. We identify with the darkness at his heart because we see it in ours - hopefully barely kindled but in danger of becoming a conflagration at any moment, just as his unexpectedly does when he seems on the very brink of success.

Important as the content is, the structure is also integral. The back of the book claims that Invisible gives "an entirely new model of what a novel can be," which is not much of an exaggeration. Non-linear and distinctly anti-realist with a highly symbolic, often surreal plot, it again straddles Modernism and Post-Modernism. This is one of the main reasons that calling it a "black novel" is severely limiting. For one thing, it is highly allusive, referring to many works by non-blacks; Homer's Odyssey is an important source, and Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground and H. G. Wells' Invisible Man are essential antecedents acknowledged by Ellison. Though not near-impenetrable as the likes of Joyce, Faulkner, and Pynchon are at their most abstruse, Invisible is challenging; the content was audacious and is still provocative, and the protagonist is not the usual sympathetic one, but the structure itself is demanding. One can read - and even enjoy - Invisible on a surface level, but those willing to dig deeper and truly engage themselves will get so much more out of it. We must make an effort to identify with the protagonist even when he seems most alien precisely because this is when he is really most familiar, and we must be alive to the frequent symbolism. Those willing to do so will be well rewarded; few novels are broader in scope or more complex in execution, not to mention more thematically meaningful and relevant. Invisible is a masterpiece on every level, making the fact that Ellison never finished a second novel a truly tragic loss to literature; it thankfully stands alone as a towering monument that will make him a literary immortal. It is a canon in itself, essential for anyone struggling with or curious about modernity's unique problems.

Extremely Powerful
Invisible Man is considered a classic of the 20th century.I had avoided it until now as I had a difficult time imagining that I'd enjoy it.It overwhelmed me.This is especially true since was written in the late 40s and early 50s.

The book is about an unnamed African American man from the southern U.S. who is intelligent and seeks to be a role model and exemplary representative of his race.In the 40s and 50s, the concept of representing your race was an expectation as racism was more explicit.

The novel contains many, many extremely vivid scenes.The power really begins with the famous Battle Royal scene.It needs to be read to be fully appreciated.This is where the jarring, hard hitting novel really takes off.

This is followed by an extremely confused scene at a bar called The Golden Day which is chaotic, confusing and exciting.

These two scenes set the stage for many more memorable events that I won't go into but that are equally intense.Race riots, the Paint Factory scene, interracial sex experiences (very controversial for the time), the conflict between the socialist Brotherhood and the more radical black leaders.This book is packed with wonderfully written, unforgettable scenes about a man's struggle in America.

Clearly, from other reviews, this is not everyone's cup of tea but I am surprised several people found this such a chore to get through.I honestly found it to be a page turner and read it very quickly.

I've focused on the intensity of the novel which is a key aspect.This shouldn't take away from the exploration of many underlying themes of racism in America in the 50s that still ring true today.

I think this is a major work and very highly recommend it. ... Read more

Product Description
Compiled, edited, and newly revised by Ralph Ellison’s literary executor, John F. Callahan, this Modern Library Paperback Classic includes posthumously discovered reviews, criticism, and interviews, as well as the essay collections Shadow and Act (1964), hailed by Robert Penn Warren as “a body of cogent and subtle commentary on the questions that focus on race,” and Going to the Territory (1986), an exploration of literature and folklore, jazz and culture, and the nature and quality of lives that black Americans lead. “Ralph Ellison,” wrote Stanley Crouch, “reached across race, religion, class and sex to make us all Americans.”Amazon.com Review
Ellison was a believer in the hybrid nature of Americanculture, a position clearly articulated in the essay "What AmericaWould Be Like Without Blacks." Elsewhere, he writes about the music ofjazzmen CharlieParker and Charlie Christian, the fiction of Richard Wrightand StephenCrane, and about the creation of his novel, Invisible Man thatrocketed him to fame. This book brings together the contents ofEllison's Shadow andAct and Going to theTerritory, as well as a dozen or so other essays and talkspreviously uncollected. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Great American Writer and Thinker
Containing essays and speeches by Ralph Ellison (1914-1994), as well as several interviews with him, this book gives a representative sample of this great American writer's entire career. It's a great read for those interested in American politics, American history, the broad issues of race, American art, literature, and music (jazz especially!), and how much of our American life today was/is shaped by the struggle for racial integration. For the literary minded, Ellison is an extremely talented essayist in the tradition of Thoreau and Emerson, though certainly more down to earth (thank goodness!). You also get a great introduction to Ellison by the late Nobel laureate, Saul Bellow. The essay format in this volume is also very enjoyable: you can just dip in at random and read a whole essay in just half an hour.

A couple favorite passages: "As a kid I remember working it out this way: there was a world in which you wore your everyday clothes on Sunday, and there was a world in which you wore your Sunday clothes every day. I wanted the world in which you wore your Sunday clothes every day. I wanted it because it represented something better, a more exciting and civilized and human way of living, a world which came to me through certain scenes of felicity which I encountered in fiction, in the movies, and which I glimpsed sometimes through the windows of great houses on Sunday afternoons when my mother took my brother and me for walks through the wealthy white sections of the city. I know it now for a boy's vague dream of possibility." (from "That Same Pain, That Same Pleasure: An Interview")

"To put it drastically, if war, as Clausewitz insisted, is the continuation of politics by other means, it requires little imagination to see American life since the abandonment of the Reconstruction as an abrupt reversal of that formula: the continuation of the Civil War by means other than arms." (from "Stephen Crane and the Mainstream of American Fiction")

Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison
The book arrived pretty quickly - much quicker than I expected - and it's in very good condition. No complaints out of this company. It got here quick (it was shipped the next day and arrived about 2 or 3 days later) and there was no problem with the product. I'd recommend them! ... Read more

Product Description
At his death in 1994, Ralph Ellison left behind roughly two thousand pages of his unfinished second novel, which he had spent nearly four decades writing. Long awaited, it was to have been the work Ellison intended to follow his masterpiece, Invisible Man. Five years later, Random House published Juneteenth, drawn from the central narrative of Ellison’s unfinished epic.

Three Days Before the Shooting . . . gathers together in one volume, for the first time, all the parts of that planned opus, including three major sequences never before published. Set in the frame of a deathbed vigil, the story is a gripping multigenerational saga centered on the assassination of the controversial, race-baiting U.S. senator Adam Sunraider, who’s being tended to by “Daddy” Hickman, the elderly black jazz musician turned preacher who raised the orphan Sunraider as a light-skinned black in rural Georgia. Presented in their unexpurgated, provisional state, the narrative sequences form a deeply poetic, moving, and profoundly entertaining book, brimming with humor and tension, composed in Ellison’s magical jazz-inspired prose style and marked by his incomparable ear for vernacular speech.

Beyond its richly compelling narratives, Three Days Before the Shooting . . . is perhaps most notable for its extraordinary insight into the creative process of one of this country’s greatest writers. In various stages of composition and revision, its typescripts and computer files testify to Ellison’s achievement and struggle with his material from the mid-1950s until his death forty years later. Three Days Before the Shooting . . . is an essential, fascinating piece of Ralph Ellison’s legacy, and its publication is to be welcomed as a major event for American arts and letters. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A Great among unfinished novels
I am well into Book 11 of "Three Days before the Shooting" and I am astounded by its overall power as a novel. After "Juneteenth", the editors got it just right this time round. Here we see Ellison at his fullest strength, delving deeply into the meanings and experience of blackness, and the complex of a broader American nativity tempered in the aesthetic sensibilities and religious expressiveness that African Americans bring to it. This surely is Ellison's answer to Joyce's "Ulysses". The traces of Joyce's influence (as far as I've read) clearly occupy both the surfaces and undercurrents of this work. It's a pity that Ellison never had the courage to complete it and publish it. I do wonder if he held on to manuscript and incessantly rewrote it without bringing it to public light, because of a deepseated fear of being vilified as a black writer trying to be overly ambitious. And "Three Days before the Shooting" has, in fact, all the signs of drive and transcendental aspiration that one expects from great and far-reaching prose. This work takes everything on board, from the sounds and rhythms of jazz, the idiomatic styles of African American religous oratory, race relations in America, the burdened history of black identity in America, and experimentation in streams of conscouisness as an unsettling narrative mode. In "Three Days before the Shooting" my guess is that we have one of the first and finest classics of the 21st century.

Literary jazz riff four decades in the making
Ralph Ellison, it turns out, lived the plot of a mid-'60s novel: a little known author and musician, he published his first book at the age of 39. "Invisible Man" was both critically acclaimed and a bestseller. Ellison won the National Book Award, the first black writer to be awarded the most prestigious award in American literature. Now world-famous, Ellison announced in interviews that he had already begun work on his follow-up novel. For the next four decades he labored on that second novel - but he died in 1994 at the age of 80, and the literary waiting game ended too: His anxiously awaited second work of fiction would never be finished, never be published.

Yet now we have "Three Days Before the Shooting," a massive volume that compiles all the lengthy interlocking segments of the manuscript, along with other fragmentary alternate versions of the story. Editors John F. Callahan and Adam Bradley have performed a labor of love, devotion and mind-numbing scholarship: They have combed through Ellison's countless handwritten papers and computer discs to knit together a coherent, cohesive and lumberingly powerful book by one of the United States' preeminent writers.

The story involves the assassination of a race-baiting U.S. senator with a peculiar past. As a "little boy of indefinite race," Senator Sunraider was raised in rural Georgia by Alonzo Hickman, a one-time jazz player turned preacher. Well, that's the basic set-up of the story, anyway. What we actually have is a turning, twisting narrative that can't stop itself from spiraling outward to other characters, other voices, till the story begins to evoke a tapestry of 20th century American passions and madness -- a vast cloth with holes in the weaving whose ragged thread ends were never tied off.

Usually we speak of the architecture of a novel. With "Three Days Before the Shooting... ," it is possible to talk of its archeology: the '50s, with its basic plot outline and its references to "Negroes" and "that white Cadillac convertible;" the '60s, when Ellison grew less sure of his world and more defiant toward it; the '70s and '80s, when the novel's setting, now historical, became once again easier to delineate.

Listen to a few short horn bursts:

"`So she started trying to dance and, gen'lmens, it was like what they call a 'ca'astrofee.' Juiced as she was and with all those goldbacks hanging around her belly, she was like somebody made out of soft rubber and no bones."

"He lay on his back, looking up through the turbulent space to where the bullet-smashed chandelier, swinging gently under the impact of its shattering, created a watery distortion

Three Days Before The Shooting
The great American novel is the white whale for American writers.In his uncompleted second book, //Three Days Before the Shooting//, Ralph Ellison personifies the quest for the great American novel and how difficult it can be. After the success of his first novel, //Invisible Man//, Ralph Ellison spent the next forty years trying to complete his second novel, the so-called "Oklahoma novel."What we have instead are basically two stories which, when combined together, are a novel almost in its completed form.

The story revolves around the shooting of a white racist senator in Washington, by a black man in gallery.From there, the book shows how the senator became so racist by dipping into the past when he was known as Bliss and was being raised by the Reverend Hickman in the South.With Hickman at his bedside, the senator relives his memories of his time with Hickman before he ran away and finally became the racist senator.

The second plot in the collection follows a white reporter as he waits in the hospital near the senator for word about the senator's condition, wondering why the senator would want Hickman at his side.It is a story of the consciousness of race in America and the impact it can have on the psyche of the nation.Combine these two stories and you get Ellison's masterpiece.

The editors have done a wonderful job of putting this together from the fragments that Ellison has left over the decades.After the two stories, you get into the mind of Ellison's thinking, the editors present fragments of scenes that did not make it into the rest of the main story; as well as individual scenes rewritten two to three times. Some of the differences are minor and others are major.Even though Ellison had difficulty finishing the book and left it unfinished, it might be better that way. The story is left up to the reader in how it will end.

The writing is like listening to jazz, with stops and starts, long solos and wild percussion.The language is varied between people and even between scenes.You go from the deep South, to the far north.It is a work that goes across generations and cultures.Yet, at its core, it is looking for what America truly is, and it never did quite got there, which is why Ellison left it unfinished.This is why Ellison is such a great writer, not just because he published //Invisible Man//, but because he made something greater than that with this book.

Reviewed by Kevin Winter

Well worth reading
I'm about half way through this wonderful collection. This is a very frustrating book because you can see how close Ellson got to finishing what would have been his masterpiece. It reminds me of All the Kings Men, it's that good. It's snowing outside. No school. Coffee. An unfinished epic. Life is good.

Finally, it's in my hands.
Finally finally finally.. it's in my hands.I have been waiting for years and years for
someone to publish Mr. Ellison's unfinished manuscript.. I only wish they would have
published it just as it existed.. in his writing.. just photographed the whole thing.
Though I have it on my shelf, I had refused to read Juneteenth because he didn't put it
out.. and someone else had decided what he meant.. I would rather have this 1100 page
monster than have someone elses idea of what he meant.. anyway.. I got it!! finally and
I'm enjoying it.. I only hope the rest of his writings are also published..

Peace. ... Read more

Product Description
Written between 1937 and 1954 and now available in paperback for the first time, these thirteen stories are a potent distillation of the genius of Ralph Ellison. Six of them remained unpublished during Ellison's lifetime and were discovered among the author's effects in a folder labeled "Early Stories." But they all bear the hallmarks--the thematic reach, musically layered voices, and sheer ebullience--that Ellison would bring to his classic Invisible Man.

The tales in Flying Home range in setting from the Jim Crow South to a Harlem bingo parlor, from the hobo jungles of the Great Depression to Wales during the Second World War. By turns lyrical, scathing, touching, and transcendently wise, Flying Home and Other Stories is a historic volume, an extravagant last bequest from a giant of our literature.Amazon.com Review
Though he was the author of two highly regarded collections ofessays, Ralph Ellison's fame rests on his prize-winning novel Invisible Man. Foryears, he labored on another novel, but he died in 1994 with it stillunpublished. Here, Ellison's literary executor, John F. Callahan,collects 13 stories, many of which are published for the firsttime. The stories give us an intriguing look at Ralph Ellison'sdevelopment as a writer (some early ones, for example, clearly showthe influence of Hemingway), and his early attempts to articulate hisconcerns about the nature of blackness and the American identity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

At Home with Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison's "Flying Home and Other Stories" apparently is the first posthumous collection to be published by his estate.And it is a remarkable collection at that.There are thirteen stories here, six of which had never been published before.The editor, Professor John F. Callahan, did a fine job at choosing the stories to be included, and he describes the fascinating selection process in the book's introduction.Professor Callahan includes three early Buster-and-Riley stories which inspired me to write my short story, "Los Angeles, 1970" (Outsider Ink at: http://outsidermedia.com/00/spring/olivas.html).The Buster-and-Riley stories capture the wonderful and lively banter between the two boys while showing how the racism of the real world touches and affects their childhood.There is also "A Party Down at the Square" which is a chilling story told in the first person by a white boy who witnesses the burning of an African-American man.Each story is well-crafted and powerful in its understatement.Ellison's graceful and evocative language paints a picture of human strength and frailty with the same honest, unflinching brush.Though he is best remembered for his novel, "Invisible Man," this collection demonstrates that he was also a brilliant craftsman of the short story.

Flying is easy if there is no buzzard on the way
Ralph Ellison is a great writer. In this collection of old short stories we see him grow and develop under our own eyes. He deals with the problem of racial relations and of race definitions with a tact and humor that make some of his stories extremely funny. But some others are dramatic and deal with a more general and abstract matter. The title story is typical of that. A black pilot is confronted to all kinds of reactions, from his dead father, from a vulture that crashed his plane, from the white owner of the field where he crashes, from the blacks who try to solve his problem : he broke his ankle in the accident. The father is being humorous about heaven and white Saint Peter. The white owner is deeply racist and brings two « nurses » from a psychiatric hospital since a black man has to become crazy if he flies. The black witnesses are just trying to help the poor fallen pilot without getting any antagonism from the white owner, which is not exactly easy. In each story we find such situations that bring racism to the fore or that reveals the « education » a black man has to go through to become « adapted » to this racist society, to make himself, if not invisible, at least unconspicuous. Those stories are worth a little voyage into this writing that we see building itself stone by stone. Of course the real walls are the novels, but here are the handy tasks that shaped Ralph Ellison's hand and pen for the novels. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.

Uneven, but good for Ellison fans
I read this book recently after devouring Invisible Man. I have to say, though, that I was a little dissappointed by this book. Curiously enough, a lot of these stories weren't published in Ellison's lifetime, and with someof them, it's evident why. A few of the stories are juvenile, not at allcomparable to Invisible Man, and by the same token, a few of them arespectacular pieces of prose. So, with this volume, I advise you to treadcarefully, but read it all the way through. The gems are worth it, despitethe failures.

Great stories for the Ellison fan
This collection of stories is a must read for those who treasure to work of Ellison.In these short works, the voice that would give us Invisible Man can be seen developing.They are not as powerful or as deep as his great novel, but they do offer an entertaining and meaningful read.Thelengthy introduction is informative and insightful. When I first readInvisible Man, I could swear that I heard jazz as I read.Callahanexplains Ellison's musical background which convinces me that I heard thejazz in Ellison's words by design. These works carry the same music. ... Read more

Product Description
This casebook features ten distinctive, provocative, and original essays in addition to a generous sampling of Ellison's comments on the novel. A number of the latter are from letters never before published; also published for the first time is Part II of Ellison's 'Working Notes on Invisible Man,' an undated exposition of his author's intentions likely written in 1946 or 1947. The ten essays are a selection of the most perceptive and comprehensive essays written on Invisible Man during the last thirty-five years, including an essay by Kenneth Burke, which began as a letter to Ellison about the novel even before its publication in 1952. Also among the essays is Larry Neal's 'Ellison's Zoot Suit,' in which he finds the novel an exemplary enactment in fiction of the 'black aesthetic.' The essays explore topics of narrative form, classical and vernacular points of reference, and the relationship between the themes of love and politics. Taken together with Ellison's 'Working Notes' and later commentary on the novel, the volume accounts for the continuing appeal of Invisible Man more than fifty years after its publication. An editor's introduction and a full bibliography accompany the essays, selections from Ellison's writings, and informal statements on his novel. The volume offers a rich variety of interpretations of Invisible Man for students and scholars of Ellison. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great collection of critical essays!
I found the essays contained in this book to be very useful to quote in my *Invisible Man* research paper.The essays are great; their authors have very interesting ideas about the novel.Whether you're genuinely interested in *Invisible Man*, or you're forced to write a research paper about it, this book is a good one to have. ... Read more

Product Description
Invisible Man, published in 1954, was Ralph Ellison's masterpiece and strongly influenced the rest of his life. He was known for his refusal to be categorized as a "black writer." Learn more about Ellison with this text, which includes an extensive biography of the author, literary criticism, a list of works by and about the author, and more.

This series is edited by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University; Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Professor of English, New York University Graduate School; preeminent literary critic of our time. The lives of the greatest writers of the world are explored in the new series Bloom’s BioCritiques. In addition to a lengthy biography, each book includes an extensive critical analysis of the writer’s work, as well as critical views by important literary critics throughout history. These volumes are the perfect introduction to critical study of the important authors currently read and discussed in high schools, colleges, and graduate schools. ... Read more

Product Description
Before Ralph Ellison became one of America’s greatest writers, he was a musician and a student of jazz, writing widely on his favorite music for more than fifty years. Now, jazz authority Robert O’Meally has collected the very best of Ellison’s inspired, exuberant jazz writings in this unique anthology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Must Have for Those Seeking A Literary Exploration thru Jazz
Ellison remains one of the finest writers on jazz to have ever taken pen to paper."Living with Music" is living proof, even though he is no longer with us.This book is ideal for readers seeking a literary exploration through jazz. In addition to Ellison's writings, Robert O'Meally's introduction offers keen insight into the style of jazz culture.

I wouldn't recommend this book to readers looking for an introduction to jazz.For that, I would suggest sticking to liner notes, writings by musicians, and objective writers.However, for those who are looking to explore the whole of jazz culture, that moves beyond the listen, you'll thoroughly enjoy the read.My personal favorite is "Cadillac Flambe.""The Charlie Christian Story" contains some of my favorite quotes on jazz culture.

Surprisingly dull and dry
With a reputation like Ellison has, I would expect his writings on jazz to be full of writerly insight which would bring to life the music as seen through the eyes of someone very perceptive. This is not the case. Instead, the book is a series of difficult, dry, mostly trivial essays culled together by, it seems, an editor with a taste for publishing something that would sell and impress rather than something worth reading.

Many essays in this book are reviews of obscure recordings or ruminations on artists most people haven't heard of. Most of the writings also date from the late 50's, giving the content a lack of perspective to our modern ears. Ellison also comes across as somewhat of a curmudgeon, disdaining "modern" jazz and "so-called rock and roll" (his term), adding yet another layer of unreliability.

Ultimately, I found myself skimming through essays I either didn't understand, or didn't care to. Much more relevant and lively jazz essays can be found in numerous other books.

The ultimate disappointment, I think, is that the book doesn't make me want to listen to jazz. It convinces me I don't understand it. ... Read more

Product Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER

"[A]n extraordinary book, a work of staggering virtuosity. With its publication, a giant world of literature has just grown twice as tall."--Newsday

From Ralph Ellison--author of the classic novel of African-American experience, Invisible Man--the long-awaited second novel. Here is the master of American vernacular--the rhythms of jazz and gospel and ordinary speech--at the height of his powers, telling a powerful, evocative tale of a prodigal of the twentieth century.

"Tell me what happened while there's still time," demands the dying Senator Adam Sunraider to the itinerate Negro preacher whom he calls Daddy Hickman. As a young man, Sunraider was Bliss, an orphan taken in by Hickman and raised to be a preacher like himself. Bliss's history encompasses the joys of young southern boyhood; bucolic days as a filmmaker, lovemaking in a field in the Oklahoma sun. And behind it all lies a mystery: how did this chosen child become the man who would deny everything to achieve his goals? Brilliantly crafted, moving, wise, Juneteenth is the work of an American master.

Amazon.com Review
InvisibleMan, which Ralph Ellison published in 1952, was one of thegreat debuts in contemporary literature. Alternating phantasmagoriawith rock-ribbed realism, it delved into the blackest (and whitest!) corners of the American psyche, and quickly attained the status oflegend. Ellison's follow-up, however, seemed truly bedeviled--not onlyby its monumental predecessor, but by fate itself. First, a largesection of the novel went up in flames when the author's house burnedin 1967. Then he spent decades reconstructing, revising, and expandinghis initial vision. When Ellison died in 1994, he left behind some2,000 pages of manuscript. Yet this mythical mountain of prose wasclearly unfinished, far too sketchy and disjointed topublish. Apparently Ellison's second novel would never appear.

Or would it? Ellison's literary executor, John Callahan, has nowquarried a smaller, more coherent work from all that rawmaterial. Gone are the epic proportions that Ellison so clearlyenvisioned. Instead, Juneteenth revolves around just twocharacters: Adam Sunraider, a white, race-baiting New England senator,and Alonzo "Daddy" Hickman, a black Baptist minister who turns out tohave a paradoxical (and paternal) relationship to his oppositenumber. As the book opens, Sunraider is delivering a typically bigotedperoration on the Senate floor when he's peppered by an assassin'sbullets. Mortally wounded, he summons the elderly Hickman to hisbedside. There the two commence a journey into their shared past,which (unlike the rest of 1950s America) represents a true model ofracial integration.

Adam, we discover, was born Bliss, and raisedby Hickman in the bosom of the black community. What's more, thisrabble-rouser was being groomed as a boy minister. ("I tell you,Bliss," says Hickman, "you're going to make a fine preacher and you'restarting at just the right age. You're just a little over six andJesus Christ himself didn't start until he was twelve.") The portionof Juneteenth that covers Bliss's ecclesiasticaleducation--perhaps a third of the entire book--is as electrifying asanything in Invisible Man. Ellison juggles the multiple ironiesof race and religion with effortless brilliance, and his delight inHickman's house-wrecking rhetoric is contagious:

Bliss,I've heard you cutting some fancy didoes on the radio, but son,Eatmore was romping and rampaging and walking through Jerusalem justlike John! Oh, but wasn't he romping! Maybe you were too young to getit all, but that night that mister was ten thousand misters and hisvoice was pure gold.

None of this is to assailEllison's artistry, which remains on ample display. The problem isthat Callahan's splice job--which well may be the best onepossible--remains weak at the seams. So should readers giveJuneteenth a miss? The answer would still have to be no. Thebest parts are as powerful and necessary as anything in ourliterature, evoking Daddy Hickman's own brand of verbalenchantment. "I was talking like I always talk," he recalls at onepoint, "in the same old down-home voice, that is, in the belovedidiom... [and] I preached those five thousand folks into silence." Ellison, too, is capable of preaching the reader into silence--andthat's not something we can afford to overlook. --James Marcus ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

A Masterpiece
A novel about the truth as seen through the eyes of a fiction--indeed, the truth, to Ellison, was always suspect to the lie and again, as in the phrase the emancipation myth, where freedom wasn't given by the law but the law was only subject to the people who inforced it as truth, and thus Juneteenth, as the title of the last great work by an even greater artist, seems to be apt, for it suggests this dichotomy that Ellison was to work in all of his career.

Always a symbolist at heart, Ellison demonstates in Juneteenth the potential of words to turn even the most innocent of scenes on its head, fleshing out the meaning of slavery in something so unrelated as a circus as when Daddy Hickman takes Bliss to the circus, and Bliss innocently asks how come the lions don't catch the trainer, and Daddy Hickman explains that the lions are mastered. And with that small amount of information, the reader is instantly transported into the real scene Ellison wants his reader to notice. Of course, the genius of all this is Ellison's use of the word "mastered" instead of "trained," as that one word becomes the window through which we begin to see the ritual of the circus as having the potential to speak to us about the deeper convention of race.

And that is Ellison par excellent, for he is always using unrelated events to talk about other things.

There are so many things that can and should be said about Juneteenth that I could never exhaust the subject. Not that I am trying to, but one thing is for sure, those who have an intimate knowledge of Shadow and Act, and Going To The Territory and of course Invisible Man will see the influence of those books on Juneteenth. In scene after scene, Ellison calls up his references like a bandleader calls on the Brass section to riff on the beat, to live in the music, and Ellison, in Juneteeth, is more than anything else, living inside himself, inside the basement of Invisible Man, inside all of the history of literature and once in a while he peeks out at us, peeks as from a glass darkly to see if it okay to come out and play.

Juneteenth
A little known book. This could be the American novel that transends time and place. The characters and descriptions are of the depth that is rarely described in modern literature.

Great American Novel
This could well be the great American Novel that was anticipated. The ideas are powerful and cross racial bounderies. Ellison is a master and re-creates moods with skill. He glorifies the commonplace.

Brilliantly Disappointing
Although Ralph Ellison's prose is masterfully, I found the body of work within Juneteenth to be disjointed and nonlinear in scope. Perhaps in someways it parallels Joyce's Ulysses, but falls woefully short of the mark.

Not Finished, but Neither Is the Fight Against Racism
Much of the attention surrounding this posthumously compiled and titled novel Juneteenth, has focused on it's unfinished nature. True, in many spots the prose is difficult and plot trasitions are hard to follow. However, Ellison's mastery of the language and his awareness of race relations in the US, make this novel, though unfinished, a poignant follow up to Invisible Man. Ellison, via Callhoun's splicing, delves into the possibilities for equality among races, and the hope that one day we might all, black and white, be led out of the bonds of slavery and into a glorious promised land. Unfortunately, in Ellisons rendering, that Moses is sick and dying, and desperately in need of remembering who he is and where he came from. The end of the novel, although it may be abrupt and full of more questions than answers, might actually be closer to the truth than Ellison might have hoped to achieve. It leaves us as readers to ponder who we are and what we think the outcome might be (infact the last of his notes suggests this kind of relationship of this novel to his redaers). Is racisim truly an eternal bond that we shall never be free of? As in the novel, the answer is up to you. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (300)

The invisible common sense
The invisible man should instead be named the man without common sense. The narrator fumbles into one bad situation after another through an idiot savant-like ability. How often can you blame others without looking at yourself?

Invisible no longer...
I first acquired this book compliments of the US Army, while I was in Vietnam. Every 10 days or so,a large box of books would arrive for troops "in the field"; mainly the books were westerners, mysteries, pulp fictions, but bless whoever packed the box, because they always included a few worthwhile one, and one day, down at the bottom of the box, lay Ellison's classic book.

How far we have come now, since the times depicted; and yes, how far we still have to go. I've been re-reading the triumvirate of Black, or Afro-American writers if you will, best known for there searing accounts of the injustices that were still being perpetrated, as a legacy of America's "original sin," slavery, during the days of segregation, legal and de facto. There is Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison, and I'd welcome reader comments if others should be included.

I normally mark the books I read, for memorable passages; concise and pithy formulations; or just beautiful prose. On this re-read, I noticed a mark I made 42 years ago, at the beginning of a paragraph. But there was no corresponding closure mark...until 16 pages later! It was the first time I had ever mark a passage that long - the entire first chapter. Re-reading it again I felt the same awful, horrible unease that I did the first time - that people nominally like me, white men, could do... no, far more than do, derive pleasure from the actions described towards black men and a white woman. It remains a brilliant depiction of the awful corrupting influence of power.

The next chapters are equally disconcerting. The unnamed narrator - invisible, you understand - goes off to a Black college (a thinly disguised Tuskegee Institute?) intent on "succeeding." He plays "the game" to his utmost ability, but "fate" has a different outcome in mind, as he is assigned as the driver to one of the rich, white, Northern trustees. The trustees periodically come South, in part, to feel good about their efforts in funding this educational institution for Blacks. The narrator inadvertently shows the trustee the `underbelly' of Black Southern life. The trustee is profoundly disturbed. Bledsoe, who is the ingratiating, hat-in-hand, President of the college tells the narrator that it was his duty to lie to the Whites, and tell them what they want to hear. The narrator is expelled from college, and is later betrayed by Bledsoe.

There is a prescient observation at the beginning of the chapters involving college life, and it concerns a bronze statue at the front, with a Founding Father figure apparently lifting a veil from the eyes of a slave: "...and I am standing puzzled, unable to decide whether the veil is really being lifted, or lowered more firmly in place." With the emphasis on football, and the coach's salary, so many years later, this observation may well be true of all colleges.

Like so many other Blacks before him, the narrator seeks solace in the North, fleeing to Harlem. He has a stint trying to work in a paint plant, but it is ultimately his visceral oration which occurred when he witnessed the eviction of an elderly Black couple that led him to "The Brotherhood," (a thinly disguised Communist Party?), and his new career as a community organizer (hum, speaking of invisible no longer).

Ellison presents a wide-range of insights into New York, society, and the human condition. One scene describes the simple, almost Proustian pleasures that can be derived from smelling and eating yams on the street. From that he renders now time-honored insights into the Party or as he calls it, the Brotherhood; the endless machinations of those who desire and exercise power on behalf of that wonderful abstraction: "the People." There are two separate sections that address that ancient `taboo', miscegenation; the mutual attractions and dynamics of a white woman - black man relationship way back when it was considered "radical." Ellison also manages to portray the "street-hustlers," in the personification of Reinhart, who is a numbers man, a pimp, and, of course, a preacher too. The climatic portion of the book dealt with the murder of Clifton, as topical as last week's trial in Oakland, whereby a white policeman guns down an unarmed Black man. There was so much anguish in that scene, since Clifton had once been one of the most influential Brotherhood workers on behalf of their youth movement, but had suddenly left, only to be found by the narrator, selling dolls that ridiculed his race.

Numerous quotes are worthwhile, and they may serve as antecedents for similar sentiments in other books, or, they may be derivatives also. Consider: "...as the defeated come to love the symbols of their conquerors."Or, "Play the game, but don't believe in it..." Or, "I could glimpse the possibility of being more than a member of a race." Or, "After the Struggle: The Rainbow of America's Future." (amen). Or, "I'd been so fascinated by the motion that I'd forgotten to measure what it was bringing forth."

I'm evolving my "top ten American novel list," and have identified three others that will make the list for certain; this one will be the fourth, an essential read for anyone concerned with what Gunnar Myrdal once called "The American Dilemma."And shouldn't we all be concerned? A 6-star read.

This printing: Full of typos!
This is NOT an editorial review. The criticism is for the terrible quality of this particular printing. My daughter is reading this book for a class, and she has found an unacceptable number of typos: Letters missing, zero's instead of "o"s, 1'sinstead of L's. Ten dollars is a very reasonable price, but the typo's are distracting in such an intellectually intense work and we would have purchased a different issue if we had known about the poor quality of this one.

A Brilliant, Dark, Complex, and Ambiguous Masterpiece
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is many things, all of them great:one of the twentieth century's best novels, a landmark identity exploration, one of the most brilliantly vivid dramatizations of existentialism and other Post-Modern intellectual concerns, one of the most relevant sociopolitical works since World War II, a revolutionary novel in structural terms that proved highly influential, and a milestone of African American art. It is essential for anyone even remotely interested in such things and, indeed, anyone even slightly concerned with twentieth century literature.

Invisible is often called a "black novel," and while this sells it incredibly short, it has much to admire in this regard. The protagonist and most major characters are black, and the book gives a fascinating peak at mid-century African American culture, especially black intellectuals, political dissidents, early black power movements, and urban blacks.We get a good idea of such movements' ins and outs as well as their members' thoughts, speech, and behavior. The novel memorably deals with many themes of great importance to African Americans, from poverty to racism to identity issues. It is also steeped in black history. However, it is important to realize that Ellison did not set out to write a "black novel" in the sense of Richard Wright or James Baldwin. He was in fact disturbed by those pressing such strict sociopolitical readings, stressing that he wished Invisible could be seen "simply as a novel." To be sure, it has much to say about African Americans and their status then and now and is at least as political in its way as anything overtly meant as such. However, it is extremely complex and ambiguous; critics and readers still debate just what Ellison meant more than half a century later. This was clearly intentional; nearly every aspect of the book has great sociopolitical relevance, but it never even comes close to didactic. Ellison dramatizes supremely meaningful themes and raises many profound questions but knows better than to give answers; that is up to us. As with Zora Neale Hurston, his refusal to take a definite stand on "black" issues did not sit well with the more forceful politically engaged black leaders, but this is to the book's literary benefit. Released in 1952, it is an important link between Modernism and Post-Modernism; its relentless staging of profound philosophical issues with an existential awareness of the impossibility of definitive answers is distinctly Modern, while its political aspect is very Post-Modern. It walks a similar line between African American literature and general literature with the former's trappings and the latter's breadth. The bottomline is that it has the strengths of both and is great on both fronts.

Important as Invisible is to black concerns, it is also grandly universal - politically, philosophically, and otherwise. Above all, it is an eloquent illustration of the underdog in all facets - an extremely vivid account of what it is like to be an outcast in various societies. The Invisible Man symbolizes everyone who is downtrodden, whether from race, class, beliefs, or whatever else. It is thus a supremely searching and stirringly affecting portrait of modern alienation; whether in the rural South or Harlem, the Invisible Man is essentially down and out and in the most fundamental sense alone. There is a strong criminal, even revolutionary, element to his plight that shines a much-needed light on the vast dark side of a mid-century era that many think of as idyllic. A far cry from the official Leave It to Beaver world, it was a loud wake-up call to a complacent society and remains a vibrantly relevant paean to outcasts everywhere.

Many Post-Modern themes abound - paranoia, distrust of authority, etc. -, but identity crisis is preeminent. One of the most truly existential novels, Invisible focuses largely on the prime existential question - how to find oneself in a world where traditional authority, from government to religion, has become extinct. One can no longer rely on higher sources but must find the answer in one's own heart and mind. Invisible is thus a bildungsroman on top of everything else - one's man's struggle to find the answer. Traditional fallbacks fail one after another, and he is left truly alone but not without a certain dignity and even a certain (very unconventional) strength. His fight for true independence has some success, and the self-awareness and clear-sightedness he gains is in many ways at least as valuable as the illusions he loses. Probably no one would want to be him, but all honest thinking people can see themselves in him - a disturbing thought reinforced in the unforgettable closing words. We certainly do not envy him, mainly because we can see ourselves becoming him so easily; he is an extreme version of the darkness that can befall an intelligent, capable person unable to fit into modern society. We identify with the darkness at his heart because we see it in ours - hopefully barely kindled but in danger of becoming a conflagration at any moment, just as his unexpectedly does when he seems on the very brink of success.

Important as the content is, the structure is also integral. The back of the book claims that Invisible gives "an entirely new model of what a novel can be," which is not much of an exaggeration. Non-linear and distinctly anti-realist with a highly symbolic, often surreal plot, it again straddles Modernism and Post-Modernism. This is one of the main reasons that calling it a "black novel" is severely limiting. For one thing, it is highly allusive, referring to many works by non-blacks; Homer's Odyssey is an important source, and Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground and H. G. Wells' Invisible Man are essential antecedents acknowledged by Ellison. Though not near-impenetrable as the likes of Joyce, Faulkner, and Pynchon are at their most abstruse, Invisible is challenging; the content was audacious and is still provocative, and the protagonist is not the usual sympathetic one, but the structure itself is demanding. One can read - and even enjoy - Invisible on a surface level, but those willing to dig deeper and truly engage themselves will get so much more out of it. We must make an effort to identify with the protagonist even when he seems most alien precisely because this is when he is really most familiar, and we must be alive to the frequent symbolism. Those willing to do so will be well rewarded; few novels are broader in scope or more complex in execution, not to mention more thematically meaningful and relevant. Invisible is a masterpiece on every level, making the fact that Ellison never finished a second novel a truly tragic loss to literature; it thankfully stands alone as a towering monument that will make him a literary immortal. It is a canon in itself, essential for anyone struggling with or curious about modernity's unique problems.

Extremely Powerful
Invisible Man is considered a classic of the 20th century.I had avoided it until now as I had a difficult time imagining that I'd enjoy it.It overwhelmed me.This is especially true since was written in the late 40s and early 50s.

The book is about an unnamed African American man from the southern U.S. who is intelligent and seeks to be a role model and exemplary representative of his race.In the 40s and 50s, the concept of representing your race was an expectation as racism was more explicit.

The novel contains many, many extremely vivid scenes.The power really begins with the famous Battle Royal scene.It needs to be read to be fully appreciated.This is where the jarring, hard hitting novel really takes off.

This is followed by an extremely confused scene at a bar called The Golden Day which is chaotic, confusing and exciting.

These two scenes set the stage for many more memorable events that I won't go into but that are equally intense.Race riots, the Paint Factory scene, interracial sex experiences (very controversial for the time), the conflict between the socialist Brotherhood and the more radical black leaders.This book is packed with wonderfully written, unforgettable scenes about a man's struggle in America.

Clearly, from other reviews, this is not everyone's cup of tea but I am surprised several people found this such a chore to get through.I honestly found it to be a page turner and read it very quickly.

I've focused on the intensity of the novel which is a key aspect.This shouldn't take away from the exploration of many underlying themes of racism in America in the 50s that still ring true today.

I think this is a major work and very highly recommend it. ... Read more

Product Description
This absorbing collection of letters spans a decade in the lifelong friendship of two remarkable writers who engaged the subjects of literature, race, and identity with deep clarity and passion.

The correspondence begins in 1950 when Ellison is living in New York City, hard at work on his enduring masterpiece, Invisible Man, and Murray is a professor at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Mirroring a jam session in which two jazz musicians "trade twelves"—each improvising twelve bars of music around the same musical idea-their lively dialog centers upon their respective writing, the jazz they both love so well, on travel, family, the work literary contemporaries (including Richard Wright, James Baldwin, William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway) and the challenge of racial inclusiveness that they wish to pose to America through their craft. Infused with warmth, humor, and great erudition, Trading Twelves offers a glimpse into literary history in the making—and into a powerful and enduring friendship.
Amazon.com Review
Some friendships spring instantly to life, while others require a lengthy period of germination. The rapport between Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray fits into the second category. Both attended the Tuskegee Institute in the fall of 1935, and while they were never formally introduced, Murray recallsbeing impressed by his fellow student's formidable intellect, not tomention his snappy wardrobe. It wasn't until 1947, however, that theirrelationship got rolling. The two shared a love for jazz and photographyand the American vernacular, along with a comically skeptical view of thesocial sciences. They were also joined by a sense of literary vocation that seems truly bracing in our own age of ironic retrenchment: "He and Iconceded nothing to anybody," recalls Murray, "when it came to definingwhat is American and what is not and not yet."

Their intention was to create a "universally appealing American epic."Ellison delivered his epic, Invisible Man, in 1952,while Murray's arrived on the installment plan, parceled out among ninebooks andthree decades. Yet this divergence in their careers, which mighthave easily divided them into literary turtle and hare, never made a dentin their friendship--a fact amply testified to by the letters collected inTrading Twelves. The title refers to the old custom whereby jazzsoloists would lob 12-bar phrases back and forth, upping the ante with eachexchange. Murray and Ellison seem similarly energized by their epistolarycutting contest. Here's the latter on the as-yet-unpublished InvisibleMan, which he describes in surprisingly gutbucket terms:

For me it's just a big fat ole Negro lie, meant to be told during cottonpicking time over a water bucket full of corn, with a dipper passing backand forth at a good fast clip so that no one, not even the narratorhimself, will realize how utterly preposterous the lie actually is.

Customer Reviews (3)

"If Mose takes advantage of his own sense of reality he doesn't have to step back for anybody"
The above quote is from one of Ralph Ellison's letters to Albert Murray and it summarizes both of these two men's positions on both art, as well as their outlook on African-American advancement in this country. I found this book to be extremely inspring, partly because these two men are/were very brilliant, partly as black history, partly as literary criticism, and very much for the fact it changed my conception of these two men. While these two cats are seen in the public imagination as some sort of conservatives in American culture, their letters show them to be two men very involved in black vernacular expression and very understanding and apprecieative of regular, as Sly Stone said, "Everyday People", and also, as people who show great disdain for bourgeise pretensions.

One of the striking things for me about this book is the fact that both of these men are older than my father, who was born in the thirties. It totally explodes my misconceptions about black people before 1954 (Brown vs Board). While messrs. Murray and Ellison talk about many issues pertaining to blacks and that include prejudice, they are in no way limited by racism, and it only periphirally comes up during their letters. Their focus is on how black expression is deeply ingrained in the American sensibility. And this is prior to the advent of Elvis Presley and Rock & Roll (for the most part). Jazz and Blues of course are the primary conduits of this. But the two also discuss Willimam Faulkner and Ernest Hemingwayand Mark Twain in terms of how the motif of the black American influences their work.They're fans of great writers like Andre Malraux, Dostoyevsky, and James Joyce, and in their work they see parallels in their work to the black struggle and want to in their work describe the black experience with the same type of literary mastery.

Also very heartwarming is these two mens concern for each other and each others families. It's big fun to follow their adventures through Europe and the United States and the insights they get from them. Not to mention their love of cameras and photography.

What impressed me the most about this book though, besides the literary/cultural concerns which resound throughout all of these writers work, is the down home, city slicker, hipster black language and viewpoints of Albert Murray and Ralph Ellison. In their own way, they remind me of the "keep it real" hip hop generation and the "no sellout" soul/black power generation. In one example, Ellison tells Murray that Murray is the type of cat who would, "eat chitlins at the waldorf (astoria)", and that he'd do it not just to "slum" or "keep it real", but becuase he thought they were as good a food as any other. These two cats exemplify that old black, old American goal of not fogetting where you comefrom.As black intellectuals, they also have their times when they're very disdainful of black bourgeise institutions.

As an example in one instance of discussing response to Ellisons "Invisible Man", Murray refers to "...also saw Jet (magazine)'s expected stupidity. This reminds me of a line Chuck D said in Ice Cube's "Endangered Species", "When we die, then we'll make Jet." In several instances Murray and Ellison talk about things that prefigure the attitudes of hip hop. And I know this is ironic becuase Stanley Crouch, a disciple of these two men, is one of the most vocal black critics of hip hop in the world today. Examples of this are definetly these two men using the "b" word at certain points,Ellison actually takes being called a "hell of a n...." as a compliment, and Murray uses the "n-word"to denounce his former employees at Tuskeegee. Of course these men are not gratuitous with this type of language, but they take poetic liscence with them (as the greatest of tasteful M.C's like Chuck D, B.I.G, Tupac, Nas, Daddy Kane etc.) do. They totally explode the silliness of some of the cultural gatekeepers in the black community that these words should never be uttered. As artists they don't look at words morally, they use them were they fit. However they do use them with taste, and being middle aged men and educated men, they don't hafe to use them for every other word. But some of the language in this book is proof to me that the hip hopgeneration by no means came up with this lingo on their own, we got if from our pops, and uncles, and men in the community. However, we could also get a good lesson in taste, and how to take our "chitlins to the waldorf" from these two cats.

If you love black history, get this book. If you want to see the genesis of the modern African-American mentality and how it relates to the old, get this book. If you want fresh literary perspectives, get this book.If you want an example of black intellectuals who didn't forget where they came from, get this book. If you want inspiration for your own art, run and get this book, becuase in the words of Albert Murray:

"Maybe I really broke the bed down, and then maybe I ain't done nothing but hit it a lick and promise. Maybe I ain't no certified cocksman yet, but that g-ddamn chick is pregnant due: you examine her. Maybe i'tll be a nine-pounder and maybe we'll hafe to put it in an oxygen tank, and maybe it'll be a f*c***g miscarriage; you examine it....

a must read
I could not put this down. It is a funny, warm, and insightful jam session on the subjects of literature, jazz, and American culture. This is a must have for any student of those subjects. It's also gives fascinating background into the lives and intellectual development of these literary giants.

Music on the Page
This is an excellent book. Fans of Ellison and Murray will appreciate the intimate look at the lives of these writers that can be gained from readingthe letters published in this work. Moreover, the call and response natureof the letters beautifully mimic that which can be heard in some of theclassic jazz and gospel songs of America. You'll have a hard time puttingthis one down... ... Read more

Product Description
Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952.A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century.The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Joyce, and Dostoevsky. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
This book is amazing hands down. I love the ideas of invisibilty, blindness, and oppression. However, the seller did not state that they wrote into the book and the prolog was written on. Also some other pages had foot notes inserted by the previous reader. All in all, after looking over those minor problems, good book.

Intensity for the Black Experience in America
I'm a white guy who just finished reading "Invisible Man."This is a classic work of 20th century American literature.The narrator of the novel, told in first person, is never named.What a concept!After all, he's invisible, right?This young black man starts out in the South and then moves to New York City, circa the 1940s (even the time frame in this book is hard to figure.)The leading character constantly gets into trouble for doing the right thing or just being honest.At times, his adventures seem the stuff of bad acid trips or journeys through an "Alice in Wonderland" kind of world populated by people spouting intellectual sophistry if not outright b.s.He joins "the Brotherhood" whose members are white and black, its politics cynical and pragmatic.This group pays him money to give speeches and be an administrator.But he eventually discovers their true motives.The narrator's only friends are the married white women who throw themselves at him for purposes of stud, his only bad karma in the book.Yet he's certainly a likeable, introspective fellow, a Kafka-esque victim of society. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

memoirs from a unique brotha
not merely a statement on being a black man in america, but on being a man period. ellison is not a militant negro nor is he a white man's negro. he is a free spirit whokeeps his mind open to art , music, and life. i lovedall the essays. he had cosmopolitan background growing up in oklahoma city, the product of middle-class parents. he read all types of literature, not just one kind and became a writer, simply by accident. his true love washis music. the middle third of this book proves this is the essays he wroteabout jazz and opera, especially his loving tributes to milton's playhouse and charlie parker. he was a true renaissance man, who never lost the common touch. conquering any challenge that came his way...

First Class Act: Shadow of a Giant Mistaken for Invisible
Ralph Ellison, the musician and the author of the extrememly well-conceieved and paced novel "Invisible Man" (a rare instance wherein the plotting falls perfectly in sync with the decsriptive; falling, as with the eloquence and precision of the inernal mechanics into the ornate casing of a timepiece; a statement as much as a parody concering perceptions), here provides many surprises, all attesting to the immensity of his talents and array of his interests: There are articles on Jazz, BeBop, and some of best first-hand renderings upon the scene as it had developed at a period between literal non-accepatnce to a greater receptability; Eliot, as in the author's pechant and interest for the motifs, messages and stylistic of "The Wasteland"; Faulkner and the South; Historic American literary recurrances involving language, rythmic and individual, and some very valuable and erudite selections whose range -both autobiographic and literary- are as indispensable as they are of true merit and eloquence. This edition (and it is a shame there had not been more!), legitimizes the talents and perspectives of a gifted author whose legacy -although saddly never fully realized- shall always stand above any field of the discordant (as in the Wasteland), ringing more true than any pause between a jazz riff's sometimes-disquieting
strains. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Invaluable Resource for in-depth research
Eric Sundquist's book is an invaluable resource for information when trying to understand the background of Invisible Man.This is the place to start if you're doing research on the novel.Not only does Sundquist present the prolific sources that Ellison used and referenced through the novel, the editor also provides additional resource materials for each reference.It's wonderful if you're writing a research paper, and helpful for the curious reader who wants to be even further convinced of Ellison's genius. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Ellison's blistering and impassioned first novel, winner of the prestigious American National Book Award, tells the extraordinary story of a man who is invisible 'simply because people refuse to see me'. Yet his powerfully depicted adventures - from a terrifying Harlem race riot to his expulsion from a Southern college - go far beyond the story of one man. The lives of countless millions are evoked in this superb portrait of a generation of black Americans. ... Read more

Product Description
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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Great book!Amazing performance!
I bought this audiobook because the novel is on just about every list of great books of the 20th century.I was not disappointed. And Joe Morton's performance heightens the power of the story.

AWESOME READING
Mr. Morton should get an award for his reading! the different voices he uses, his pauses, the emotion rendered in his voice. quite remarkable. brings the material alive. i hope mr. morton gets the recognition he deserves.

Invisible Man dissapears!
I'm listening/reading along with this CD/Book for an honors English class.
It's the only way I can get through the assignment.Narrator is pretty good - makes the length of the book bareably.I'm on disk 5 and it will be listening for a long time. The story is getting better, so if you're reading/listening, don't give up hope.

ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!
An inspiring reading from Joe Morton. I had read the book, however when I listened to this audio version during a long road-trip I felt as if I had discovered the work anew. Joe Morton's performance is wonderful beyond words.

I have listened to a lot of audiobooks, but this is my favorite!

A beautiful and moving reading by Joe Morton
Joe Morton's narration of Invisible Man is remarkable. He brings individual voices to dozens of characters. This was my first exposure to a great, great book and I am grateful that I heard it rather than read it. The impact of Morton's reading will stay with me for a long time.
... Read more

Product Description
Ralph Ellison's 1952 novel Invisible Man is one of the most important controversial novels in the American canon and remains widely read and studied. This Companion provides the most up-to-date introduction to this influential and significant novelist and critic and to his masterpiece. It features newly commissioned essays, a chronology and a guide to further reading. The essays recover the compelling urgency and relevance of Ellison's political and artistic vision. Students and scholars of American and African-American literature will find this work invaluable. ... Read more

Product Description
Author, intellectual, and social critic, Ralph Ellison (1914-94) was a pivotal figure in American literature and history and arguably the father of African American modernism. Universally acclaimed for his first novel, Invisible Man, a masterpiece of modern fiction, Ellison was recognized with a stunning succession of honors, including the 1953 National Book Award. Despite his literary accomplishments and political activism, however, Ellison has received surprisingly sparse treatment from biographers. Lawrence Jackson's biography of Ellison, the first when it was published in 2002, focuses on the author's early life.

Powerfully enhanced by rare photographs, this work draws from archives, literary correspondence, and interviews with Ellison's relatives, friends, and associates. Tracing the writer's path from poverty in dust bowl Oklahoma to his rise among the literary elite, Jackson explores Ellison's important relationships with other stars, particularly Langston Hughes and Richard Wright, and examines his previously undocumented involvement in the Socialist Left of the 1930s and 1940s, the black radical rights movement of the same period, and the League of American Writers. The result is a fascinating portrait of a fraternal cadre of important black writers and critics and the singularly complex and intriguing man at its center. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A complete Ellison Bio
This biography is a must have for all Ellison fans.I could barely put it down to sleep!

Brilliant!
I loved this bio of Ellison, the first to be published, and its focus on the early years.The writing is top-notch and Jackson has clearly done exhaustive research to uncover an amazing amount of fascinating detail.Belongs in any reader's collection devoted to American and African American literature and history.

Ralph Ellison: Emergence of a Genius
This is the most detailed look at Ellison's life that I've seen. This biography covers his path from poverty in Oklahoma to becoming part of the literary elite in the early 1950's. The author examines Ellison's involvement in the black rights movement and his relationships with Langston Hughes and Richard Wright. From start to finish, this is a fascinating read. ... Read more

Product Description
Ralph Ellison has been a controversial figure, both lionized and vilified, since he seemed to burst fully formed on to the national literary scene in 1952 with the publication of Invisible Man. In this volume Steven C. Tracy has gathered a broad range of critics who look not only at Ellison's seminal novel but also at the fiction and nonfiction work that both preceded and followed it, focusing on important historical and cultural influences that help contextualize Ellison's thematic concerns and artistic aesthetic. These essays, all previously unpublished, explore how Ellison's various apprenciceships--in politics as a Black radical; in music as an admirer and practioner of European, American, and African-American music; and in literature as heir to his realist, naturalist, and modernist forebears--affected his mature literary productions, including his own careful molding of his literary reputation. They present us with a man negotiating the difficult sociopolitical, intellectual, and artistic terrain facing African Americans as America was increasingly forced to confront its own failures with regard to the promise of the American dream to its diverse populations. These wide-ranging historical essays, along with a brief biography and an illustrated chronology, provide a concise yet authoritative discussion of a twentieth-century American writer whose continued presence on the stage of American and world literature and culture is now assured. ... Read more