Richard Wright’s most recently published novel is a cause célèbre. The Man Who Lived Underground, originally written in 1941, was rejected by his publisher at the time. Excerpts were subsequently published in a few places, including the posthumously published short story collection Eight Men. Thanks to the Library of America, we now have the complete novel. The story: Fred Daniels is a black servant picked up by the police as a suspect in a murder he did not commit. Brought to the police … [Read more...] about Beyond Black and White
Richard Wright
Wright’s Unbearable Rage
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death! That is truly one of the great rallying cries of all time. (Trivia note: as you know, Patrick Henry is the source of that line. But, he probably cribbed it from Addison’s play Cato: A Tragedy which has the lines: “It is not now time to talk of aught/But chains or conquest, liberty or death.”) Richard Wright’s collection of short stories could well have been entitled with Patrick Henry’s immortal line. Instead, he called it Uncle Tom’s Children. Five stories … [Read more...] about Wright’s Unbearable Rage
Reading Native Son in the 21st Century
Some books get better with age. Native Son is a book like that. The story, originally published in 1940: Bigger, a young black delinquent, gets a job as a chauffeur to wealthy white family, murders the daughter on his first night on the job, does a terrible job trying to cover up the crime, is discovered, flees, murders another girl, is caught, and is put on trial. The book highlights two great divides in American society. First, the Black-White divide. As a historical … [Read more...] about Reading Native Son in the 21st Century