Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Invisible Man

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

7 reviews

kari_f's review against another edition

3.0

“Look at me! Look at me!” I said. “Everywhere I’ve turned somebody has wanted to sacrifice me for my good—only they were the ones who benefited. And now we start on the old sacrificial merry-go-round. At what point do we stop? Is this the new true definition, is Brotherhood a matter of sacrificing the weak? If so, at what point do we stop?”

This was a book that I struggled to read and that I’m struggling to review. Packed to the brim with symbolism and cultural significance, I can see why the themes were relevant at the time of writing and remain relevant today. The book covers topics that include race relations and racial inequality (and how those compare and contrast based on the region), the problem with staunch ideologies over the needs of people, systemic oppression, police brutality, tokenism, and the viewing of groups of people as objects or the subjects of voyeuristic whims rather than autonomous humans.

On the other hand, there are some aspects of the book that made it really difficult for me to like. The social commentary sometimes feels heavy handed, and the plot seems secondary to the message. Not that this is bad in and of itself, but the book is around 600 pages and the writing often feels clunky, to the point where it feels like the actual writing was secondary to the commentary. There were also a few huge plot points that involved some pretty terrible ordeals happening that are never really condemned, and it almost feels like said actions were condoned because of this. It might be that I was so put off by the ick factor of them and was hoping for a condemnation that never came.

I felt quite connected to the book toward the beginning, but it felt like it unraveled for the next few hundred pages, and then it picked up again at the end. I knew it wouldn’t necessarily be an enjoyable read given the subject matter, but feeling disconnected enough that I didn’t want to read it for about half of the book was disappointing.

It’s definitely a thought-provoking read, but it’s one I don’t see myself ever revisiting.

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vickymcckey's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is the kind of book that needs a separate book to explain all the references you missed the first time. My advice to anyone reading it who wants to derive as much meaning as possible is to annotate like a nerdy high schooler. Color code references and keep wikipedia by your side to look up any word that seems even a little bit intentional. Because I promise you, it’s all intentional. Parts of this book are disturbing, parts dryly humorous, parts hopeful or sad, but every word has thought behind it.

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littleclerk's review against another edition

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Man describing how impregnates his daughter with his wife in the same bed

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gogglor's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

I know the content warnings are long but you have to read this book. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever read, and it’ a deeply moving, infuriating, enlightening narrative. The only reason it’s not 5 stars is that the thread of misogyny that runs through it runs deep and it’s so deeply frustrating that such an insightful book totally lacks any of that insight when turned on it’s own sexism. But honestly, read it anyway.

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maddiebo97's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

a timely classic that almost feels like it could have been written yesterday. it’s scary how much this book is still relevant.

I wish I would have been able to read it in a class, because I feel like I didn’t get everything out of it that I was supposed to… almost feels like I read it “wrong”. it was a daunting novel that was difficult to pick up. the plot was not difficult to understand, but the plot of this book is definitely secondary. it’s there to deliver the message, but I missed out on the message half of the time.

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sherbertwells's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful informative reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Please read this book?

If you like sharply-drawn, illuminated characters, read this book. If you like thrilling and natural plots, read this book. If you like social commentary that even today rings out like a cymbal: read this book. If you like brilliant narrative voice, strong and haunting motifs, coming of age stories, musical prose—

If you, like me, were assigned to read Ralph Ellison’s “On Bird, Bird-Watching and Jazz” for AP Language & Composition, promptly discovered that Ellison was the best nonfiction prose writer in the whole English language but waited half a year to pick up anything else by him for fear of being disillusioned, only to realize that the only illusions about him were the ones you created by worrying: read this book.

Perhaps that advice is a little narrow.

Let’s start again.

“I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me” (3)

Ralph Ellison’s 1947 novel Invisible Man is the coming-of-age story of a young Black man in the early 20th century, told in flashback from the safety of a sewer where the unnamed narrator is hiding out (don’t worry, no Hugoesque tangents here). He recounts his youth in a small Southern town, his formal education at a Black College and his practical education in Harlem, where he joins a revolutionary group called the Brotherhood. Eventually, he realizes that no institution or theory—from the uplift suasion of the college’s sanctified Founder to the Black nationalism of Harlem agitator Ras the Exhorter—is capable of seeing him as an individual.

Which is a shame, because Ellison’s anonymous protagonist is the best narrator in the English language (yes, better than Humbert Humbert, or at least less despicable and just as eloquent). He’s a little vain, a little angry, hopeful and weary at the worst times but devastatingly smart throughout. By the end of the story, as he learns to see himself and the world around him clearly, I was cheering.

“I faced them knowing hat the madman in a foreign costume was real and yet unreal, knowing that he wanted my life, that he held me responsible for all the nights and days and all the suffering and for all that which I was incapable of controlling, and I no hero, but short and dark with only a certain eloquence and a bottomless capacity for being a fool to mark me from the rest; saw them, recognized them at last as those whom I had failed and of whom I was now, just now, a leader, through leading them, running ahead of them, only in the stripping away of my illusionment”

Heck yeah! Self-actualize!

The story itself is great too, set in a bright, harsh and plausible America under a “veiled sun” of hope and ignorance (450). Every locale is a well-evoked symbol, and every episode contributes and reframes the story’s themes, from the famous “Battle Royale” sequence in the novel’s beginning to the race riot at its end.

Invisible Man is about 570 pags long, and I know that sounds like a lot to get through, but the plot flies by. If you haven’t read a big book in years: read this book. If you’ve read nothing but slow-paced tomes: read this book. If you’ve been assigned Invisible Man in school and are frantically scrolling through online reviews: read this book, not only to please your teacher but because this book is really great. If you’re looking for something to read this February—or March or April or any other month of the year—read this book. If you’re nervous, confused, sad or anything else: read this book. Whatever your age, color, gender, sexuality or philosophy: read this book.

Please. Listen.

“Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?” (572)

P.S. Incidentally, this is the third in a trilogy of “favorite books where a character has a glass eye,” along with Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. I don’t know why this is, but it sure is a great symbol!

Content Warnings

sallytiffany's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is a very long book. There is lots of beautiful writing and fun things to analyze but towards the end of the book, it gets very dry and confusing. I think the author made some excellent points but he also got me lost many times and that was hard to come back from. However, it did go by fast towards the beginning, and with it being almost 600 pages, I am grateful for that.

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