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lovelykd's review
2.0
I read this on the heels of finishing Native Son. Perhaps I shouldn’t have but, to be honest, I expected something better. Something more believable and less condescending.
The beginning of the story grips you—a young man is wrongfully accused of a heinous double murder, arrested, and tortured into signing a confession—but the latter half devolves into something COMPLETELY different.
As much as I wanted to understand the purpose of having Fred Daniels become a different sort of man, once he went underground, I simply couldn’t buy into any of his reasoning.
Fred essentially becomes a child. Within 72-hours, he goes from a man of reason, to being one whose presence has no earthly value. His descent—literally and figuratively—is so profound that I, personally, began to dislike his character altogether.
I could not believe Fred was the same man they’d arrested. I guess that was supposed to be the point? How racism, in the hands of law enforcement, unmoors Black men in ways we can’t see. Turns them into shells of themselves and makes them feel emasculated to the point of becoming infantile and stunted to the point of no longer understanding the point of “following the rules” and abiding by “the status quo” if, ultimately, your person is subject to the whims and judgments of those in charge of maintaining the system.
If that’s the point? Point made. Even so, Fred’s evolution struck me negatively. Not because of the cause—although I was certainly angered—but because of its quick and utter completeness.
Fred may as well have never been born for all the fight he had within himself.
This book won’t change my opinion of Wright but I won’t be recommending it to anyone anytime soon.
The beginning of the story grips you—a young man is wrongfully accused of a heinous double murder, arrested, and tortured into signing a confession—but the latter half devolves into something COMPLETELY different.
As much as I wanted to understand the purpose of having Fred Daniels become a different sort of man, once he went underground, I simply couldn’t buy into any of his reasoning.
Fred essentially becomes a child. Within 72-hours, he goes from a man of reason, to being one whose presence has no earthly value. His descent—literally and figuratively—is so profound that I, personally, began to dislike his character altogether.
I could not believe Fred was the same man they’d arrested. I guess that was supposed to be the point? How racism, in the hands of law enforcement, unmoors Black men in ways we can’t see. Turns them into shells of themselves and makes them feel emasculated to the point of becoming infantile and stunted to the point of no longer understanding the point of “following the rules” and abiding by “the status quo” if, ultimately, your person is subject to the whims and judgments of those in charge of maintaining the system.
If that’s the point? Point made. Even so, Fred’s evolution struck me negatively. Not because of the cause—although I was certainly angered—but because of its quick and utter completeness.
Fred may as well have never been born for all the fight he had within himself.
This book won’t change my opinion of Wright but I won’t be recommending it to anyone anytime soon.
orizenda's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
I feel like I would benefit from reading this book with other people and having others to talk about it with. With the accompanying essay about Wright’s grandmother, that helped some, and having already read Black Boy, that also helps to give me context, but there is obviously a lot going on in this, a lot of symbolism, that probably just went right over my head. I also didn’t particularly like the audiobook narrator? But that’s probably just me. Anyway, overall, incredible. Very important book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, and Police brutality
Moderate: Rape and Murder
lesserjoke's review
4.0
Among the more unexpected surprises of 2021 has been this publication of a new novel by Richard Wright, eighty years after it was rejected by publishers and made available only as a heavily-truncated short story. In this full version, it's a text as challenging and timeless / timely as one might imagine, especially in its early pages, when a young black man is arrested for a rape and murder he didn't commit, beaten and tortured by his police interrogators, and ultimately coerced into signing a false confession. It's not clear if the cops truly believe he's guilty, or whether that even matters. Similarly, once the protagonist manages to escape through an open manhole and begins to witness a surreal sequence of scenes that move with the logic of dreams and bear a distinct resemblance to some of his own recent experiences, it's possible that everything on display is simply the traumatic hallucination of an unreliable narrator.
In either interpretation, the events that follow are disturbing and reflective of the author's commitment to both present the horrors of racism in their totality and avoid reducing his heroes to blameless saints. Fred Daniels is no Bigger Thomas from Wright's famous Native Son, but as he loses his grip on his identity down in the sewers -- if indeed he does -- he finds himself culpable in similar crimes. It all adds up to the tragic end that seems inevitable as soon as the squad car first stops him, a bleak statement which plays out amid sinister apocalyptic vibes. There's no way of knowing how the title would have been received by critics and popular audiences back in the 1940s, but it's a tale well worth checking out now that we finally can.
[Content warning for suicide, gun violence, and slurs.]
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter
In either interpretation, the events that follow are disturbing and reflective of the author's commitment to both present the horrors of racism in their totality and avoid reducing his heroes to blameless saints. Fred Daniels is no Bigger Thomas from Wright's famous Native Son, but as he loses his grip on his identity down in the sewers -- if indeed he does -- he finds himself culpable in similar crimes. It all adds up to the tragic end that seems inevitable as soon as the squad car first stops him, a bleak statement which plays out amid sinister apocalyptic vibes. There's no way of knowing how the title would have been received by critics and popular audiences back in the 1940s, but it's a tale well worth checking out now that we finally can.
[Content warning for suicide, gun violence, and slurs.]
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter
kumipaul's review
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Pretty strong indictment of police racism and corruption. When Fred goes underground, we get lots of symbolism in his scavenging. However, I was baffled by his relationship with his family, and thought that the ending could have been better.
pierreamour's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
4.25
eviemaee's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75