A review by bmatzke
Eight Men, by Richard Wright

4.0

I read this to compare the novel and short story versions of "The Man Who Lived Underground". I know this collection is considered lesser Wright, but I found it to be tremendously captivating. The novel version of "The Man Who Lived Underground" is better, but the story version is still very interesting. It, "Man God Ain't Like That" and "The Man Who Killed a Shadow" all feel like fragments of what should have been longer works. "Man of All Work" is a fantastic piece of dark comedy--at turns sensitive, hilarious, and terrifying. "The Man Who Was Almost a Man", "The Man Who Saw The Flood", and "Big Black Good Man" all feel like parables, and the last in particular feels like it could be a Nathaniel Hawthorne story. And "The Man Who Went to Chicago" is an excellent short memoir. While it's a bit ragged as a collection, it still feels like a very clear articulation of the themes of race and masculinity that run through all of Wright's works.