A review by nunchikoi
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

An incredible work by Ellison who manages to balance a magical reality that is also prescriptive to quantum physics; thoroughly examining Black experiences in North America, Ellison uniquely incorporates specific 'Negro-American' culturalisations like folkloric motifs in his story-telling. This results in a magnetic kind of writing which swings between being poetic and clinical, a fictional story which testifies to real historical experiences and events, and a narrator who keeps the reader at arms length but also confides in and almost prays to you.

Through this, Ellison constructs a compelling portrait that his contemporaries otherwise neglected: he demonstrates how Black characters in a novel can be complex and nuanced, with fully-realised moral, philosophical, and intellectual capacities.
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