Juneteenth : A novel

Rating:
Summary: Deeply felt message about race--too bad it's not finished
Review: This book reads exactly like what it is: a book Ellison worked on off and on for most of his life, and never finished. Only after he died did someone piece together his drafts into a "finished" novel. Of course, it isn't finished--or Ellison would have sent it off to the publisher himself. This explains why it meanders forever in spots, and doesn't have (in my opinion) a satisfactory end.

All that aside, I don't agree that this book is "unreadable" or a waste of time. Ellison always had powerful things to say about race in America, and a mastery of language to bring to the task.

Ellison's point in Juneteenth is that Blacks are martyrs in their acceptance of the suffering imposed on them by whites, and that whites are irredemably evil--and, if I read the end right, damned to spend eternity in hell as a result.

Apparently this is true even if whites "see the light", are reborn black, and raised black--as Bliss--one of the books two real characters--as, most obviously through nightly staged "resurrection" out of the coffin, but at least symbolically at birth, and then again when he suffers an almost fatal illness as a very young child. Despite these early influences, as soon as Bliss reached adolesence, he abandoned blacks, turned white, and became a populist racist demagogue politician.

In contrast, Daddy Hickman (the other character) undergoes his own salvation (turning, through the influence of Bliss' birth and near fatal illness) from a life of a road musician to become a man of god. Even as a traveling preacher, he becomes more Christ-like, in contrast to the typical portrayal in literature (and movies) of white evangilists as charltain hustlers. In the end, Daddy Hickman apparently has the power to reach right into hell to try to save (yet again) Bliss from the eternal fire. It is, of course, unclear whether Hickman succeeds in saving Bliss, but similarly it is unclear (I think this is Ellison's underlying message) whether white America is beyond salvation.

On one level, this is a book about the unsettled state of race relations in America. On another level, the story of Bliss is the oft told story of balck and white friendship which is inevitably destroyed at adolesence (triggered here by a white female movie star).

I thought Juneteenth was interesting, certainly has a well defined point of view on American race relations, and continues (in spots) Ellison's powerful way with words. But clearly this is not a finished novel, and no one should expect that it is when they pick it up.

Rating:
Summary: Deeply felt message about race--too bad it's not finished
Review: This book reads exactly like what it is: a book Ellison worked on off and on for most of his life, and never finished. Only after he died did someone piece together his drafts into a "finished" novel. Of course, it isn't finished--or Ellison would have sent it off to the publisher himself. This explains why it meanders forever in spots, and doesn't have (in my opinion) a satisfactory end.

All that aside, I don't agree that this book is "unreadable" or a waste of time. Ellison always had powerful things to say about race in America, and a mastery of language to bring to the task.

Ellison's point in Juneteenth is that Blacks are martyrs in their acceptance of the suffering imposed on them by whites, and that whites are irredemably evil--and, if I read the end right, damned to spend eternity in hell as a result.

Apparently this is true even if whites "see the light", are reborn black, and raised black--as Bliss--one of the books two real characters--as, most obviously through nightly staged "resurrection" out of the coffin, but at least symbolically at birth, and then again when he suffers an almost fatal illness as a very young child. Despite these early influences, as soon as Bliss reached adolesence, he abandoned blacks, turned white, and became a populist racist demagogue politician.

In contrast, Daddy Hickman (the other character) undergoes his own salvation (turning, through the influence of Bliss' birth and near fatal illness) from a life of a road musician to become a man of god. Even as a traveling preacher, he becomes more Christ-like, in contrast to the typical portrayal in literature (and movies) of white evangilists as charltain hustlers. In the end, Daddy Hickman apparently has the power to reach right into hell to try to save (yet again) Bliss from the eternal fire. It is, of course, unclear whether Hickman succeeds in saving Bliss, but similarly it is unclear (I think this is Ellison's underlying message) whether white America is beyond salvation.

On one level, this is a book about the unsettled state of race relations in America. On another level, the story of Bliss is the oft told story of balck and white friendship which is inevitably destroyed at adolesence (triggered here by a white female movie star).

I thought Juneteenth was interesting, certainly has a well defined point of view on American race relations, and continues (in spots) Ellison's powerful way with words. But clearly this is not a finished novel, and no one should expect that it is when they pick it up.

Rating:
Summary: A Glimpse at Greatness
Review: While Ellison's skill as a stylist is undeniable (on the level, possibly, of even Joyce or Proust), and while with INIVISIBLE MAN he may have very well written one of the ten greatest books of the 20th century, what we have in his long-awaited, highly anticipated follow-up is nothing but a "momentary glimpse" at the greatness it could have been.

One cannot help but wonder what JUNETEENTH would have been like had the original copy not burned in Ellison's legendary house fire. Would it, in fact, even have been called JUNETEENTH? Callahan says he believes this is what Ellison intended to title his multi-volume epic, but we will never know. It is merely speculation. It is an "editorial decision," as is the whole book. And therein lies the problem with the novel.

JUNETEENTH is a monumental testament to the power of friendship and editorship (Callahan and Ellison). I am not denying the bravery and dedication it had to have taken Callahan to sort through all the disparate notes, and passages of dialogue, and sections of narrative told in the bits and pieces that Ellison left behind, and then to dare to somehow put it all together in some sort of coherent form. It was a monumental task, and Callahan is to be commended. But the final result is messy, incomplete, and largely unsatisfying.

As the editor of an unfinished volume, Callahan was left with making authorial decisions on the line of narrative structure, and character development development, etc. He had to repeatedly ask himself (as editor) questions that only an author can fairly ask, and so I'm afraid the book is finally more Callahan's than Ellison's.

While there are scenes in JUNETEENTH that hint at Ellison's lyrical and haunting brilliance, the "jigsaw puzzle" effect of the storyline is finally disappointing, leaving me with a mixture of emotions--sadness that Ellison never lived to finish his great life work, and anger that JUNETEENTH, as we have it, is a novel that maybe never should have been published.

Rating:
Summary: Blair Underwood reading adds a resonance to Ellison's words
Review: While the first (of four) tapes begins as a traditional "reading", the actor in Underwood soon emerges in response to Ellison's literary power. He "becomes" Reverend Hickman and you begin to visualize Juneteenth on the stage. Powerful rendition of a remarkable symphony of words.

Rating:
Summary: Well worth the effort required to know.
Review: Yes, his work is difficult to embrace and truly know. Yet, the effort is well rewarded. Perhaps the best method to know the work is through the audiotape read by Blair Underwood. One might say that Underwood does justice to this sometimes elusive literary masterpiece or, in balance, that this novel allows the expression of the the performance genius of Blair Underwood. This is a hard-studied, finely tuned work of art performed by this gifted actor. After having "studied" Invisable Man, I had learned that one simply does not read Ralph Ellison but must strive to understand genius and to "hear the rhythm and the beat". That is the attitude one must bring to Juneteenth. And then the rewards will flow. If nothing else, buy this tape presentation for Tape 2, Side B, where Underwood gives a remarkable performance of Reverend Hickman's explanation of the essense of the Juneteenth celebration. If I were an educator, I would make it a mandatory part of the curriculum.