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Summary: One of the most important books of the 20th century.
Review: Their are few works that come along that profoundly say something to it's readers and at the same time entertains them. This is one of them, with a 199 reviews it has all been said, so I'll leave it at this; read this book and walk away with deeper understanding, it's relevance holds as true today as when it was writen.
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Summary: Definitely in the top ten...
Review: .. of American novels written in the twentieth century. Probably the most savage indictment of racial relations in our country ever written. All negative reviews of this should be ignored - they obviously don't get it. And what's not to get - this is a fantastic, wonderfully written piece of literature. It's no wonder Ellison found it so hard to follow this one up. It's a double threat of a novel - not only is it genuinely thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating - it's also entertaining and funny as all hell. ... - yes it is bitter, gloriously bitter, the sort of bitterness that comes from anger stifled and suppressed for too long. America has yet to produce a novel as good as this one. Read it.
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Summary: Harsh Realities...
Review: The Invisible Man is a story of a young southern African-American man and his tribulations through which he discovers society's harsh realities. The book starts with the narrator examining his visibility in life. He claims that to society he is merely a invisible man, a worthless colored man. The book later elucidates to the reader that he did not always feel this way. The feelings were more of culmination of the stunning truths that he learned through a series of hard and misfortunate events. He starts out as a very young and intelligent man in high school who wishes to carve out a prosperous and successful future for himself. He ends up receiving a scholarship to a black college in the south. In his junior year he is expelled for an incident to which was not his fault. Still holding on to a shred of hope he is told that he may return to the college if he moves to New York and earns the years tuition. He arrives in Harlem and begins searching for a job, but is later left betrayed when he discovers that the college never had any intentions of readmitting him. The rest of the book outlines his life in Harlem and takes a close look at the further struggles that bring him to the attitude he possess in the beginning of the book. There were many portions of the book that were difficult to follow due to the diction and style of writing that Ellison uses to develop his story. Yet in the majority of the book Ellison's use of vivid diction and detail only help to bring the book alive as you see the characters and setting of the book take shape in your head. For example, when the narrator receives a job in a paint factory Ellison depicts the scene so clearly and effectively that you can nearly smell the fumes of the paint as you read through the chapter. Ellison also develops the narrator's world through the use of African American dialect, music and folklore. The author has a very unique style of writing in which he is able to clearly set the tone of his book through the usage of his diction, imagery and syntax. Even though there were many dark and disturbing images in this novel I enjoyed being able to look through the eyes of an African-American during that time period and trying to understand what it was like. This book is a must read for anyone who is trying to understand just a small portion of the hardships and harsh realities that many African-Americans experienced after the turn of the 19th century.
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Summary: Good high school reading
Review: This book has a thinly-veiled central theme which is developed through the use of overt symbolism and metaphor. The theme is: Whitey is holding me down. True enough, and Invisible Man is an admirable look at the travails of southern blacks in the early twentieth century. But its use of symbolism beats you over the head like a log, giving it an amateurish feel - a little more subtlety would be desirable. But Ellison does have an excellent sense of style and poetry in his writing.
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Summary: Coming of Age Book of Sorts
Review: First let me say that this book changed my life and I love it so much I re-read it once a year. It's about a black man trying to find his place in the world and ending up in a lot of different situations because of it. At no point in time do you have the main character's name or any real description other than he's black which brings you into the story even more. You absorb the world in the same manner he does and the language is so wonderful. It is a wonderfully written book. I read Native Son the same year I read this book and this one had a much stronger impact on my life.
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Summary: Review of Invisible Man
Review: Invisible Man is one of the best novels that I've ever read. Ralph Ellison's imagery in this book is incredible.
It tells the story of an African-American man, who is the narrator, raised in the south by his grandparents who were freed slaves. Being from the south, the narrator was exposed to segregation and social responsibility. He recieves a scholarship to a negro college but is soon expelled for no fault of his own. Then the narrator moves to New York City and finds himself unable to find employment, because the man who had given out many letters of recomendation on the narrator's behalf, did not speak well of him. Eventually he finds a job at a white paint factory, this was an obvious use of symbolism such as the factories motto,"if its optic white, then its right." The hatred of white the man quickly grew within the narrator. He joined an activist group where he was a spokesman for social equality. Then he eventually is banned from the group but is soon retaken. In the end the narrator is trapped in a man hole by a police officer and after an awful dream, he decides to stay there.
The author definitely captured the "real" side of being a black man in that time.
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Summary: Invisible Man is a waste of time!!
Review: Invisible man by ralph ellison gave me the worst agony of any book i've ever had to read in school. it has absolutely NO plot and it is totally biased. i hated it- and if your under the age of 65 you will too.
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Summary: musical!
Review: Ellison studied music in college, and it shows. The book hangs together like a jazz piece, on an edge so precarious and so exquisite that it blows your mind. The way that themes are layered and build to crescendo after crescendo is amazing! In my view, this book is not merely about race. It seems to be about modernity's influence on the human condition. Racism, in this novel, is just one aspect of a larger problem: a widespread loss of respect for people's integrity, as illustrated by the ...kissing black "professionals," white racists, "social activists," and the confidence man.
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Summary: As layered and nuanced as any novel I have ever read
Review: I first read Ralph Ellison's masterpiece "Invisible Man" in high school and was struck with the enormous number of layers and nuances throughout the book. Having re-read it as an adult, I saw even more than I had as a teenager. Ellison's facility with giving different scenes different levels of meaning is comparable to the great Herman Melville, who constructed "Moby Dick" in much the same manner. Ellison makes his point about the invisibility of blacks in America before you even open the book; the title itself has no article, no "An Invisible Man" or "The Invisible Man," but simply and starkly, "Invisible Man." This simple ommission (or commission, depending on how you want to approach it) sets the story afloat by subtly establishing that the main character is seen to be almost suspended in the ether, noticed not at all by whites until they attribute to him whatever prejudice, odd ideas, or assumptions they have about the black race. In the prologue, Ellison lets his hero (anti-hero?) ramble on and on about different experiences, not telling us directly who he is and what he's like, but leaving it to the reader to do the work of harvesting from this field of memory what impressions he or she can about the character. The story begins with the hero giving a tour of the local county to an important visitor from the college the hero attends. A harrowing firsthand account of incest follows--one of the tensest, most intense scenes I've ever read in any book--and somewhat thereafter, the hero is forced to leave the college. He drifts hither and yon, from country to city, from friend to friend, never quite getting his bearings and not really understanding why. When he finally hooks up with a political group towards the end of the book, you find yourself relieved that he's found some purpose--but even this turns out to be ominous and unfortunate. It's a testament to Ellison's talent (and his willpower) that he ends the book on a hanging note. We don't know what will happen next--we have no sense of it at all. And isn't that entirely Ellison's point?
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Summary: The finest book I have read.
Review: Before my senior year of high school, I did not have the pleasure of reading any African-American literature. In a class entitled "Black Voices," I was introduced to the works of Ellison, Du Bois, Wright, and Douglass, among others. "Invisible Man" was the last book that I read in the class and it was without a doubt the best one.
Dealing with the immense problem of self-realization, the book follows a nameless, black protagonist from the first black college in the South to the streets of New York Ciy. Facing new people and things at every turn, the protagonist must face a world that amazes and horrifies him at the same time. Filled with memorable characters and superb prose, "Invisible Man" is the most unforgettable book that I will probably ever read. The book has had a lasting impression on me and has sparked an interest to read more African-American literature.
For any person, this book will be a powerful and emotiional read that you will ever forget. The highest recommendation I can give.
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