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Title: Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man (Maxnotes Series) by Research and Education Association Staff, David M. Gracer ISBN: 0-87891-021-2 Publisher: Research & Education Assn Pub. Date: September, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $3.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.23 (221 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Greatest
Comment: Ellison is the Muhammad Ali, the colossus of fiction - I have never experienced a work of art in ANY medium as rich, provocative and poignant as "Invisible Man." Bar none, be it painting, sculpture, theater, film, poetry... One of the best, most succinct ways I can think of relaying the impact of IM is the way we speak on the street, by saying: That's deep.
Most of the "reviews" I've read here simply recount the many plot situations and/or entirely lack the depth to "get" what Ellison is doing as an artist and human being. For if nothing else, Ellison's work is unique in this respect: it reverberates on SO many levels to so many different kinds of people...
Athletes have a way of talking about when they can do no wrong, when every shot goes in the basket, or the baseball looks as big as a watermelon - They say that they're "in the zone." THAT's what IM is.
It's THE American story by an artist at the height of his powers, in the zone...
Rating: 2
Summary: Invisible Man
Comment: To be quite honest the book, "Invisible Man" was not what I expected. First, it's entirely too long, somewhat boring, a little confusing and terribly disturbing to me. I thought it was going to be mostly about a man isolating himself from the world. To my surprise the book is about a black man and the struggles he endures because of his race. There are many parts of this book that I found upsetting, one in particular is when the young man (narrator) is asked to deliver his speech, the one he had given at his graduation. This speech he must now deliver to some important white men, and ends up having to watch a nude women dance, then given clothes for the purpose of fighting blindfolded in a ring with other black kids. After being assaulted by these kids he has to fight a very large black boy who beats him. After that match the boys are paid with coins that are placed on an electric mat for the sole purpose of embarrassing the boys again in front of the white men. Finally, the boy is asked to deliver his speech which ends up being only a few drunk white men listening. Throughout this book, the Invisible Man goes through his life suffering because he will not conform to others expectations. By the end of the book he realized he will always have to struggle with the racial issue. Believing he will never be seen as the man he knows, he gives up and goes underground to become the Invisible Man. I will not recommend this book to anyone I know.
Rating: 2
Summary: Why am i reading this?
Comment: Throughout reading this book I found myself questioned with "Why and I reading this". Although very well written, I felt that it took the author 3 pages to say something that could have been said in a half of a page. When I first picked this book to read, I thought that it would be about an African American man and his struggles in slavery, not some agitator who ultimately gives up on everything he worked toward to become and invisible man in society that lives in solitude. What kind of message is this book sending out? Is it to give up on your dreams, hopes, and aspirations? That is ultimately what I got out of the book. After reading this book I became unsure of whether or not I actually understood it's meaning. Maybe this was why I found a strong dislike for the book. Some parts in this book struck me as rather odd. The scene in the beginning of the book is what I found most peculiar. This is where the narrator is young and is asked to deliver his speech, made at his graduation, to a group of important white men in his community. When the narrator arrives he is forced to watch a naked woman dance and is then given clothes, which to his dismay are for the purpose of fighting blindfolded in a portable boxing ring with other young black kids. After brutally being attacked many times by other kids, he is left alone in the ring with a much bigger black boy and is forced to fight him. The other boy wins and after their match, the boys are "paid" with coins and a few bills that are placed on and electrified mat which purpose is to embarrass the boys even further in front of the white gentlemen. Only after all of this torture is he instructed to give his speech, which only a few of the drunken gentlemen listened to. I myself could have done without this scene. I saw no relevance or purpose to it being in the book other than to inform the readers that he is a gifted public speaker with much to say, which was established many pages before this inappropriate scene. A few other scenes such as when we (the readers) find out about Jim Trueblood and how he impregnated his daughter, the accident and the Liberty Paints plant where the narrator ends up at the hospital and the doctors are unsure of what to do, and the seduction by a white women's rights activist whose husband didn't notice some black man sleeping with his wife made me stop reading and say to myself, "what the heck!?" I did not understand why scenes such as the ones mentioned above were written.I feel that one word that would best describe this book in my opinion is pointless. Maybe I just couldn't grasp the true meaning of this book, or maybe it really was terrible. I will never know, but I do know that I enjoyed this book the least out of all the books I ever read.
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Title: The Invisible Man (Cliffs Notes) by Durthy A. Washington ISBN: 0764586564 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: 01 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston ISBN: 0060931418 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Beloved by Toni Morrison ISBN: 0452280621 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ISBN: 0684801523 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin ISBN: 0440330076 Publisher: Laure Leaf Pub. Date: 10 November, 1985 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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