welcome to...NATIVE(MBER) SON!this is another installment of project long classics, in which i make big old books seem more approachable by making horrible month-based puns about them and reading them in little bits over the course of a month.i'm excited for this one. even though it only has 3 sections so i'm going to have to divvy up by page count.DAY ONEalready i'm forgetting that this was published 85 years ago. i love a classic that never feels old.DAY TWOthe level of foreshadowing here...i'...

How can law contradict the lives of millions of people and hope to be administered successfully? I went on quite the journey with this book. It's not often that I have so many ups and downs with a read-- generally, if I like or dislike a book for the first, say, 25%, that is not likely to change in the remaining 75%. I feel like I could write an essay on everything Native Son took me through.I decided early on that I didn't like it. It made me quite furious, to be honest, and I was listing cr...

“‘Sometimes I feel like something awful’s going to happen to me,’ Bigger spoke with a tinge of bitter pride in his voice. ‘What you mean?’ Gus asked, looking at him quickly. There was fear in Gus’s eyes. ‘I don’t know. I just feel that way. Every time I get to thinking about me being black and they being white, me being here and they being there, I feel like something awful’s going to happen to me…’ ‘Aw, for Chrissakes! There ain’t nothing you can do about it. How come you want to worry yourself...

I've struggled for almost a year to write a review for this book. I think it's so difficult because I just didn't like the way that I felt about it. A main character who is despicable surround by well meaning but ultimately patronizing people who aren't that all fired likeable either. This was easily one of the most uncomfortable and unpleasant reading experiences this year. Normally I would have written this off as terrible but for one thing. Wright has achieved exactly what he set out to do. T...

This book is extremely powerful. I saw another review saying that they could not believe this was written and released in 1940. I agree - as I can only imagine how controversial the content would have been at that time. And, even today it touches so closely on some of the topics you see in the news everyday, it's like Wright could see into the future.The main themes in the story involve perceptions and misconceptions of black people as well as how Communism was viewed in the decade leading up to...

Updating my shelves. I read this in high school for a book report. Being that I'm from the Chicago suburbs originally this was one of my first exposures to life in another part of the city and I found the book to be fascinating. It would be interesting to reread it through adult eyes.

One has got to appreciate the diplomatic mincing of words that graces the GR blurb. "Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America." A distinctly innocuous 'what it means to be black in America' is a nice little euphemism for 'institutionalized racism' or terminology like 'white supremacist capitalist patriarchy' whi...

“These were the rhythms of his life: indifference and violence; periods of abstract brooding and periods of intense desire; moments of silence and moments of anger—like water ebbing and flowing from the tug of a far-away invisible force. Being this way was a need of his as deep as eating. He was like a strange plant blooming in the day and wilting at night; but the sun that made it bloom and the cold darkness that made it wilt were never seen. It was his own sun and darkness, a private and perso...

(SPOILERS!) Reading the first 2 parts of "Native Son," Richard Wright's landmark novel is an absolute thrill. One part Tom Ripley, one part Graham Greene's "Brighton Rock," the antihero always reigns triumphant. But this antihero lacks panache, intelligence, even, perhaps, a conscience... all the character traits of a true villain. So he's somewhere in between. The crimes committed by the much-studied, much-written-about Bigger Thomas are heinous. The character study is super taut and intense. "...

My older brother Larry, who is extremely well-read, recently came to town for a visit. He had with him a copy of Native Son. I asked what prompted him to re-read it. He explained that he had actually never read it before, which he confessed was really odd, given that the book is an undisputed classic. Well, here is Larry's two-word review of the book:Holy shit.I concur.Those who have studied the Harlem Renaissance know that Richard Wright was a passionate, angry man, the writer about whom other ...