An Exploration Of Old Book Reviews

For my independent reading novel, I have chosen to explore Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. When I made this selection I mixed up the H.G Wells story of the same name I have read in the past, where a scientist accidently makes himself invisible and gets into some fun antics. So imagine my surprise when I grab the copy of Ellison's version off the shelf, flip it over and read the reviews given.

"Ellison has talent and so far he has managed to stay away from being first a Negro, he is still first a writer. I think that he will go far." -William Faulkner.

"The most impressive work of fiction by an American Negro which I have ever read... Mr. Ellison is a finished novelist who uses words with great skill..." -Orville Prescott, The New York Times.

And some others in the same vein...
Now I quickly realized my mistake in book choice, but these reviews really stuck with me. This book was originally published in 1947, a time when black people were still fighting for rights, but a long time after the end of slavery, and yet these established and well respected authors are acting as if an "American Negro" writing a "finished novel" is a completely shocking and revolutionary idea. And yes it is true they are doting his praise, the fact his race needs to be such a focus was rather shocking to me.

But beyond these almost-racist reviews, there is one other one that is so pretentious I could not pass mentioning it:
"A resolutely honest, tormented, profoundly American book.. Invisible Man belongs on the shelf with the classical efforts man as made to chart the river Lethe from its mouth to its sources." -Wright Morris.
The river Lethe is used in The Divine Comedy as the place where our sins are forgiven and forgotten before entering heaven, so he is saying that this book is up there with our classic attempts to trace the human condition through time. Just wonderful.

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