Uncle Tom's Children: Novellas (P.S.)

Richard Wright pulls you into the story to the point of feeling you're actually one of the main characters yourself. It's so compelling that as you're reading you pondering alternative decisions. The events feel so real and your only escape is when you complete the story and close the book.

One’s life in part is determined by the stories we hear, and the narrative(s) we espouse. This is a story that we need to hear; a story we can’t afford to lose; a story that encapsulates a history that some claim never happened.

The "Autobiography of Malcolm X" has more colorfully been characterized as the instant Negro book. This is because has galvanized its readers, black or white, into a more intensely realistic perspective on America's race issue, and what needs to be done about it.But if you are now in your fifties or sixties, this is the book that did it first and less attractively.In an almost casual manner, it consists of vignettes about growing up in the South that alternately chill your blood, rend your heart and stun your senses.Not given to any editorializing or solutions, it presents these horribly everyday situations in a manner that is paralyzingly matter-of-fact by one of America's greatest and otherwise most powerful writers, Richard Wright.As a young lighter-skinned negro growing up in the early sixties, this is the book that caused me to ask the dreaded questions that all black children in America have had to ask as they embark on at a certain too-early age growing up.My step-Grandma's dispassionate, but honest answers to the questions this book demanded, prepared me for the Civil Rights battles that reached a fevered and ultimately successful peak in the long and painful decades to come.

I bought this book for a course of the same name. Class was composed of white aging Baby Boomers. These stories hit hard, often leaving a lump in my throat and a pain in my heart. There was enough in each story to provide over 90 minutes of class conversation. None of us could say that we knew how the characters felt. But we all felt pain for them And further pain because today, this treatment still goes on.

I first read this book in 1946 as a fourteen year old. I have purchased it many times over the last seven decades. I keep all of Wright's works as a part of my library, digital and hard copy. I bought my first copy for twenty five cents at a five and ten cents store in Detroit. I took it home and began reading it on a Friday night and kept reading until I had finished it before Saturday morning. That first story really grabbed me and I became a Wright fan for life. Still looking for a digital copy of The Long Dream. Glad that The Outsider recently became available on Amazon.

Unbelievable yet I know it is true. Hard to imagine that this type of behavior was ever exhibited by any American. This history is just as important to remember as the holocaust.

If white people today have any doubts of the harsh treatment of blacks in the 1900's, read this book. As a matter of fact, read the first 20 pages.I teach this book to my 10th grade English class and my kids love this book! It is an easy read because the stories are so gripping, and the dialogue is written in the southern vernacular of the time. The main reason why high school students need this book now is because not only are the black students losing sight of the past and appreciation for the efforts of black people, but the white students are unaware of the greatest crime in American History after slavery, Jim Crow Ethics. The Hispanic students, Asian students, African students, Indian students and countless other students from different parts of the world also need to read literature that enhances their knowledge of the brutal history of Americans.

This book was published by Harper after winning a 1937 short story contest sponsored by Whit Burnett's Story magazine. 5 of the 6 judges voted for it as the winner. Since Wright's stellar Chicago post office novel Lawd Today could not find a publisher (until 30 years later) this ended up being his first book. Many of the stories were based on interviews Wright did with southerners who had immigrated to Chicago like himself. The prize money amounted to five hundred dollars which was not bad at the time.

For what it's worth I recommend this book to those Quillette and Areo readers who claim to like reason and science and yet would dismiss both if it doesn't fit their worldview. I recommend it to those who argue that black slaves were better off then poor white and never stop to wonder why black people would risk it all for a glimmer of freedom. I recommend it to those who castigate Afro-American for not loving their country and segregating themselves from the rest of society. I recommend it to those who consider that the holocaust was worse than the enslavement of Afro-American and their subsequent exclusion from all sphere of society because according to them Jews had higher IQ. I recommend it to those who decry identity politics, lament over what is according to them the mistreatment of white folk despite their goodwill and yet never stop to think why identity politics can be so attractive to some and grew to the extent it did. I recommend to those who never wonder if their experience and understanding could be so removed from someone else that there could be many things about that someone's life and viewpoints they don't know that don't know.About a month ago, I read Clarence Thomas' biography. Thomas wasn't exactly pro-desegregation of schools due to his harrowing experience in a white school who accepted black children. At some point in the book, Thomas discusses school desegregation with a white lawyer. During this conversation, Thomas comes to the shocking realisation that most white people believe that black people want desegregation because they want to mingle with white folk even though for most black people desegregation was a mean to get a better schooling system for their children. For me this little episode exemplify most white-black relationship. A saddening lack of understanding.I have no real hope that any of the people I mentioned would be moved by this book, but yet I recommend it nonetheless. What is likely to happen is that they will rate the book 1 star, and then proceed to explain how black people truly hadn't had it that bad and argue about our laziness, ego-centrism and lack of work ethic.By the way, I'm far from being pro-identity politics, pro-liberal or anything like that, but I'm tired of the double standard and hypocrisy I keep seeing. I'm tired of being asked to judge people as individuals and yet see that the same treatment is not given in return. I am tired of seeing people being accused of trying to guilt or of being a spoiled snowflakes whenever they want to discuss racism or discrimination. And I'm exhausted of being told that race doesn't matter or that we're pretty much all equal by people who in their daily life most likely have never been treated differently because of their race in the real world.

Great read

Les trois textes qui forment ce beau recueil sont tous intéressants et l'œuvre manifeste d'un grand écrivain. Lawd Today! suit un jeune adulte animé d'une haine envers son amie comme s'il était dévoré de l'intérieur par l'échec et les limitations que le monde de l'Amérique ségrégationniste impose à l'individu noir. Ce texte qui expérimente diverses formes d'écriture moderniste en intégrant récit descriptif, dialogue populaire, manchettes de journaux reste dans son ensemble inabouti et est surtout particulièrement intéressant parce qu'il annonce des ambitions littéraires de Richards Wright.Le deuxième texte, Uncle Tom's Cabin, recueil de nouvelles terribles sur l'expérience de la violence envers les noirs dans le sud des USA, a été une formidable surprise. Les nouvelles sont fortes, d'une grande beauté d'écriture et ont été un moment de pur bonheur littéraire. L'auteur y dévoile l'immensité de son talent.Native Son fut une lecture plus ambiguë. On y retrouve par moment la force de Uncle Tom's Cabin mais les circonstances du meurtre de Mary a une dimension tellement invraisemblable qu'elles m'ont coupé dans l'élan premier de ma lecture. Petit à petit l'histoire et la dimension littéraire de Bigger Thomas a repris le dessus mais je n'y ai pas senti la même force qu'à la lecture des nouvelles.L'ensemble est une belle plongée dans l'univers littéraire d'un écrivain noir américain à retrouver.

まだ読んでいませんで、書店様の丁寧なご対応、装丁に好感を持ちました。