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shannonohannessian's review against another edition
5.0
An ugly, painful, & truly unforgettable story.
proflyer06's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
heidipolkissa82's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
n0vel_ideas's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
chaetrain's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Stuck between a 4.25 and a 4.5 for this one.
let me tell you this was one of, if not, the most stressful book(s) i’ve ever read in my entire life. the experience of reading the first and second section was akin to a typical experience for me watching a suspense film or tv show where i literally need to leave the room for twenty minutes except in this case i cannot leave the room and the stressful part is much longer than twenty minutes, something i nearly never experience reading a book. my friend threw this book at the wall three times.
i am gonna be controversial and say i am a sucker for the simple, clean, telling style of richard wright. i also feel like bigger (for the most part) is written with such clarity. there are sections where i feel like wright is doing to bigger what he renders the other characters in the book as doing, also- treating him as an allegory or symbol rather than as an individual himself. and it’s a bit heavy handed in this, which does seem to be wrights style. however for at least the first two sections and most of the third i’m there with bigger, with his thoughts, with his feelings that violence is the only way with which he is able to exert any agency. i think the critiques of wright as depicting a stereotypical version of an angry, violent Black man just kind of don’t make sense to me??? because the point is to make Bigger as terrible and unredeemable as possible is to 1) point toward the conditions that produce these kinds of stereotypes 2) to express the conscientiousness with which limited agency is desired and seized by bigger and 3) that being carceral is being bad no matter what !!!
upon some reflection and discussion i think it also is an excellent if at times heavy handed critique of “good white people”- to make bigger such an awful person and the daltons, jan, max, and mary all well meaning white people who all stupidly believe that they are being kind to bigger or can make a difference for him is exceptionally smart.
okay IT MUST BE NAMED that much of this is royally fucked by max’s speech which takes up almost thirty pages of the last section. max’s speech feels like a bad summary of the book, like wright is trying to beat you over the head with the idea that bigger was produced by his circumstances. it’s just unnecessary and i think a huge disservice to the rest of the book. a generous reading of wright might be the fact that max is doing what all the other characters in the book do to bigger, treat him as a symbol. and a representation of something bigger, exploiting him just as everyone else does. but even in this case there’s something so grotesque about the way wright writes biggers reaction to the speech- suddenly making him so unaware of what’s going on and stupid after writing him as smart and conscientious the whole book. this is marginally saved by the end of the book which is damning of max and his failure and cowardice and use of bigger and his uneven acknowledgment of bigger’s humanity even at the very end. but honestly it frustrates me that we’re given this kind of limp critique after letting max grandstand for sooo long.
last thought is. bessie. while, as i mentioned before, wright treads the line of bigger as character and bigger as symbol, sometimes falling too close to the bigger as symbol piece, even as he critiques this, wright totally uses bessie in her entirety as a symbol- someone to be used and abused and sensationalized and then discarded without a second thought. this is one of those things about books with unlikeable narrators that i really struggle with which is that this is how wright depicts how bigger views bessie, and that bigger and wright both have an understanding of this mistreatment of black women being produced in them, and that so much of the story is told in bigger’s perspective. but at the same time the dismissiveness with which bessie’s story and her humanity is treated as a plot device leaves a bad taste in my mouth
let me tell you this was one of, if not, the most stressful book(s) i’ve ever read in my entire life. the experience of reading the first and second section was akin to a typical experience for me watching a suspense film or tv show where i literally need to leave the room for twenty minutes except in this case i cannot leave the room and the stressful part is much longer than twenty minutes, something i nearly never experience reading a book. my friend threw this book at the wall three times.
i am gonna be controversial and say i am a sucker for the simple, clean, telling style of richard wright. i also feel like bigger (for the most part) is written with such clarity. there are sections where i feel like wright is doing to bigger what he renders the other characters in the book as doing, also- treating him as an allegory or symbol rather than as an individual himself. and it’s a bit heavy handed in this, which does seem to be wrights style. however for at least the first two sections and most of the third i’m there with bigger, with his thoughts, with his feelings that violence is the only way with which he is able to exert any agency. i think the critiques of wright as depicting a stereotypical version of an angry, violent Black man just kind of don’t make sense to me??? because the point is to make Bigger as terrible and unredeemable as possible is to 1) point toward the conditions that produce these kinds of stereotypes 2) to express the conscientiousness with which limited agency is desired and seized by bigger and 3) that being carceral is being bad no matter what !!!
upon some reflection and discussion i think it also is an excellent if at times heavy handed critique of “good white people”- to make bigger such an awful person and the daltons, jan, max, and mary all well meaning white people who all stupidly believe that they are being kind to bigger or can make a difference for him is exceptionally smart.
okay IT MUST BE NAMED that much of this is royally fucked by max’s speech which takes up almost thirty pages of the last section. max’s speech feels like a bad summary of the book, like wright is trying to beat you over the head with the idea that bigger was produced by his circumstances. it’s just unnecessary and i think a huge disservice to the rest of the book. a generous reading of wright might be the fact that max is doing what all the other characters in the book do to bigger, treat him as a symbol. and a representation of something bigger, exploiting him just as everyone else does. but even in this case there’s something so grotesque about the way wright writes biggers reaction to the speech- suddenly making him so unaware of what’s going on and stupid after writing him as smart and conscientious the whole book. this is marginally saved by the end of the book which is damning of max and his failure and cowardice and use of bigger and his uneven acknowledgment of bigger’s humanity even at the very end. but honestly it frustrates me that we’re given this kind of limp critique after letting max grandstand for sooo long.
last thought is. bessie. while, as i mentioned before, wright treads the line of bigger as character and bigger as symbol, sometimes falling too close to the bigger as symbol piece, even as he critiques this, wright totally uses bessie in her entirety as a symbol- someone to be used and abused and sensationalized and then discarded without a second thought. this is one of those things about books with unlikeable narrators that i really struggle with which is that this is how wright depicts how bigger views bessie, and that bigger and wright both have an understanding of this mistreatment of black women being produced in them, and that so much of the story is told in bigger’s perspective. but at the same time the dismissiveness with which bessie’s story and her humanity is treated as a plot device leaves a bad taste in my mouth
emryacton's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
magical_mads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
lynecia's review against another edition
4.0
This frightened me. Which is exactly what i think Wright was going for.
practicallee's review against another edition
Plan to pick this up again someday. I’ll have to get over initial shock of understanding how devastating this book will be.
ashkitty93's review against another edition
30% in and it’s not keeping my attention, although that could actually be due to the Drake/Kendrick Lamar beef over the past week. Hoping to come back eventually!