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elizabethrigby 's review for:
Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5 stars, but as always, I round up.
I don’t think I fully understand this book, but I took away pieces of it. In meaning, it was very interesting to watch the character grow from having negative agency in his life, to making big changes, to trying to control the narrative of others, to deciding to retreat from everything entirely. It felt like both a demonstration of how one person can be influential and how they are not everything and that the movement… well, moves, even without them.
As for writing, I think the first 10 chapters could be excluded from the book and the experience would have been better and the moral of the story the same. But perhaps I missed something important, but for me, I only really cared once the narrator joined the Brotherhood.
In terms of connections, learning about the protest movements feels relevant again in a time of political upheaval, but I don’t know if I feel that the story offered much hope or guidance, but instead actually felt like it was telling us that we are doomed to fail. I refuse to accept that.
I don’t think I fully understand this book, but I took away pieces of it. In meaning, it was very interesting to watch the character grow from having negative agency in his life, to making big changes, to trying to control the narrative of others, to deciding to retreat from everything entirely. It felt like both a demonstration of how one person can be influential and how they are not everything and that the movement… well, moves, even without them.
As for writing, I think the first 10 chapters could be excluded from the book and the experience would have been better and the moral of the story the same. But perhaps I missed something important, but for me, I only really cared once the narrator joined the Brotherhood.
In terms of connections, learning about the protest movements feels relevant again in a time of political upheaval, but I don’t know if I feel that the story offered much hope or guidance, but instead actually felt like it was telling us that we are doomed to fail. I refuse to accept that.