Invisible Man
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season480 pages, about 10 hours: the length of 1.5 typical books on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbTwo first-time readers on a class discussion blog report rereading chapter one, the battle royal, to follow what happens.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 15 reviews from critics and book blogs, one credits the plot and 12 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesEssay sites such as GradeSaver and GRIN pair it with Native Son, on the shelf at 399 pages, as a contrast in method.
The case for it
on the paint factory job
“his nightmare experiences on a one-day job in a paint factory and in the hospital”
Kirkus Reviews, 7 April 1952 on the opening scenes
“I was caught up in the fever dream of Ellison’s unforgettable scenes.”
a Substack review on the battle royal
“Ellison delivers it with irony rather than rage.”
a book blog on the first-person narration
“the story is told in first person by the Invisible Man himself”
four stars · a book blog
The case against
on the Stalinist characters
“Stalinists so stupid and vicious that one cannot understand how they could have attracted him”
Irving Howe · The Nation, 10 May 1952 on the Barbee speech
“none of which has any bearing on the narrative in this book”
three stars · a book blog on the plot’s structure
“The plot jumped around with little resolution, characters appeared and disappeared”
two stars · a book blog on the vocabulary
“Ellison used a lot of big words that sometimes made it hard to understand.”
a book blog
