Helpful Score: 4
I put off reading this book for quite some time due to its length. But what I found was not just a story that chronicles a young black man's experience in an urban environment, but a compelling story about choices, racism and fear. I felt that this book was not only compelling, but a snapshot into life after Jim Crow, but before the civil rights movement. The "Bigger Thomas" character invented by Wright was not just a means of relaying a fascinating story about crime in Chicago, but Bigger indeed stands for bigger things: America's mixed attitudes about race and intention.
Helpful Score: 2
I'm amazed at how relevant this book still is considering it was written in 1940. A true American classic.
Helpful Score: 1
A must read for anyone interested in the black experience in America during a particular period in our history.
Helpful Score: 1
Classic everyone should read.
Dark and violent tale of a young black man who murders in a moment of drunken panic and who spirals into ever-escalating violence as he attempts to cover up the act and escape from the bleakness of his life.
This story was written in the 1940's and is about a young Black man in Chicago in the 1930's. It is well-written and very troubling. If anyone talks about the "good old days", they certainly weren't good for Black people. The language and telling of the story are excellent, although the 1940's language and expressions are a little dfficult to read. The outcome of the the story was obvious from the first; that was the point. I recommend it to anyone that likes to think about what they read.
it makes me feel steadily less optimistic about the world
Thought provoking.
In the vein of Crime and Punishment, this is it's American Counterpart set in Chicago, dealing with rape, murder and racism. One of the great American classics of all time.
I had to read this book in high school with a teacher who was enamored of it. While she managed to take other books and guide discussion & reading to make them excellent & contextual & useful...this one, not so much. I hated it. I didn't like it reading it on my own, I didn't enjoy the discussions, I got very little out of it. I have no idea why this thing is considered a classic. I am very sad to see it still being assigned--there has to be a better book to fulfill whatever purpose this one is supposed to.
