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Book Review of Juneteenth

Juneteenth
Juneteenth
Author: Ralph Ellison
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Paperback
reviewed on + 813 more book reviews


The 366 page novel has been culled from over 2,000 pages of unpublished drafts. Sunraider, an orphan, was raised by rev. Hickman, a black preacher. He has had a rather eclectic string of vocations ending in the U.S. Senate It opens with a rather long-winded speech by the senator who makes it obvious that he is public enemy No. 1 of blacks; he is a walking contradiction. At the end of the speech a young black man riddles him with bullets and he lapses into a Faulkneresque stream of recollections, reminiscent of The Sound and the Fury. The reverend visits the senator at the hospital, where is senator is dying, and we are treated to alternating glimpses into the senators illustrious (?) career and the present rambling of his mind: for another 300 pages. Somewhere there is a profound allegory, but even with the introductory material it's too unfathomable for me.