The Man Who Lived Underground

Once again Richard Wright has written a thought provocative book. I hope it becomes one that educators have students read

I’m loving this book from a favorite author. A great story, told compellingly. Recommended.

The story was compelling. I couldn’t stop listening. Then, the supplement from the author topped it off. Excellent writing.

The "Excerpt" provided by Amazon dramatically indicates this short novel's - indeed novella's -- powerful, astoundingly timely indictment of police imperiousness, which is expanded beyond merely racial abuse before the book is done. Shortly following the events of the opening, well telegraphed by that excerpts, the book seques away from the Hammett-like style of sharpiy etched verbal exchange into a sureally impressionistic, literally underground world full of new perspective on the social and spiritual world of the Black protagonist. The whole packed a punch. The book offers that combination of literary excellence, social instructiveness and brevity that has marked many a high school and college lit teaching classic.

This is the 4th Richard Wright book I have read and probably the best. Like all of his books, he writes with a quick storytelling pace that makes you feel like you are experiencing the story alongside the main character. I won’t give away the ending but it was shocking and not expected. You will understand this shock particularly in the build up to the conclusion. What a great novel that holds relevance many, many decades later. Wright is brilliant and this book is just another exemplary display of his storytelling genius.

A riveting account of the psychological trauma endured by the descendants of enslaved Africans. Richard Wright’s analysis of the link between societal narrative and its gravitational pull on the individual is genius and frightening.

This book is more rollover and taking the abuse from the system while living in an alternate world, in your mind, trying to escape the reality of racism that black people should be taking head-on! This book is more on the Booker T. work with your violent oppressor; don't fight back, just escape into your own world until your time comes! Anything that NPR pushes, I'd be weary!

I grew up in wite communities and attended white schools. I read Black Like Me and saw In the Heat of the Night and A Time to Kill. I thought I understood. This story peeled back a layer of thinking and took me inside a mind that explained 'walking while black' in 1942. Stunning. Emotional pile driver.

Visceral novel of the effect of being unjustly accused, the sadness and isolation and strange vindication that follow. Illuminated by the author’s profound explanations of the influences that informed his writing.

I ‘enjoyed’ this novel as a historical work, but is it historical? If you see the news from America what happens is not alien to the modern country. .It is a difficult read as it deals with injustice. This novel has stayed its me and I think of it often.