Books: Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

September 29, 2006

I read Invisible Man (which is, by the way, Invisible Man, not The Invisible Man as I have erroneously thought in the past) meanderingly over the past fortnight or so, partly upon a strong recommendation from David and partly because I own it it, have owned it for a while, and it is on myriad “You Should Read This Book” lists.

I’m surprised it appealed to David as much as it did, being both consistently imbued with lyrical, abstract symbolism and peppered with existentialist reflection. Or maybe I’m confused more because, despite following along carefully via SparkNotes* to catch the themes as they went by, I wasn’t personally absorbed–I feel a bit guilty about that. But I am confident that I read it carefully and thoroughly. That’s something, right.

p.s. Hint: He’s not really invisible!

* Regarding SparkNotes: It makes me feel like I should be in high school still but it’s a remarkable site in that it has study guides for nearly all classic and relevant texts and is completely free. I use it a lot.

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