Black Boy

Summary: "One rises from the reading of such a book with mixed thoughts. Richard Wright uses vigorous and straightforward English; often there is real beauty in his words even when they are mingled with sadism....Yet at the result one is baffled. Evidently if this is an actual record, bad as the world is, such concentrated meanness, filth and despair never completely filled it or any particular part of it. But if the book is ...meant to be a creative picture and a warning, even then, it misses its possible effectiveness becuase it is as a work of art so patently and terribly overdrawn." [read more]