In the 1940s, Richard Wright published two seminal works (Black Boy and Native Son). Both dealt with the topic of race in America. Wright also wrote another full-length work (this one), but it was rejected by publishers for being too controversial about race. However, during the recent Black Lives Matter movement, many saw the censorship of this book as being a historical injustice that needed correction. So in 2021, this story was published for the world to read… and oh, am I grateful for reading it.
Wright tells the story of a black man who is suddenly accused of double murder. In truth, he was peacefully working for a next-door neighbor during the crime, was active in his church, has a pregnant wife, and lives a morally upstanding life. He is arrested and forced into signing a confession by brutal police tactics and a corrupt district attorney. However, he escapes custody and eludes recapture by going down a sewer line. Underground, he develops a life of his own where he sees the world as it actually is. Three days later, he returns to the world to find that it has changed and it is all-too-much the same.
The philosophical depth of this storyline is evident. It reminds me of Plato’s famous allegory of the cave, only retold in a modern context. Further, this book is extraordinarily timely, some 70-80 years after its inscription. Sadly, some in the police can still maintain a white-supremacist status quo. Also sadly, it took George Floyd’s death to awaken us that Wright was indeed onto something real in American culture. Yes, this book is not hyperbole but a work of realistic fiction. Like other works of conscience, it speaks to reality more clearly than reading newspapers or Internet websites.
This book obviously touched a sensitive nerve when originally proposed. It obviously can touch a nerve today, too. But that nerve deserves to be touched again and again until we train our society to respond appropriately. I’m glad that this work has been trumpeted recently by so many in the literary industry. Its place in the American literary canon should be found and preserved. This book is ideal and suitable for college campuses where open discussion of these issues can take place. It also needs to become fodder for anyone interested in serious discussion about race in America, including book clubs. In his era, Wright saw his society clearer than society was willing to let him. The question now becomes transformed: Will we let Wright’s message speak to us today, and will we do something about it?
The Man Who Lived Underground: A Novel
By Richard Wright
Copyright (c) 2021
Library of America
ISBN13 9781598536768
Page Count: 159
Genre: Fiction, African-American Literature
www.amazon.com