Invisible Man: A Novel
By: Ralph Ellison / Narrated By: Joe Morton
Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
Verrrry good, exceeeeedingly powerful, but Jeez H. what a slog.
Yes, let me expound upon the above by saying that Invisible Man should NOT be listened to all at one go. Naw, I didn’t do it all in one sitting, ‘twould’ve been impossible, but I DID separate it into two consecutive days. It kinda sorta needs it as it hodgepodges all over the place, so it would be super easy to forget whatever fraught occurrences happened prior, but boy does Ellison carry a Cosmic Two-by-Four or what? One feels conked over the head with extreme emotional awareness, a dropping of eye-blinders, an instantaneous consciousness of the many Many MANY facets of daily life for American Blacks, called Negroes as of the writing era.
It starts in a manner soooo reminiscent of Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground with the unnamed protagonist existing alone in a room strung with electric lights, aware of his invisibility. He then goes on to tell of us of how he came to such a state and, brother/sister, I kid you not: 18 1/2 hours of TOTAL escapades replete with horrific scenes/unfortunate endings.
He begins, a junior in an all Negro college, charged with taking a white man on a tour. Things start going south when they come upon a Negro man who’s fathered children with both his wife and his, oh gosh, daughter. It’s this state of being a ne’er-do-well that has made the man a pariah to the Black community, but it has white society offering him charity, the depravity of the situation apparently makes them comfortable with the man reinforcing all their prejudices of Blacks as a race.
This is followed by an oh so necessary drink, but ‘twould appear things get worse from there as there’s a skirmish that leaves the white man bruised and just a tad ruffled and bloody. The head of the college is AGHAST to hear what the trustee has seen, Negroes behaving without Shame! and our protagonist is sent away from the college, dropped from his Junior year and sent North to seek his fortune, letters of recommendation in hand.
Off North our protag goes, and each letter does NOT bring him employment, and disheartening dismissal after disheartening dismissal follows until one white employee ooooozes pity for him and reads him what-all exactly is written in each letter: That the college will NEVER take the young man back, and it further lays many charges at his feet. The oozing-with-pity white guy sends him off to a different place where employment MIGHT be found.
And so it goes, for the rest of the book, and things jump from one Black experience to another, Ellis being unsparing in his characterizations, scathing in his commentary, unflinching in his viewpoint. Our protag soon finds his voice as a leader and motivator, but is he really doing positive work for his community or has he just taken a different step, still being used by whites who spout causes For The People, an equal society that stiiiill is run by whites?
It’s beYONd disturbing, but it’s raw and the prose is immaculate. There were soooo many times I cringed at the mistakes the protag (Seriously, I can’t really call him our hero cuz this is a dark dark tale) makes, how deeply he became entrenched and a pawn in other people’s plans. I’m sure at the time it was released it caused much hoopla cuz NOBODY is spared; the outright racists, the belittling Liberals who still used and mistreated.
Again with my fear of narrators this week: Joe Morton’s tones start fairly flat, and soon he screeches into a preacher’s voice. I was walking and listening to this at the same time, earbuds in place, and I kept having to stop and monitor the volume: Flat tone flat tone PREACHER SHOUTS flat tone FEVERED RESPONSES flat tone flat tone. Soon, I cried Uncle and just waited until I got home to listen in private, earbuds out. Cuz many a fiery speech is shouted as the protag becomes a voice for the people, stirring souls and spawning outcries and action. The whole time, however, I came to discover that Morton is a top notch narrator, capable of any emotion, conveyor of all that author Ellison p’raps was trying most successfully to convey. My only quibble? The hysterical giggle. Sooo ear shattering, and annoying as all get-out. Yup, good thing I really liked the book or I woulda had to enTIREly hurl m’ phone to the wall. And yup, Morton does one helluva maniacal giggle.
When all was said and done, I felt like I’d been through the wringer several times, wrung out, hung to dry, left there by a somber ending. Perfect writing, stark characterizations, unfortunate but believable occurrences, and here in the 2020s where there’s a flowering, however tenuous, of social/racial consciousness, this is a Must Listen.
It’s just that, dude! do NOT do it all in one go, however many days it’ll take. One DEFinitely needs a breather, a bit of a side-Listen cuz, man! does Invisible Man pack a wallop, or what?!
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