The Long Dream

by Richard Wright, Keneth Kinnamon

In a small town in Mississippi, a prosperous black mortician's business arrangements with police and politicians unravel as his son enters adulthood.

Genres: Fiction, African American, Literary Fiction, Race, Psychology, African American Literature, Suspense

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Richard Nathaniel Wright was an African-American author of powerful, sometimes controversial novels, short stories and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerned racial themes. His work helped redefine discussions of race relations in America in the mid-20th century.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 3 out of 5]

A coming-of-rage tale set in 1940s/1950s Mississippi. Following the childhood exploits of Fishbelly (nickname, obvs), The Long Dream makes use of stream-of-consciousness dream sequences and long dialogue-driven scenes, mining a similar semi-experimental seam as Wright’s posthumous Lawd, Today! The latter half of the novel is vintage Wright horrealism (not a word)—a scathing and terrifying depiction of police corruption and the struggle to live among people who despise you, routinely deny you basic rights, and murder you without consequence (i.e. white people). The bleakest of Wright’s works (which is saying something), The Long Dream contrasts the freeness of childhood with the indentured slavery and unrelenting violence of adulthood in a tale where the author’s anger seethes from the page to, at certain points, unbearable levels. As a novel, more uneven than Wright’s more famous works and lacks the lucidity and call-to-arms quality of the likes of Native Son or The Outsiders.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Wright returns to fiction after his string of non-fiction books about the Black experience in Africa. He also returns to America.

Fishbelly's story opens when he is five years old with the incident that gave him his nickname. The chapter is written from the viewpoint of a boy that age and at first I thought Wright had lost his fiction chops and gone simple minded. As I read on, I saw the power of his writing. Fishbelly grows chapter by chapter to young manhood, but the reader always sees his world through Fishbelly's perspective at any given age. He figures out his parents, his black neighborhood and black school, his black friends in a small southern town.

Tyree, his father, is the undertaker for their community. But his elevated financial standing implies other sources of income. Scenes of Fishbelly at school and with his friends depict the boy's growing awareness of what Tyree does, including the man's easy infidelities. The child's first arrest for trespassing with his friends on a white man's property awakens him to the racial situation as well as to his father's mysterious standing in the white community.

The novel entitled The Long Dream could have been called "The Long Awakening." Fishbelly awakens from the dream of a young boy protected by his mother to the realities of race, sex, money, oppression and the inherent dishonesty involved when a black man decides to survive above the level of downtrodden apathy.

Wright's last novel is a powerful tale of powerlessness. In fact, power is the theme running through all of his books. I am humbled by the man's intellect and strength of vision. From him I have learned that true power comes from the mind, not from force.

Richard Wright died in 1960.

[Komi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book shows you that despite all the trouble that may be going on in your life there is always hope ahead. Don't let systems put into place by men control your destiny in life. Life is tough, but if you persevere you can do something new, oh and don't let someone push you. Fishbelly was an interesting character.

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never read a book that makes the African American experience in the pre-Civil Rights South any more clear than The Long Dream. A brutally honest portrayal that every American should read and understand.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

[Jim Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unrelentingly depressing, but given recent incidents in the US, not a lot has changed for young blacks.

[Stephanie Eastwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a 50 yr old Nordic-American woman from Wisconsin, it was about time I'd read Richard Wright. The experience hit home for me why U.S. teachers assign novels written from very different perspectives. This book came out the year I was born and describes a world familiar to probably a million Americans, but which had been completely hidden from people like me. Reading Richard Wright gave me the sensation of discovering a parallel reality, one I'm now continually jarred into thinking about whenever I see a movie or read a book set in America but in which Black people seem not to exist. How much deeper Wright has made my experience of reading Carson McCullers' *The Heart is a Lonely Hunter,* and Harper Lee's *To Kill A Mockingbird* this year. Fun to learn from Wright's bio that he and Carson McCullers had lived in the same house in NYC. Hooray, intertextuality.

[MichaelaBrice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of reading this book when I was sixteen years old. In my opinion this book explores the psychology of the black masculine mentality...as it struggles to survive from the cradle to the grave without destroying his image or without destroying any human being that they might encounter during that voyage....

[Rachel Feldman]

Richard Wright has powerful prose. This coming of age novel is set in late 30s/early 40's Mississippi. In Jim Crow south, a black boy's life could be happy, but it could also be unfair, and dangerous. This novel makes sure we know this, and very well.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

As philosophically probing as many an intellectual non-fictional text on race, this really tries to uncover the lived experience of Mississippi racism in the Jim Crow era, the contortions that human beings are capable of to survive in such toxicity, and how that was experienced by different generations. I confess it starts out a bit like a psychological profile told in short vignettes, but once the story kicks in it really kicks in...I wish it had started much closer to that point, because the conundrums of race and capitalism are both extreme and extremely believable and come through just as clearly and urgently. It's like he changed his mind about what the book was half way through, and would have been better off splitting the two...but it's still very good. If you want more, and possibly better story-telling if not insight, I'd pick up Chester Himes. Besides, it's good to remember that this kind of racism and segregation was never limited to the South, however much many would like to think so.

[Brittney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wavered between a **** and *****, but because I enjoyed Native Son so much I couldn't compare the two. I am a huge fan of Wright's narrative style - his writing is incredibly captivating, with so much personality, and it is always difficult to put one of his books down. I just never felt a really strong connection to the main characters and finished the book feeling a bit lost. Individual sections, events, sentences, and even the minor characters really stuck with me. It is a very vivid and telling account of life in the Jim Crow South. However, at the end I felt a little bit of a 'so what?', somehow missing the broader and overall message of the text as a whole. I still highly recommend this book, and again, the individual sections and events throughout are incredibly important. However, there is not really an 'ending' or a big moment when everything comes together. I will remember this book for the bits and pieces rather than the whole.

[Regan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Near flawless novel of intrigue, suspense, and intellect. Proves that late-era Wright was as great as ever (at least while still healthy). Structurally and in characterization, this book is superior to 'Native Son'. Highly recommended.

[Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrifying portrait of Jim Crow south as seen through the eyes of a powerless young black boy.

[Tom S · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the seventh Wright title that I have read, and it is among the best. I think NATIVE SON and THE OUTSIDER are better, but only slightly so. THE LONG DREAM details the life of Rex "Fish" Tucker, a black boy in segregated Mississippi, and the challenges he faces. Fish's story is similar to that of NATIVE SON's Bigger Thomas, but Fish is younger and more optimistic. I look forward to reading more by Richard Wright, as I have enjoyed each of the titles I have read to date.

[Vorik · Rating 5 out of 5]

++ German Version of the book ++
Heftiges, erschütterndes Lebensporträt eines jungen Mannes, der geprägt von rassistischer Gewalt heranwächst und sich recht- und schutzlos einer willkürlichen Macht ausgeliefert sieht. Die dramatische Geschichte ist packend, nervenaufreibend und manches Mal zum Verzweifeln.

[Holly Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing and under-appreciated. An intense commentary on gender, racism, capitalism, and religion all wrapped up in a story packed with tragedy, action, and intrigue. A shame this is out of print. Glorious.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sad but probably very true to what the author experienced as a young boy. The narrative was told so vividly that you felt as if you were always standing right next to the main character.

[Jess Saravia 🧚‍♀️✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute masterpiece revealing the inner working evils of racism in America.
Repetitions of statements, haunting imagery and the tussles for POC are very profound- a must read for anyone.

[Tayde McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story that shows that racism doesn't merely cause harm, it eats and erodes and gnaws at your sanity until it turns you against your community and even yourself

[Sheehan · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the scope of Wright books this one is miss-able, but still well crafted, just seems like it was done better with later works.