The Wig: A Mirror Image

by Charles Stevenson Wright, Ishmael Reed (Introduction)

Fiction. African American Studies. Originally published in 1966, THE WIG is the story of Lester Jefferson, a young man of great good will, whose repeated attempts to become a part of "The Great Society" are doomed in advance. Aided, thwarted, and confused by numerous, curious companions, Lester conducts his inevitable search for happiness in a series of absurdist misadventures that begin with the transformation of the hair on his head into burnished silken curls. "Charles Wright's Negro world explodes with the crazy laughter of a man past caring.His style, as mean and vicious a weapon as a rusty hacksaw, is the perfect vehicle for his zany pessimism.THE WIG is a brutal, exciting, and necessary book"-Conrad Knickerbocker for The New York Times.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, African American, Race, Comedy, Classics, Novels

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

In the 1960s and early 1970s, Charles Stevenson Wright (1932–2008) published three passionately idiosyncratic, big-hearted, tragicomedic short novels about mid-20th Century African American existence. He was an innovator who broke with traditional fictional modes and helped negotiate a space for Ishmael Reed, Clarence Major, and other African American avantgardists.

Ismael Reed called his second book, The Wig, “one of the most underrated novels by a black person in this century.”

James Baldwin said: "Charles Wright is a terrific writer, and I hope he goes the distance and lives to be 110."

Reviews

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, one of the greatest dustjacket covers of all time. A Milton Glaser diamond. (Fun fact: Naomi Yang was his understudy at the time Galaxie 500 took off with “Tugboat”/Today.)

Second, if Ishmael Reed had a true progenitor, it’d have to be Charlie. His dip into avant-pop is as spectacular as anyone that’d read The Messenger could rightfully hope/expect. A joyful experience, its hyper-satire is never so detached that it obscures the very large heart of its effusive, indomitably humane author.

Charlie, you were one for the ages.

I gotta get me a wig.

[Jay · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not really make heads or tells of this book.

[Hollis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was sort've like a White Noise, other popular postmodern texts could be inserted here as well, if race had a more prominent role. It also reminded me of Tropic of Cancer in that this is a bit of a memoir (I think, it at least has that form) rather than a traditional novel; nothing really moves the plot along, but that's sort of the point. One of the more humorous books I've read, but also depressing. I just wish there was more heft to it, I feel like this the result of a very talented writer working on autopilot.

[Lee Riggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting stream of consciousness story set in Harlem, New York, almost like an extended prose poem, definitely feels like the jazz that is mentioned over and over. The wig is Lester's hair, using the black slang of the time, and when he straightens and colors it, he hopes it will lead him to a better life, as he traverses the tenements and dead end jobs that he can scrounge, and mixes with all sorts of folks just trying to get by, let alone move up in the world.

[Ben Arzate · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Mike Polizzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not that crazy to consider hybridity and the means by which we translate our thoughts and experiences to a callous society- that there was and still is a price we pay for straying. Wright puts on The Wig- and lands Les in an interzone of possibility- seduced by that faint glimmer of the American dream he transforms his Afro into a lustrous blonde surfer's mane and the dangers multiply - from his own illusions from a desire to pass in white society and from the expectations they create. From that in-betweenness he hopes to slide away from his blackness and find some better foothold some path to a happiness he sees everywhere but is absent entirely from his life. I think of Adrian Piper dressed as a man and the reactions her act provoked- and today this could still play for race or sexuality or gender identity- discomfiting those old binaries to make way for something else.

[Mtume Gant · Rating 5 out of 5]

To say this book is out there would be accurate but suggest the wrong vibe, it’s an experiment successful simply because it was attempted with full honesty and all techniques applied. It’s combo of figurative language, poetic imagery and colloquial jargon makes for a dizzying experience but Wright wants us to experience the chaos of the torture of assimilation and how we learn to find pleasure in our dehumanization. It’s a masterpiece.

[Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another installment of the autobiographical trilogy from Charles STevenson Wright. He's kind of like a black bi-sexual Bukowski but in New York City. It's good the way Bukowski is good, you just kind of feel like the guy is your funny drunk friend with the 149 IQ who has no interest in "succeeding."

[Starlon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes Yes.

[Ben Kerani · Rating 5 out of 5]

A grotesque African-American Candide in a world where whiteness defines humanity.

The Wig is a devastating, razor-sharp, darkly hilarious, and deeply unsettling satire that deserves far more attention than it has received. Charles Wright’s novel follows Lester Jefferson, a young Black man desperately trying to claim a piece of the American Dream—only to find the deck stacked against him. His journey through a surreal, nightmarish Harlem is a series of absurd, grotesque misadventures, where his quest for acceptance warps into a tragicomic spiral of self-negation. The novel’s finale is as shocking as it is inevitable.

At its core, The Wig is a blistering satire of the rags-to-riches tale, exposing how that cherished American myth often falls apart for Black Americans. It is also a brutal examination of dehumanization—how whiteness dictates the boundaries of humanity, forcing those on the margins into a cruel and absurd performance just to be seen.

Why isn’t The Wig more widely read? Perhaps because it refuses to reassure. It mocks the empty promises of emancipation and exposes assimilation as a hollow trap, daring to suggest that in a society built on racial hierarchy, survival isn’t about overcoming—but about enduring the farce. This is a novel that doesn’t just critique the American Dream; it laughs as it crumbles, making its tragedy all the more haunting.

[Julie Mickens · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the right hands this could be a cool movie: You'd blend the surrealism of Sorry to Bother You and the supernaturalism of Freaky Tales (plus that movie's episodic structure) with a mid-century period piece-style like Eddie Murphy's Dolemite Is My Name. This book is surreal, satiric, despairing, interesting and original -- and, for 1966, may have been ahead of its time. However, for me, the surreal style and very broad satire kept my enjoyment mainly intellectual and historical, rather than emotional; for emotional connection, I preferred Wright's first novel, The Messenger, which is in a straightforward, realistic style. Still, glad I read The Wig, it's definitely unique and in any case quick.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wright's most flamboyant satire is found in The Wig, the middle of his three novels. What I love about Wright is that each of the three novels captures a different inflection of a shared project, of which this is the most fictive and most narrativistic.

[Rhomboid Goatcabin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely remarkable novel. Picaresque, but completely unique. Inspired, even.

[Kirk Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reads like William S Burroughs sprung from Harlem, which is just the mashup we need.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wild freewheeling although ultimately uneven book. For whatever reason I thought the book most similar to the Benny Profane opening section of Pynchon's novel V.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unintentionally, this is the fourth book of the "comedic satirization of Black life in America" genre that I've read recently, and I'm pretty burned out on it.