The Collected Novels of Charles Wright: The Messenger, The Wig, and Absolutely Nothing to Get Alarmed About

by Charles Stevenson Wright, Ishmael Reed (Foreword)

In this incisive, satirical collection of three autobiographical novels—which the New York Times hailed as “malevolent, bitter, glittering”—by Charles Wright, whom Ishmael Reed hailed as “Richard Pryor on paper,” a young, black intellectual from the South struggles to make it in New York City—with a foreword by Mat Johnson.

As fresh and poignant as when originally published in 1963 to 1973, The Messenger, The Wig, and Absolutely Nothing to Get Alarmed About form Charles Wright’s remarkable New York City trilogy.

By turns brutally funny and starkly real, these three classic American novels create a memorable portrait of a young, working-class, black intellectual—a man caught between the bohemian elite of Greenwich Village and the dregs of male prostitution and drug abuse. Wright’s fiction is searingly original in bringing to life a special time, a special place, and the remarkable story of a man living in two worlds.

With a foreword by acclaimed novelist Mat Johnson, this updated edition not only reintroduces Wright’s fans to his darkly humorous, satirical, and eloquent prose, but also brings his unique literary talent to a host of new readers, as it shines a spotlight once again on this important writer—a writer whose work is so crucial to our times.

“Reading Wright is a steep, stinging pleasure.”—Dwight Garner

Genres: Fiction, African American, Novels, American, The United States Of America, American History

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

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

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Messenger is fantastic and a definite 5* read. The other two less so, though both very much worth your time. Not sure why he is as neglected as he is, but this is a shame.

[Brad B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't say I enjoyed this collection of 3 short novels, the writing style is too stream of consciousness for my liking (and The Wig, the middle novel, especially uses considerable symbolism and hyperbole that went over my head). Still, the reader definitely gets a sense of the isolation and loneliness Wright must have felt. The racial injustice that, somehow, still infects our country, is as disturbing as it should be - for example, one character is a neighborhood friend who goes on antique-finding missions in the deep south; we soon learn that those "antiques" include a charred wooden cross, the fur of a police dog, and fire hose nozzles dented by human heads. So while this wasn't a fun read by any stretch, Wright's work gave me a lot to think about.

[BMR, LCSW · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Messenger was the best of the 3 novels included here, written by Charles Stevenson Wright.

I'll have to reread The Wig, because it seems I totally missed the satire.

Absolutely Nothing to Get Alarmed About was less cruel than The Wig, but certainly not as rich as The Messenger.

The stories are centered around a character named...Charles Stevenson. Charlie is used, uses others, and otherwise sort of exists in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City. Hustlers, transwomen, prostitutes of every type, junkies, dirty cops, drunks. This is the real NYC that was run out of Times Square back in the day, to turn it into the neon picture show we now have. There are no happy endings other than death in his world.

The lush, visual descriptions were like reading a movie, but not one you would want to see. It's everything your grandma warned you about regarding The Big City. The best thing I could say about this collection is you could find about 1,000 fantastic book titles in it. LOL!

Recommended for those who prefer the seedier versions of NYC to the polished, Living Single, Gossip Girl, and Sex and the City versions.

[Hollis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is just for the third novel, "Absolutely Nothing to Get Alarmed About," but, admittedly, could be about all three novels because they fit together like an ascending puzzle that charts Wright's state of mind against the changing (and not so changing) cultural machine of New York City and America. Absolutely Nothing to Get Alarmed About is truly the apex of whatever we might call Wright's mission to mar the boundaries that separate fiction from nonfiction. For the Messenger I would've likened the narrator to a grown up Holden Caulfield - obviously with some very different social positionings that branch out from race, class, sexuality. For the third novel, we're somewhere between the autobiographical, phantasmal Henry Miller and the hilarious, also uniquely metafictional Kurt Vonnegut - all this blended up through Wright's singular, clarity-through-depression presence. This book, like the other two, makes you feel a little dirty (maybe more than a little). Wright's writing style is productively obscene, you cannot engage his observations from a distanced lens; this grants a surprising degree of earnestness - only surprising, because the Wright of The Messenger would probably call that phony. It's a hard novel to concretely talk about: for all the real-life observations, the signs-of-the-timing, this is simply the exploration of one little-known man's mind. And for that simplicity, I'm very appreciative to have gotten the chance to take a stroll.

[Gino Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I set out to read "The Messenger," little did I know that I would end up down the rabbit hole reading "The Wig" and "Absolutely Nothing to Get Alarmed About." I was already a quick fan of Wright's witticism and storytelling. I must admit that I am surprised that I was well into my fifties before stumbling upon him as an author to note.

In the like vein of "The Messenger" and "The Wig," "Absolutely Nothing to Get Alarmed About" is a raucous first-person adventure in the day and life of an individual making his way through his life in 1960's New York City. This story kept along the lines of ramblings and streams of consciousness. The way Wright depicted certain scenes made the musings entertaining. It helped that he heaped a fair amount of well-placed humor throughout the story. There was the usual cast of characters, some practically clowns without red nose and flappy shoes. The trips down the rabbit hole of drugs and alcohol were also crafted with hilarity without introducing disgust.

I wonder what else Wright would have written had he not become very much the character in his fictional-biographical sketches. Without a doubt, he had a way with words and a way of making his works intriguing. I guess one can only wonder. But I enjoyed all three of the stories in his trilogy, nevertheless.

[Hank]

Wright's influence is staggering--it's hard to imagine Beatty, Reed, and Everett without his forays into His queerness is more subversive than Baldwin's, and his sense of the squalor and hilarity of American working class life has aged better than the white dirty realism that followed him.

I'm partial to Absolutely Nothing to Get Alarmed About out of these three novels. It seems like the most mature work, and the best blend of satire and character sketches. The Messenger is very accomplished as well, while the Wig left me a little cold. Its satire may be too time-period-specific, and it felt a little gratuitous in its cruelty at times. Still, the Wig has its stans.

Ishmael Reed's intro is exactly what this talented cult writer deserves: https://lithub.com/the-writer-who-rej...

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Messenger is an ultra-hip 1960s counterculture classic, with swinging bebop autofictional prose on a par with Ralph Ellison. The Wig is a riotous romp that serves as a blueprint for the entire canon of Ishmael Reed. Absolutely Nothing to Get Alarmed About is Wright’s swansong—the weakest of the three—rambling sketches of NYC street life taken from the author’s sordid experiences that lacks a coherent throughput. A tremendous prose artist who makes the people and the streets sing from the page in an effortless way, Wright’s three prose works are begging to be reread and rediscovered.

[K.Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read “The Messenger”, the 1st of Charles Wright’s 3 highly praised autobiographical novels published from 1963 to 1973. His eloquent prose reminds me of James Baldwin or Richard Wright. His gritty characters brings to mind Henry Miller’s “Tropic of Cancer”. This novel recounts the day to day existence of a messenger, his thoughts about the inhabitants of the various offices he delivers documents to, and his interactions with his friends and neighbors in New York before Times Square became gentrified. I’m hooked.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I abandoned this after the first novel, The Messenger. Wright is a powerful writer, but I got pretty tired of the drugs, sex, misspent life theme. Groundbreaking for its time, and I appreciate that there are people who really appreciate this perspective. Not for me.

[Toni Maddi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the first two, The Messenger and The Wig. Both are the most wiggedy-whack books I have ever come across. They are like stream-of-consciousness beat poems to 1960s New York. Just trippy. I dind't have it in me to read the third, Absolutely Nothing to Get Alarmed About.

[MJ Beaufrand · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read through The Messenger. After that, I ditched. Five stars to The Messenger.

[Richard O. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Wright's The Wig is like a Jean Genet novel if Genet was black and hanging out in the old Bowery, fraternizing with junkies and drag queens. The novel was favorably blurbed by Baldwin. Wright wrote a regular column for the Village Voice. They were Dispatches from the Bowery. I lived uptown and knew some ex-addicts through my brother. But this was Eugene O'Neill territory that I was unfamiliar with. So I read Wright's column avidly. Then I read all the novels. I like The Wig best--it is most naturalistic--while the other two delve into the late-60s alchemical surreal. But I want to say that I heard Wright's voice, ironic, caustic, observing like a good barmate you could listen to for hours.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first novel is knock out, the second is not quite as good but still incredible, and the third doesn't quite hit the spot, but there are flashes of the energy and wit of the first two in there. How have I never heard of Charles Wright the novelist all through these years. He completely fits in with the beats and the counterculture that grew out of that. His novels crackle with literary references in a low-rent setting and his language zings with metaphors that will make you pause and whistle. His plots are absurdity writ large and his characters are almost instantly recognizable types but not done in a shallow phony way, but alive with an intensity. Great stuff and I feel like I've been cheated to make it halfway through life and only now come across this stuff.