What do you think?
Rate this book
A Father's Law: A Powerful Crime Drama and Father Son Story Exploring Murder, Guilt and Innocence, and Racial Themes
“An intense, provocative, and vital crime story that excavates paradoxical dimensions of race, class, sexism, family bonds, and social obligation while seeking the deepest meaning of the law." — Booklist
Originally published posthumously by his daughter and literary executor Julia Wright, A Father’s Law is the novel Richard Wright, acclaimed author of Black Boy and Native Son, never completed. Written during a six-week period prior to his death in Paris in 1960, it offers a fascinating glimpse into the writer’s process as well as providing an important addition to Wright’s body of work.
In rough form, Wright expands the style of a crime thriller to grapple with themes of race, class, and generational conflicts as newly appointed police chief Ruddy Turner begins to suspect his own son, Tommy, a student at the University of Chicago, of a series of murders in Brentwood Park. Under pressure to solve the killings and prove himself, Turner spirals into an obsession that forces him to confront his ambivalent relationship with a son he struggles to understand.
Prescient, raw, and powerful, A Father's Law is the final gift from a literary giant.
Originally published posthumously by his daughter and literary executor Julia Wright, A Father’s Law is the novel Richard Wright, acclaimed author of Black Boy and Native Son, never completed. Written during a six-week period prior to his death in Paris in 1960, it offers a fascinating glimpse into the writer’s process as well as providing an important addition to Wright’s body of work.
In rough form, Wright expands the style of a crime thriller to grapple with themes of race, class, and generational conflicts as newly appointed police chief Ruddy Turner begins to suspect his own son, Tommy, a student at the University of Chicago, of a series of murders in Brentwood Park. Under pressure to solve the killings and prove himself, Turner spirals into an obsession that forces him to confront his ambivalent relationship with a son he struggles to understand.
Prescient, raw, and powerful, A Father's Law is the final gift from a literary giant.
319 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
17 people are currently reading
345 people want to read
About the author
Richard Wright
328 books2,257 followersRichard 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.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
August 6, 2013
WHY OH WHY DID HE HAVE TO DIE BEFORE FINISHING THIS BOOK!! I was close to thinking this the best book by him i'd ever read and often times wondered what happened next... and i never got to find out... it drives me insane because it was SOO good
December 23, 2009
This was an absolutely gripping read. The characters were so flawed and beautiful; the story was tragic, hopeful, smart and philosophical. The protagonist, Ruddy, and his son Tommy, have stayed on my mind all night. It all felt so realistic that I could see the whole thing playing out in my mind like a movie. Add to the wonderful story that this was only a manuscript/first draft (only draft) that Richard Wright wrote makes this even more of a literary gift. His daughter did well to finally publish this work untouched and flawed, just like his characters. I will reread this throughout the years.
June 14, 2016
This is by far my least favorite Wright book I've read so far. I understand why he didn't publish it. It was left with a lot of questions that needed to be answered and I really didn't like a lot of relationship between father and son. That being said the actual writing is amazing as can be expected by a literary genius.
April 12, 2009
This is one of those books where the writing sucks you in and the story gets you going along and you anticipate a great climactic ending where all the questions are answered. Then you get to the end and you are like... WTF!
March 7, 2020
This book was a bit up and down for me. It felt like it took a long while to get going. I’m uncertain what the main plot point was: the crimes, or Tommy and Ruddy’s relationship. There were certainly moments that drew you in, but I wish the book had pushed more towards the crime aspect. As it is, we end on a major cliffhanger as the book was never finished!!! Maybe that’s the best part haha.
“He now remembered something that Tommy had years ago said to him; asked Tommy some question about how a man could suffer so silently and Tommy had said, quoting an English poet…that “a heart worm forgives the plow.” But in the give-and-take of human life, what on earth was a plow? A storm? Something that came from outside human life and society? Or could it be something that flowed with the blood in human veins and was transmitted in the act of life, the defenseless act of giving with arms wrapped about a desired body? It was that “love” aspect that presented the problem! The hurt that had come had descended not with violence, not with assault, not with theft, but when all human defenses were down and the heart was open. A man who had dealt unfairly with you, had caused you suffering, loss, and pain, could perhaps be understood and maybe, under some circumstances, be forgiven. Insurance companies indemnified you for damages sustained when storms struck you or fire wiped out your home. But who was to blame for the hurt sustained by the Maries and Tommys who innocently and buoyed by love were made victims of forces beyond their control?” pp. 125-126
“Yet he knew that there were some shocks too deep for speech, that left the heart and mind numb, that sent one’s tired and restless legs wandering down lonely black night streets.” p.163
“You see, I was told in school and church that love was the greatest thing in earth, that it could conquer all ... Hell, it didn’t and it can’t. What can and will conquer are fear and hate. You can be fearful before you know it; you can hate without thinking.” p.176
“He now remembered something that Tommy had years ago said to him; asked Tommy some question about how a man could suffer so silently and Tommy had said, quoting an English poet…that “a heart worm forgives the plow.” But in the give-and-take of human life, what on earth was a plow? A storm? Something that came from outside human life and society? Or could it be something that flowed with the blood in human veins and was transmitted in the act of life, the defenseless act of giving with arms wrapped about a desired body? It was that “love” aspect that presented the problem! The hurt that had come had descended not with violence, not with assault, not with theft, but when all human defenses were down and the heart was open. A man who had dealt unfairly with you, had caused you suffering, loss, and pain, could perhaps be understood and maybe, under some circumstances, be forgiven. Insurance companies indemnified you for damages sustained when storms struck you or fire wiped out your home. But who was to blame for the hurt sustained by the Maries and Tommys who innocently and buoyed by love were made victims of forces beyond their control?” pp. 125-126
“Yet he knew that there were some shocks too deep for speech, that left the heart and mind numb, that sent one’s tired and restless legs wandering down lonely black night streets.” p.163
“You see, I was told in school and church that love was the greatest thing in earth, that it could conquer all ... Hell, it didn’t and it can’t. What can and will conquer are fear and hate. You can be fearful before you know it; you can hate without thinking.” p.176
January 24, 2022
Great who done it book by one of my favorite authors Richard Wright. Yet it was obvious that his son Tommy was the main culprit in the novel. Unlike his other books, this one delves too much into the internal dynamics between father and son. The author never established the "why " of his son's behavior: was it remorse over the way he shunned his girlfriend? Did he have a Dr. Jeckle/Hyde personality? was he a closet homosexual? His father alluded to that as a possibility when he mused about his son's bedroom being " too shiny and clean. Almost too orderly". Also, he writes "Maybe that dead Heard boy led him astray?" He also writes " And Tommy had known Charles Heard intimately! By God, yes." Certainly " A Father's Law" is not equal to Wright's previous classics especially the "The Outsider"---my favorite. Usually, Wright does not anchor his books in an apolitical context. He touches on the politics of Ruddy's promotion to Chief of Brentwood when he writes" Ruddy felt that he was on lien ground: this was no Black Belt, Irish shantytown, no Little Paris filled with jabbering Frenchmen...."
Unfortunately, we will never know why Tommy confesses to the murder wave. Or was he the actual killer? A good psychological thriller by Wright but no definitive closure because of his death.
Unfortunately, we will never know why Tommy confesses to the murder wave. Or was he the actual killer? A good psychological thriller by Wright but no definitive closure because of his death.
February 26, 2022
Reading Challenge 2022: Read a Book About a Difficult Choice
It's my suspicion that people who enlist in law enforcement do so for a variety of reasons, each with a certain degree of nuance that I can conceptually grasp, but never empathize with. However, I find Wright's perspective on why a black man, someone targeted by the institutional racism of law enforcement, would not only choose to be a police chief but even "flourish" (if our protagonist in fact grows) in such a position particularly compelling.
From my perspective, I don't fully empathize with marginalized/oppressed people who choose law enforcement, and in this way, I don't think I fully empathize with Ruddy, our protagonist. However, I appreciate the modernist gymnastics that Wright performs when defining a black presence in law. The rationale is there. Ruddy is working with tools that, per Audre Lorde, would never "dismantle the master's house." But then again, that's not what Ruddy wants.
It's my suspicion that people who enlist in law enforcement do so for a variety of reasons, each with a certain degree of nuance that I can conceptually grasp, but never empathize with. However, I find Wright's perspective on why a black man, someone targeted by the institutional racism of law enforcement, would not only choose to be a police chief but even "flourish" (if our protagonist in fact grows) in such a position particularly compelling.
From my perspective, I don't fully empathize with marginalized/oppressed people who choose law enforcement, and in this way, I don't think I fully empathize with Ruddy, our protagonist. However, I appreciate the modernist gymnastics that Wright performs when defining a black presence in law. The rationale is there. Ruddy is working with tools that, per Audre Lorde, would never "dismantle the master's house." But then again, that's not what Ruddy wants.
September 25, 2024
I’m saddened to know that this one of his last work before death.
I had mixed feelings going into the book because I knew there was no true ending because it’s an incomplete novel.
But I was so impressed by the writing. It echoes a lot of what we see in Native Son, but with a different perspective. It is a larger focus on a thriller with more a less some social commentary. I know if he had more time with the book, he would worked more of into it. It was getting there, but as this was the only draft, it’s hard to really judge it.
I know Wright would have done a good psychological thriller. But nonetheless, the inner conflicted dialogue of the father? Was the most interesting for me to read. And the father son conflict and the tension? Very engrossing and interesting.
5/5 because I was invested from start to finish.
I had mixed feelings going into the book because I knew there was no true ending because it’s an incomplete novel.
But I was so impressed by the writing. It echoes a lot of what we see in Native Son, but with a different perspective. It is a larger focus on a thriller with more a less some social commentary. I know if he had more time with the book, he would worked more of into it. It was getting there, but as this was the only draft, it’s hard to really judge it.
I know Wright would have done a good psychological thriller. But nonetheless, the inner conflicted dialogue of the father? Was the most interesting for me to read. And the father son conflict and the tension? Very engrossing and interesting.
5/5 because I was invested from start to finish.
February 26, 2021
It's hard to rate an incomplete draft of a novel by such an important literary contributor. Keeping in my mind that it was just a draft, I would describe the plot as intriguing and complex. I would have loved to be able to read the final product and learn not only the ending, but also how Wright tightened up the complexity of the characters and the father/son relationship. Even for draft, the characters did not lack development. They were complex. Wright just needed more time to "clean them up." Who knows?--a subsequent draft could've taken the plot into an entirely different direction.
I did find it odd (and a bit surprising) that the race relations were so peaceful given the time period.
All in all, I'm glad his daughter shared this with the world.
I did find it odd (and a bit surprising) that the race relations were so peaceful given the time period.
All in all, I'm glad his daughter shared this with the world.
January 13, 2025
This is my third Richard Wright book this year, and we’re still only two weeks into 2025! The writing is brilliant, as with his Native Son and Black Boy, and I would have given 5* for this too had it been tightly edited. This is apparently an unfinished first draft, published by Wright’s daughter posthumously. This explains the ending, but not why a basic editorial run didn’t catch the many repetitions that got a bit tiresome towards the end. Hence, the 4*.
Despite this minor point, this is still a book I will come back to for its reflections on the meaning of law, justice, and the indecipherable human experience!
Despite this minor point, this is still a book I will come back to for its reflections on the meaning of law, justice, and the indecipherable human experience!
July 6, 2025
This one is really hard to quantify since it’s 200 something pages of an unfinished draft, cranked out in six weeks. It’s sloppy and sometimes repetitive, but also immensely readable and sometimes brilliant. Wright doing his psychological thought breakdowns always is. Just like his other work, it’s painfully prescient on a number of fronts that in the 2020s we’re still wrangling: Cops lacking education and prep for psychological issues, serial killers, tokenism in law enforcing, how the ri rich hide their crimes with police help, etc.
I wish he could have finished this :(
I wish he could have finished this :(
September 22, 2019
It is hard to imagine why Richard Wright would write a story of conflict between law enforcement father and 19 year old son. He was living in Paris, France in a small studio apartment at the time, far away from his former home of Chicago and yet he sets his story there, in Chicago not Paris. Unfortunately, Richard Wright dies before resolving the father/son conflict, but his daughter provides an end to his story.
March 3, 2021
3.2- an unfinished, unpublished novel, it feels like it needs a year of discussion and revision with editors. But still engaging - a mystery, but with weak dialogue and shaky premise. It is the gut of the story that is compelling but needed more wrk to tell it eloquently as his other novels.
May 12, 2025
There is a good reason this book was not published until after Wright's death. While it contains many of his themes (fathers vs. sons, criticism of the American justice system), the writing is stilted and the dialogue unrealistic. I could not finish it.
June 10, 2020
Published posthumously by the authors daughter. The author died after writing the first draft only. Thus, it becomes a “ thriller inside a thriller”!
March 27, 2025
DNF - I couldn’t get over the amount of typos in this book!
June 2, 2008
Wright finished the first draft of this novel just before he died in 1960, but that was as far as it got. His daughter Julia revived it decades later, edited it, and got it published. It's nice to be able to feel like we can read just a bit more of Wright's work, that we can access a bit of his rough, unpolished writing and maybe get a glimpse of his writing process. But that is exactly what this is--rough and unpolished. The editing leaves much to be desired, even leaving in some obvious typos that are somewhat distracting. It's a first draft. And it just leaves me wanting more.
The focus of this novel, as you may have guessed from the title, is a father-son relationship between a cop dad, Ruddy, who's near retirement, and his disturbingly (to his father) intellectual son, Peter. The mother is around, but they both leave her in the dark regarding important issues, presumably "for her own good." This relationship is fraught with the miscommunication common between generations, lack of trust, issues of superiority and inferiority related to intellectualism vs. civil service, and the all-encompassing subject of the book: guilt. And some philosophical questions: What makes people obey the law? or, Why don't people kill more frequently? and, Why would someone confess to a crime they didn't commit?
The focus of this novel, as you may have guessed from the title, is a father-son relationship between a cop dad, Ruddy, who's near retirement, and his disturbingly (to his father) intellectual son, Peter. The mother is around, but they both leave her in the dark regarding important issues, presumably "for her own good." This relationship is fraught with the miscommunication common between generations, lack of trust, issues of superiority and inferiority related to intellectualism vs. civil service, and the all-encompassing subject of the book: guilt. And some philosophical questions: What makes people obey the law? or, Why don't people kill more frequently? and, Why would someone confess to a crime they didn't commit?
November 20, 2009
The overall plot was intriguing and kept me turning the pages, but Ruddy's constant philosophizing and over-analysis of his son starts to get old about half way through. Also, although Wright may have been a revolutionary writer in regards to race and class, I couldn't help but get angry at the flat female characters, and his portrayal of them. For instance, in one section, Ruddy Turner's wife answers the telephone in her own home, "Mr. Turner's residence." Maybe that is an accurate portayal of the 60's, but it was still difficult to get through in 2009. But what I found even more frustrating was that I found very few reviews that discussed his treatment of female characters! His own daughter, who wrote the introduction, didn't even comment on it. My book club was floored when I told them that so few reviews even mentioned this aspect of the book. We can't have been the only women to read this book and find this fault with it!
I imagine if Wright had finished the novel, the edited product would have been much easier to read -- with a little less over-analysis and maybe even less mysogyny.
I imagine if Wright had finished the novel, the edited product would have been much easier to read -- with a little less over-analysis and maybe even less mysogyny.
April 28, 2016
The unpublished novel after the death of its author famed Richard Wright is IMO an unfinished book with flaws that most readers are left to work through the logical conclusions conflicting the father and troubled son.
This is a crime/mystery, with main character father/ police chief Ruddy grappling with a high crime area as well as his relationship with son Tommy. Tommy is an enigma, a 19-year-old college student who types away late at night in his smoke-filled bedroom on some mysterious manuscript and who keeps Dad off-balance with cryptic pronouncements like “Only upon policemen has society conferred the right to kill.” Yet, Tommy jumps for joy at the news Ruddy is promoted to chief.
Dialogue is often trite. With Ruddy saying “Everything’s quiet,” and a page or two later again musing “Quiet, too quiet.”
The end is abrupt, with a newspaper headline Tommy has confessed to the killings in Brentwood Park. Is he, in fact, guilty? Do readers guess the answers according to the psychological ideas put forth by the police in trying to solves cases? The answers will never be known.
This is a crime/mystery, with main character father/ police chief Ruddy grappling with a high crime area as well as his relationship with son Tommy. Tommy is an enigma, a 19-year-old college student who types away late at night in his smoke-filled bedroom on some mysterious manuscript and who keeps Dad off-balance with cryptic pronouncements like “Only upon policemen has society conferred the right to kill.” Yet, Tommy jumps for joy at the news Ruddy is promoted to chief.
Dialogue is often trite. With Ruddy saying “Everything’s quiet,” and a page or two later again musing “Quiet, too quiet.”
The end is abrupt, with a newspaper headline Tommy has confessed to the killings in Brentwood Park. Is he, in fact, guilty? Do readers guess the answers according to the psychological ideas put forth by the police in trying to solves cases? The answers will never be known.
January 6, 2014
January 2014: 3 Stars
I'm going to start off by saying that this book was part of the assigned reading for one of my classes. That being said, it wasn't a book I would ordinarily pick up.
As it is, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would! Although some chapters are absurdly long and there can be no dialogue for pages on end at times, I still found this book very enjoyable!
I like how guilt is such a huge component of the plot. Is Tommy guilty? Is Ruddy guilty of not disciplining him enough, or of doubting him? Ruddy's feelings on this matter are all over the spectrum, which made him decidedly human.
It's too bad that the book was never really completed, but I think the "ending" is good enough. It definitely leaves plenty of room to draw your own conclusions!
Would I recommend this book? Sure, but it depends on the type of reader. I don't think this is a book that everyone would enjoy, but it's definitely worth the read.
I'm going to start off by saying that this book was part of the assigned reading for one of my classes. That being said, it wasn't a book I would ordinarily pick up.
As it is, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would! Although some chapters are absurdly long and there can be no dialogue for pages on end at times, I still found this book very enjoyable!
I like how guilt is such a huge component of the plot. Is Tommy guilty? Is Ruddy guilty of not disciplining him enough, or of doubting him? Ruddy's feelings on this matter are all over the spectrum, which made him decidedly human.
It's too bad that the book was never really completed, but I think the "ending" is good enough. It definitely leaves plenty of room to draw your own conclusions!
Would I recommend this book? Sure, but it depends on the type of reader. I don't think this is a book that everyone would enjoy, but it's definitely worth the read.
January 6, 2017
Wright (1909-1960) died of a heart attack in the midst of completing "A Father's Law" leaving this masterpiece unfinished. I am no Wright expert but "A Father's Law," I believe, was a different approach that Wright took to further express his views on themes like races, classes, social psychology, self-consciousness and etc.
An African-American officer just promoted to be the police chief in an upscale Caucasian community in Chicago. While unearthing a series of puzzling crimes, he came to suspect his own son, who was interested in criminal psychology and studied sociology in university, could be the culprit that he was going after. Whether or not the chief's son was guilty for the crimes, we readers will never find out.
Despite the fact that the writing was raw, bear in mind this was a work-in-progress, Wright maintained his captivating and magical style in this manuscripts. Love!
An African-American officer just promoted to be the police chief in an upscale Caucasian community in Chicago. While unearthing a series of puzzling crimes, he came to suspect his own son, who was interested in criminal psychology and studied sociology in university, could be the culprit that he was going after. Whether or not the chief's son was guilty for the crimes, we readers will never find out.
Despite the fact that the writing was raw, bear in mind this was a work-in-progress, Wright maintained his captivating and magical style in this manuscripts. Love!
March 15, 2012
This book got off to a slow start. I wasn't very motivated to keep reading it in the first three or four chapters, but I have faith Richard Wright's books are always worth readings. This is an unfinished novel, it was posthumously discovered and published by his daughter in its incomplete state. It explores traditional themes of family dynamics, racial inequality, criminality, and philosophical issues. Though the novel is unfinished, it feels as though it were intentional. I imagine Wright putting the manuscript aside and being conflicted about how the story should end. Though we do not have traditional closure, the ending prompts us to look at the novel more closely, for answers to our questions.
June 24, 2008
A detective,recently promoted to chief of police in a small town and investigating multiple murders there,is tortured by feelings of disloyalty because he has persistent thoughts that his son is implicated in the murders.
This book was published posthumously this year but written in the 50's or 60's.
Definitely a period piece in how it reflects the emergence of principles of psychology into the public lexicon. Odd and unusual writing style, with especially terrible dialogue in terms of craft.However, very fascinating story in light of all the biographical information about Richard Wright included in the back of the book.
I've never read Native Son.
This book was published posthumously this year but written in the 50's or 60's.
Definitely a period piece in how it reflects the emergence of principles of psychology into the public lexicon. Odd and unusual writing style, with especially terrible dialogue in terms of craft.However, very fascinating story in light of all the biographical information about Richard Wright included in the back of the book.
I've never read Native Son.
Read
February 5, 2009Richard Wright's unfinished novel divided critics. Some hailed it as "a prescient examination of the generational and class conflicts that await black Americans as they move from the margins of society into the cultural mainstream" (Washington Post); others panned its wooden dialogue, melodrama, and disappointing exploration of racial identity. They all agreed, however, that Wright would most certainly have tackled these narrative flaws. Despite the novel's shortcomings, Wright's admirers will be grateful for the opportunity to hear his voice once more.
This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.
October 9, 2008
Wright's unfinished novel, posthumously published, highlights the weakest elements of his craft - the relentless ideological diatribes, the hard-boiled crime cliches, the one-dimensional characters. I don't agree with the critics who have said it should never have been published, though; this is the kind of story to be appreciated for its social value and historical importance, not for its flimsy plot devices.
Read
January 27, 2008It is so refreshing to hear Richard Wright's voice again. In the last 15 years, we have received his book of haiku and "Rite of Passage" but until now his other unfinished works have been withheld. A Father's Law is an ambitious psycho-thriller with a racial undertone that is a natural development from Native Son and The Outsider. Wright would have turned 100 this year, but died at a young 60.
November 5, 2008
I loved the way it was written but the ending was a total disappointment, and ruined the book for me a little bit.
July 21, 2009
end very disappointng - almost felt that the book was unfinished -
November 28, 2010
The book was very good. Even though I knew the book was unfinished, I still feel like I was left hanging. This will be one of those books that i think about for a while after finishing it.
Read
January 18, 2013The last book written before Wrights Death in Paris. His daughter finished it. Amazing writer.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews