Great American Read List discussion

This topic is for discussion of our May 2020 group read, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.

To all who voted: thank you!
To everyone: I hope you'll participate and read this selection for our book club.
For those who do: share your thoughts as you read, please!
Spoilers are allowed; add a considerate warning if your comment includes any so members have the option to skip.

A few notes on this book:
* It came in at #72 on the final Great American Read list.
* It has a 3.87 average Goodreads rating.
* It was published in 1952, and was Ellison's first novel.
* It won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1953.
* It came in at #19 on Modern Library’s 100 best novels list, from 1998.

I have the audiobook version of this, read by Joe Morton, so I'll probably give that a try. (I bought it several years ago and never got around to it.) It's been a while since I tried to "read" a novel in audio form, and I'm not sure how well this one will work that way, but I might as well give it a shot.

I think this book will be a big change of pace from Ready Player One. I'm not sure if I'm ready for a "serious" book right now, but I'll take a crack at it and see if I can get into it.

With my local library closed, I put it on my hold shelf for my e-reader! Hope to join in soon!

I listened to the prologue to this book last night. Joe Morton is a really good choice of reader for this book, I think. The prologue is told in the form of a first-person narrative, and I assume the rest of the book is too. Morton's voice fits well for the narrator. And he does a good job with the dialog from other characters too, making them distinct from the narrator without going overboard.

I will admit that I started nodding off near the end of the prologue, and drifted a few minutes into chapter one before realizing that I wasn't really absorbing the text anymore. It's not that the book is boring, just that it's easy to fall into a rhythm with it, and nod off, if you're listening to it right before bed. And the end of the prologue is kind of a dream sequence anyway, so that probably didn't help.

I also bought a Kindle copy of this book today, since I saw it was on sale for $2. So I can switch to the Kindle version if I have too much trouble staying awake through the audio version.

There's a reference to Louis Armstrong's "(What Did I Do To Be So) Black And Blue" in the prologue. I found a good version of that on YouTube here. I'm wondering how many specific music references there are in the book.

This will be an interesting read when I get there. I will probably look for the Kindle version, unless I can find a good copy on Better World Books. I haven't been very successful at audio books, but there's always time to try that again. Thank you for the link to the Louis Armstrong song, he was one of my favorites.

I'm still working my way through the audiobook on this. This seems like a really relevant book right now. It's a tough read at times. (Not because it's not well-written, rather just that the subject matter is not always pleasant...) I've found that the Cliff's Notes on this are useful for context and to explain some of the symbolism and metaphors.

I'm still working on this. I hit a little snag with the audiobook, when the Audible iPhone app started crashing on me a few days ago. (I reported it to them, and they say it's a known bug and they're working on it. For now, I'm using my iPad instead.)

So far, this book has followed a pattern: (1) the protagonist enters a new situation with naive optimism, (2) tension builds, (3) things go wrong, (4) repeat. I'm not saying this as a criticism; it's effective. Ellison is making his point well.

This old New Yorker article on Ralph Ellison popped up in my Facebook feed this morning:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/19...
Ellison was an interesting guy. I really didn't know anything about him prior to starting this book.

Thanks!

Thank you for the link to the New Yorker article. I really enjoyed reading it and yes, Ellison sounds very interesting. He lived during some interesting times.

Andrew wrote: "I listened to the prologue to this book last night. Joe Morton is a really good choice of reader for this book, I think. The prologue is told in the form of a first-person narrative, and I assume t..."
Another musical reference was to "Many Thousand Gone". I found the lyrics and an audio of it and I am including the link.
https://www.balladofamerica.org/many-...

I've finally finished Invisible Man! My review is here, though there's not much to it.
I don't really feel like I'm qualified to write a detailed review of this.
I will say that I enjoyed reading it and appreciate it as a great and important book, but I'm still not sure if I "get it". It's not a book with a simple moral or lesson. (Or if it is, then it flew right over my head.) But it made me think more deeply about a few things that are all relevant right now.

I've finished Invisible Man. I really liked the style of writing, and the growing of the character's understanding of how the world is and how he was being mis-lead, it was rather sad. I probably would not have read this without it being on the list for GAR.