(Reviewed by JD Jung)
#CommissionsEarned
“…even though his entire body was drenched in what seemed to him a cloud of hot vapor, even though his throat gagged at the reeking odors, he felt that he was safe for the first time in many long and weary hours…”
Fred Daniels, a twenty-nine-year-old black man in an unnamed city, was coming home from work to be with his wife, who was about to deliver their first-born. On his way, he was stopped, picked up and tortured by the police until he confessed to a double murder that he did not commit. He manages to escape from custody and flee into the sewer system.
As he makes his way through the darkness and stench underground, he occasionally encounters openings into the life above. He takes material items back down underground, but their meaning and value are abstract to him. Articles he found like jewelry and money, “were the toys of the men who lived in the dead world of sunshine and rain he had left, the world that had condemned him.”
Many events he used to attend regularly; he now saw differently as an observer. Regarding his fellow churchgoers, “…he had always felt what they felt; but here in the underground, distantly sundered from them, he saw a defenseless nakedness in their lives that made him disown them.”
Richard Wright (1908-1960) provided further insight into this gripping story and the “kinship of insanity and religion” in the companion essay, “Memories of My Grandmother”. He also gave us an intriguing look into his writing process for the book.
Don’t forget the compelling Afterword, in which his grandson, Malcolm Wright, gives us further insight and history into Wright’s story.
Richard Wright started writing The Man Who Lived Underground in 1941 but finished it years later. Portions have been published; however, the novel-length version was not published until this year.
This haunting story explores so many issues such as racism, violence, guilt, ethics, and freedom. It will provide hours of thought-provoking discussion for readers.
I very seldom give books “5 bookmarks”, but The Man Who Lived Underground and the accompanying essays with their striking prose definitely qualify. Get it now!
“The proceeds from the sale of this book will be used to support the mission of Library of American, a nonprofit organization that champions the nation’s cultural heritage by publishing American’s greatest writing in authoritative new editions.”
