About this title: Here is Wright's compelling story of a black man's attempt to escape his past. "The novel, which builds steadily to a clamorous denunciation of the rival totalitarianisms of Communism and Fascism, also offers a dire--and accurate--prediction of a world wide revival of religious fundamentalism in response to the spiritual gloom spawned by these ...
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Description: Good. 0060539259 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 0060539259 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: 1982
ISBN-13:9780060800222ISBN:0060800224
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Nice copy despite ex store markings. Binding is tight. Interior text is crisp, clean and unmarked. Spine is square. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: First Signet Printing
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Signet, New York
Date Published: 1954
Description: Good. Mass Market Used Author's fifth book; novel concerning the experiences of a Black American in Chicago and New York. Vintage mass market edition, wear and creasing to wraps, fading to edges, internal browning). read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780060809768ISBN:0060809760
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. (A83_2/9)Book is in good condition. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
"Richard Wright's "The Outsider" tells the story of Cross Damon, a black man living in Chicago around 1950 who, after a narrowly escaping death in a freak 'El' derailment, lets the world believe he is dead and leaves for New York City to live as a ghost, a non-entity, an outsider. But when he gets to NY he finds his past life's habits impossible to leave behind. Damon, an intellectual prone to obsessive thought and bouts of self-loathing, is borne immutably down the path he had tread his entire life, only now with the full understanding of its isolation, despair, and violence.
One of the most frightening books I've read since, well, Richard Wright's "Native Son", this book examines the difficulty of changing one's lot and the futility and danger of trying to do right through criminal, nefarious means. And above that, it's a beautifully written, fully self-aware novel about the existence of those who never seem to fit."
"Although I skipped Uncle Tom's Children, I'm reading Richard Wright's books in chronological order. Of course, maybe you've heard this story, but I'll tell it again. I wasn't even into reading until my AP English professor, Mrs. Jones, bless her, pulled out 20 copies of Native Son for us to read. After that, they had me. I had to read everything. My father's endless shelves of theology never interested me, but the brand-new world of high literature did. Everything else we read in school was garbage, or either completely useless classical tomes. But Native Son was what I needed. More importantly, it was my introduction to modern(ist?) literature. The older, flowery books had no affect on me. Wright even mentioned in Black Boy how his bleak life was just a preparation for modern literature. How could he be lulled into the dreamy world of poetry and romanticism after that kind of a life in Mississippi? It would have been impossible.
But yes, this book, it's a masterpiece through and through. Wright finally perfected his trademark, the philosophical thriller. That's what he was trying to do in Native Son, but I don't think he understood it yet. This book is basically Native Son, but just make Bigger Thomas an autodidactic philosopher and you get the loner Cross Damon. He's a postal worker with a penchant for the existentialists. A freak train accident pronounces him dead, so he decides to play along and starts a new life. Literature does this all the time. People always need to break away, don't we? So, instead of an intensely acute narrator like in Native Son, here we have to listen to the philosophical musings of Cross Damon. And yes, how wonderful and brilliant they are. These were obviously Wright's own worries, and it positions him as an invaluable thinker in addition to a masterful writer. It would take me at least 15 more years of dedicated study to get to the intellectual point that Wright was at when he wrote The Outsider. It's quite impressive, and instilled a need in me to seek out more profound literature. Without spoiling too much of the novel, I will say that Cross Damon, the protagonist, encounters the Communist party, much akin to the unnamed Invisible Man. Just like in Ralph Ellison's novel, and in nearly every other American book since, the Communists are portrayed as being the source of some shadowy, unspeakable evil. These authors always describe them as some freedom stealing group, and let's not even get into how satanically evil Stalin's Soviet Union. The Evil Empire, correct? Well, I guess these books can't be perfect, but that is the American Way, no? I'm sure that by this point, Wright had come into contact with the elitist core of America. Yet, still I can safely say that this is one of real masterpieces of American lit, and it is for that reason that it was written in France. "Good Americans go to Paris when they die." - Oscar Wilde"
"Richard Wright's 'The Outsider' is a phenomenal novel that draws the reader to the dark side of the life of the main character Cross Damon. This extraordinary character introduces the reader to a man who lives outside the norms, expectations, rules, and laws of society. He embraces no ideological, societal or governmental theories, and he claims no religious prinicipals. Wright allows the reader to imagine the life of an individual who has little emotional regard for his family, who constantly succombs to his desire for women, and whose destructive ideologies decide the fate of his life. This intriguing page turning novel will appeal to the reader from beginning to end. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys classic African-American literature."
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