- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd; First Edition edition (2 Dec 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0241140846
- ISBN-13: 978-0241140840
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,596,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Invisible Man, which Ralph Ellison had published in 1952, was one of the great debuts in contemporary literature. Alternating phantasmagoria with rock-ribbed realism, it delved into the blackest (and whitest!) corners of the American psyche and quickly attained the status of legend. Ellison's follow-up, however, seemed truly bedevilled--not only by its monumental predecessor but by fate itself. First, a large section of the novel went up in flames when the author's house burned in 1967. Then he spent decades reconstructing, revising and expanding his initial vision. When Ellison died in 1994, he left behind some 2,000 pages of manuscript. Yet this mythical mountain of prose was clearly unfinished, far too sketchy and disjointed to publish. Apparently Ellison's second novel would never appear.
Or would it? Ellison's literary executor, John Callahan, has now quarried a smaller, more coherent work from all that raw material. Gone are the epic proportions that Ellison so clearly envisioned. Instead, Juneteenth revolves around just two characters: Adam Sunraider, a white, race-baiting New England senator, and Alonzo "Daddy" Hickman, a black Baptist minister who turns out to have a paradoxical (and paternal) relationship to his opposite number. As the book opens, Sunraider is delivering a typically bigoted peroration on the Senate floor when he's peppered by an assassin's bullets. Mortally wounded, he summons the elderly Hickman to his bedside. There the two commence a journey into their shared past, which (unlike the rest of 1950s America) represents a true model of racial integration.
Ellison juggles the multiple ironies of race and religion with effortless brilliance and his delight in Hickman's house-wrecking rhetoric is contagious:
Bliss, I've heard you cutting some fancy didoes on the radio, but son, Eatmore was romping and rampaging and walking through Jerusalem just like John! Oh, but wasn't he romping! Maybe you were too young to get it all but that night that mister was 10,000 misters and his voice was pure gold.
The portion of Juneteenth that covers Bliss's ecclesiastical education--perhaps a third of the entire book--is as electrifying as anything in Invisible Man. In comparison, though, the rest of the novel seems like pretty slim pickings. For one thing, much of the plot--including Bliss's transformation from pint-sized preacher to United States senator--is absent. For another, Ellison's confinement of the two top-billed players to a hospital room makes for an awfully static narrative. Granted, he intended their dialogue to exist "on a borderline between the folk poetry and religious rhetoric" (or so he wrote in his notes). But this is a dicey recipe for a novel and Juneteenth veers between naturalism and hallucination much less effectively than its predecessor did.
None of this is to assail Ellison's artistry, which remains on ample display. The problem is that Callahan's splice job--which well may be the best one possible--remains weak at the seams. So should readers give Juneteenth a miss? The answer would still have to be no. The best parts are as powerful and necessary as anything in our literature. --James Marcus
Product Description
It is Washington D.C. in the 1950s, and a race-baiting senator has just been shot by a black man. On his deathbed, the senator calls out for a mysterious stranger, Their conversaton and the memories it sparks take them back through the senator's life to the buried secrets of their shared past.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Audio Cassette
Yes, his work is difficult to embrace and truly know. Yet, the effort is well rewarded. Perhaps the best method to know the work is through the audiotape read by Blair Underwood. One might say that Underwood does justice to this sometimes elusive literary masterpiece or, in balance, that this novel allows the expression of the the performance genius of Blair Underwood. This is a hard-studied, finely tuned work of art performed by this gifted actor. After having "studied" Invisable Man, I had learned that one simply does not read Ralph Ellison but must strive to understand genius and to "hear the rhythm and the beat". That is the attitude one must bring to Juneteenth. And then the rewards will flow. If nothing else, buy this tape presentation for Tape 2, Side B, where Underwood gives a remarkable performance of Reverend Hickman's explanation of the essense of the Juneteenth celebration. If I were an educator, I would make it a mandatory part of the curriculum.
Format:Hardcover
Although not Invisible Man -- what book is -- Juneteenth is a good work by an inspiring author. I particularly liked the call and response pattern between Hickman and Bliss, however, I was sometimes confused by Ellison's movements between the past and the present. Those aspects of the novel warrant a close reading so the reader can get a good grasp of what is happening. I give John Callahan credit, taking a huge manuscript and turning it into a workable novel, especially by today's standards, is no easy task. He did a fine job with it. In the afterword to the book Callahan promises another edition with more of Ellison's manuscript included. I can't wait. In the meantime, I can't help wonder what might have been...
Format:Hardcover
Juneteenth was a difficult, but worthwhile read. I have read "Invisible Man" and have been exposed to his prose and masterful imagery before and was somewhat prejudiced about reading "Juneteenth". However, I was not disappointed. The author very rarely slips out of Ellison's prose and carries the mood, the scenes and the language well. It is by no means an easy piece of literature to read. The story is serves as a background to the more prominent foci of the novel which are Ellison's highly descriptive and detailed scenes, the deep-rooted, backwoods southern language and the psychological escapades of a young boy. This book takes some determination to read as it takes much effort to grow accustomed to Ellison's style and I recommend reading "Invisible Man" before reading "Juneteenth". However, despite the work, I enjoyed the novel overall and at times was captivated by the wild scenes and intrigued by the thoughts of Bliss.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The worse piece of fiction since the Warren Report.
I read and thouroughly enjoyed Ellison's Invisible Man. In my opinion, that was one of the best pieces of American Literature. Read more
Published on 16 July 1999
Blair Underwood reading adds a resonance to Ellison's words
While the first (of four) tapes begins as a traditional "reading", the actor in Underwood soon emerges in response to Ellison's literary power. Read more
Published on 10 July 1999
Not a finished work, but superb nonetheless
"Juneteenth" has been receiving surprisingly weak reviews. This is unfortunate, for the novel -- incomplete as it is -- is magnificently funny, engaging, and finally... Read more
Published on 23 Jun 1999
In the presence of a literary genius
It is apparent that Juneteenth is a patch-and-paste job. But, there is nothing wrong with the work. Ellison's prose is the best that has come down the road in years. Read more
Published on 16 Jun 1999
a good but frustrating read
As with any other unfinished work (The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Garden of Eden, etc.) it is difficult to read this without wondering what it might have been if Ellison had... Read more
Published on 8 Jun 1999
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