- Paperback: 528 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; abridged edition edition (Sep 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060929804
- ISBN-13: 978-0060929800
- Product Dimensions: 20.4 x 13.6 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,102,141 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Book Description
Richard Wright's brutal and gripping novel was a huge hit - selling at a rate of 2,000 copies a day - on first publication in 1940.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
Bigger Thomas, a black boy, has to die in the electric chair before he can feel alive. He has to kill before he finds a reason to live - kill the only people who had ever reached for his lost soul, a rich white girl who believed in equality and a poor black girl who accepted that there was none.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A eye opening read,
This review is from: Native Son (Vintage classics) (Paperback)
Guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish, once picked up it's impossible to put down. If it's a fairy tale ending you're after, this definitely isn't for you. Descibing vividly the poverty, deprivation and oppression suffered by the black people of 1930/40's America, a special message is conveyed through a host of disturbing truths that are certain to hit the reader hard. The central character, Bigger Thomas is portrayed as both murderer and victim in this cleverly devised masterpiece. The sufferings of an entire race seem subject to the future of Thomas, the 20 year old man who's life has been predominantly controlled by a cold and fierce people. This WHITE blanket that smothers the BLACK world that Bigger grows to hate provides the reader with a situation they undoubtedly become passionate about. By the end, the reader is left feeling subdued; resentful yet compassionate and merciful. The only criticism i would have, is that the book does depend a lot upon the reader being able to empathise with Bigger, which is something that i personally found quite hard to do. Neverthless, another must read from Richard Wright.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Tough and Uncompromising,
By Peter Reeve (Thousand Oaks, CA USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Native Son (Vintage classics) (Paperback)
Although "Native Son" is not written in the first person, the narrative concentrates almost exclusively on the central character, Bigger Thomas. This gives the story all the intensity and focus of a first-person account, but enables the author to use a more articulate voice than his subject would have been capable of. Few novelists have employed this technique in such an uncompromising way. We are with Thomas every breath, every step. I think few readers will get to like him, any more than Wright himself does, but we get to know and understand him. He is a product of 1930s America, of deeply ingrained racial prejudice and extreme economic disparity. Wright does not suggest that this excuses Bigger, only that it explains him. The writing style is lean and muscular, sparse and direct. We are given only bare descriptions as Wright allows action and dialogue to carry the story.The plot is sound, the only really implausible element being the gathering of the entire cast of characters in the prison cell, something Wright himself acknowledged could not happen in reality but for which he allowed himself dramatic license. It is true though, that the final phase goes on too long and the long diatribes from Max are unconvincing. Another socialist writer, Upton Sinclair, suffered from the same tendency to preach instead of relying on the story to carry the message. Despite these reservations, "Native Son" remains an important social commentary and a forceful and compelling portrait of a lost soul.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Breath-taking,
By
This review is from: Native Son (Vintage classics) (Paperback)
This astounding novel pounds like a sledgehammer. It reads at breathtaking pace, and transports you into another person's head in the way that a good book should - you will not notice your surroundings (I read this on the commute on the Tube to work) - you will find it difficult to put down. You think you know the injustices of this time. Read this to feel what it really felt like. Enough to give me chest pain at the end of every journey - especially when I missed my stop...
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