Invisible Man (by Ralph Ellison)

"The mind that has conceived a plan of living must never lose sight of the chaos against which that pattern was conceived."

Wow. This book is incredible, literally: I can't believe that it's Ellison's first book. Obviously he put his heart and soul into it, which is part of what makes it great. But the command of language, metaphor and symbol are... off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone else who uses symbolism quite so well. I wouldn't even want to try and make a list of the symbols in this book, because it's just too rich and too dense. And the symbols turn into larger motifs, which recur throughout the book, accumulating layers of meaning.

A book like Native Son, which is in a similar tradition, written by an African-American author and set in Harlem during the same time period, is important and thought provoking because of the story and the social questions raised by the story. Invisible Man has that same importance, but it adds a whole other layer on top of it. As a pure literary work, it is virtuosic. I was so impressed by this book. It goes in the category of Classics You Should Definitely Read.

"I looked into the design of their faces, hardy a one that was unlike someone I'd known down South. Forgotten names sang through my head like forgotten scenes in dreams. I moved with the crowd, the sweat pouring off me, listening to the grinding roar of traffic, the growing sound of a record shop loudspeaker blaring a languid blues. I stopped. Was this all that would be recorded? Was this the only true history of the times, a mood blared by trumpets, trombones, saxophones and drums, a song with turgid, inadequate words?" (Page 383)