Eight Men

Here, in these powerful stories, Richard Wright takes readers into this landscape once again. Each of the eight stories in Eight Men focuses on a black man at violent odds with a white world, reflecting Wright's views about racism in our society and his fascination with what he called "the struggle of the individual in America." These poignant, gripping stories will captivate all those who loved Black Boy and Native Son. All eight men and all eight stories stand as beautifully, pitifully, teribly true. Some readers will be shocked by it for it presents straightforwardly a brilliant American Negro's point of view. Many more readers will be uplifted and encouraged by it. All the way through this is fine, sound, good, honorable writing rich with insight and understanding., even when occasionally twisted by sorrow. "Each story centers on a Negro, involved cruelly with his surroundings, beaten down by them: each central figure is in one way or another misunderstood by the world he knows: a few misunderstand and misinterpret that world. Altogether the eight men of these stories have in common a desperate heroism. A penetrating look at the heart of black america by the acclaimed author of Native Son