Black Boy

Rating:
Summary: Black Boy by Richard Wright
Review: Do you like reading about racism and suspense? If you are then Black Boy by Richard Wright is the book for you. Richard Wright describes his life as a Black Boy living in the Jim Crow South. He had to learn how to make a living and support himself after his father left him. His mother also became ill. Richard grew up with poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. He lied, stole, and lashed out in anger at those around him including his family. He had to killed and tortured animals when he was a six-year-old just to survive. He also drank at bars. He was surrounded on the one side by whites that were either very different on him. In the stories he explain that whites are cruel, while blacks resented anyone who tries to rise above them. I really didn't have any favorite parts because this book didn't seem very interesting, maybe because it has a lot of racism in the book or maybe I don't know the black culture. Towards at the end of the book, Richard and his family keep struggling moving to the North. They had a lot of obstacles moving North. But at the end they finally did it. If you want to know more about Black living in the South during the 1930s, I would recommend this book to you. Black Boy will make you mad, laugh, and make you think what it was like living in the South. But For me, this book wasn't the best book that I ever read.

Rating:
Summary: A Book To Read
Review: I recently read Black Boy by Richard Wright and I must say it is an amazing book. The book is about Richard growing up in the South in the early 1900's. It may sound a little boring but believe me it's not. Richard had a hard life growing up and that's what makes the book so interesting. Burning up houses, killing cats, and becoming a drunk were just some of the things he did before reaching the age of eight. The thing I like most about him is how he grew up very poor, moved from place to place, including an orphanage, never completed two consecutive school years, and still managed to become a well-educated young man and a world-famous writer. Although the book was very interesting, there were some parts at the end that I felt were a little boring, but maybe that's just me. Either way, I think Richard Wright was a very talented writer, and if you get the chance, you should read his autobiography, Black Boy. I recommend this book to anyone over the age of thirteen that is interested in learning about history or just likes to read about some hardships other people had to face growing up.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: In general, _Black Boy_ was a fantastic book. I bought this while on a trip in California and stayed up at night to read it on the bathroom floor while everyone else slept. Totally worthwhile! It's difficult not to be drawn in to this man's tale of oppression and frustration - whether or not you want to feel what it was to be Black in the past century, you will feel it.

The issue of Communism toward the end of the novel caused me to lose interest - both because I'm not politically-minded and not at all interested in that sort of conclusion. I wanted the protagonist to come out a hero of sorts - instead the book becomes bogged down with politics and the young man being dragged into a herd mentality that is a turn-off for a reader looking for a meatier ending.

Also recommended: The Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison

Rating:
Summary: Black Boy
Review: This book was assigned to my nephew as part of his 11th grade reading curriculum. I picked it up because he kept complaining about it's content and how boring it was. As I began reading, I was quite engrossed by Richard Wright's vivid recollections of his life and the pain he had experienced. However, the more I read, the harder I found it to believe that he could so exactly remember so many episodes of his life in such great detail that had happened to him at such a young age. The more I read, the more the book became like a work of fiction and less like an autobiography.

I cannot begin to imagine the pain and suffering that life in the early south brought about, but for Richard Wright there seemed to be no kind of happiness. As the book progressed the initial interest I had in Richard Wright's story waned due to his constant whining against not only the whites but his family, and the belief that he was superior everyone around him.

Rating:
Summary: Wow! One of those books you can not put down!
Review: This book was required reading for my daughter's high school English class. She handed it to me one day and said "Mom, this is a powerful book. I think you'd like it a lot!" So I began to read the book and she was right. I loved it.

I grew up in the South in the 1960's and I love books about life in the deep south. This book is (sadly) very believable and really enlarged my sense of compassion for humanity and more precisely, opened my eyes ever more to the core issues of racial prejudice.

The language is graphic and some descriptions are pretty rough. As a prior poster said - it is not a book for anyone under 16. It is a book for mature audiences, only.

But what a book. It's one of those rare books that gives a real paradigm shift. Things suddenly look quite different after you've finished reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Review: I listened to to the audio novel while at work (this is a wonderful boredom reliever for people with boring jobs). It was a bit intense for the setting (I was scowling at co-workers who talked to me), but the story was inspiring. It belongs alongside the great autobiographies. It struck me for the same reasons that the Autobiography of Malcolm X struck me. Both are stories of men overcoming the terrible situation that a racist society has placed them in by educating themselves. Both of the books should be given to teenagers in order to inspire them to read.

Rating:
Summary: Black Boy
Review: Black Boy is about pain, hunger, and deprivation. For because of the white man, Richard is hungry, lost, and insecure. But the most important message of Black Boy is the deprivation of human existence that all blacks had to endure at that time. Richard's words are very insightful, because they question the same establishment and the same white race that burns the vessels on which racial equality floats today. Black Boy is again a reminder of our civic duty to defy racism in our euphoric state of justice, and save the lives of countless victims of white greed, including Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Rating:
Summary: Black Boy
Review: Black Boy was a very interesting book about the life of the author Richard Wright. This book is about the mental and physical hunger he went through. Richard at young age had to learn how to make living and surrport himself after his father left him, and him mother became very ill. He wanted to rise above the average black and move north to become a writer. He was not only looked down upon by the whites but also his fellow blacks. This is an very excellent book, I would recomend everyone to read Black Boy.

Rating:
Summary: African American Relality in the Jim Crow South
Review: Black Boy is a book that exposes the reality of racisim in the South experinced by the author. It is an powerful book, looking at the harsh realities of life for Richard and other blacks in the south before the Civil Rights movement. In reading this book you will see how life was for African Americans and the blatant racism that they faced. It is a personal favorite of mine and hopfully it a favorite to all people regardless, of racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Book
Review: This book Black Boy (American Hunger) is one of the best books that I have ever read. It talks about a subject that is near my heart even though I am not African American. It's contents are spoken from the heart of the author, Richard Wright. He tells the truth about how it was and not about how it could of been. I recommand this book to anyone and everyone. This book should be read no matter the background of the beliefs of a person.