Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

Native Son by Richard Wright

8 reviews

morenowagain's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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amalas_bookstop's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Jordan Peele has nothing on the mind that is Richard Wright. I do not know if I was completely ready to read this black horror, but at the same time I am glad I did. 

The way Richard Wright was able to write a character like Bigger, whose only accomplishment is becoming what the world thought of him is heartbreaking. There were no winners or losers in this story, it completely showed how we all fall short and the consequences that come from that. 

Parts of this story had me holding my breath, and the panic and fear bigger felt throughout this whole story was so well written you could not help but feel it.

This book is a solid 4.5 stars. Very well done, but at the same time unfortunate that this needed to be written. A must read.
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njlb's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

wow. an uncomfortable, confronting read but an amazingly well-crafted exploration of race relations in 1940s America
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loverofwisdomandmen's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective tense slow-paced

4.25

Bro. I still need to do my deep dive for ap literature about this but UGH this was a PAGE TURNER.  Richard Wright had me on the edge of my seat- asking my study hall teacher whether or not human bones would burn in a furnace 😭 .  Just a very good piece of literature although I can’t disagree with the feminist criticisms of how one dimensional some of the women were depicted compared to the men- but that’s a whole nother can of worms- this is a gem of realist societal criticism . 
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readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Certainly worth a read given the impact of the book and author in black literature especially American and how obvious the book and Wright is in conversation with Camus but it’s a very heavy and depressing read that being in the mind of not even Bigger but Wright’s beliefs gave me a lot of despair about the world and the US in particular. 
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lizawood's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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michaelion's review

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challenging dark informative tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

Dear StoryGraph, I implore you, please add a trigger tag specifically for misogynoir, because it's disgusting how much of it is in this book.
The choice to open the book with Bigger killing a rat, then terrorizing his sister to the point where she faints and he laughs about it is mild foreshadowing of what's to come. Also, unrelated to the opening scene, there's something poetic about everything black men fear about being caught doing with a white woman, they do to Black women. Justice4Bessie!


If you're planning on reading this, brace yourself. In my edition, there was an excerpt where Wright tells the readers of a book club that the first draft of this book was 576 pages. Which actually makes me like this book less, because it could've easily been 200 pages shorter and been a tighter, sharper, better story. It was a drag to get through reading. In the third section of the book alone, one character monologues for 23 pages with no breaks. After a certain point you simply have to start skimming. But, I promise, you're not missing much.

I gave this rating an extra .25 for Jan and Max. It sucks that the characters I like most were the not-like-the-others whites!
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directorpurry's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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