The Man Who Lived Underground

Mirror. Readers have the chance to appreciate a previously unpublished novel by the late Richard Wright titled, The Man Who Lived Underground. Written in the 1940s, and rejected for publication, this novel offers a mirror of that time with our own. A Black man has been forced violently to confess to a crime he didn’t commit. He flees from custody into the sewers where he finds and gathers treasures. We feel the confusion of this protagonist and his struggle with life and injustice. Wright draws us into his plight and relates the story with such clarity that our anger builds as the story progresses. Then there’s residual anger about the forces that restricted publication of this novel when it was written. Finally, there are all the feelings about what has and has not changed in the United States from the 1940s to the present. Read this reminder of Wright’s prodigious talent for his own time and ours. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase The Man Who Lived Underground from amazon.com.