Eight Men

This work was published after Richard Wright death. It is not his best work, and I don't know why they rushed to publish other than for monetary awards. The Introduction by Paul Gilroy was quite disturbing and negative toward Mr. Wright and should have been omitted. One of the excerpts was rejected by publisher before he died, and I know why. The short story" Black Good Man" was so outward different and odd and not surreal. I only liked 3 of the works (" The Man who was almost a Man" was very good but my favorite was "Man of All Work". I could not imagine someone writing this in 1960 but it was different and good even though it is far-fetched. The last short story "The Man Who went to Chicago:" sounds almost an autobiography of Richard Wright. Mr. Wright was a good wrier and excellent storyteller. I have tried to read more than most of his work. May he continue to rest in peace,

Though this does not contain Mr. Wright's best short story, "Bright and Morning Star", it does reveal his brilliance in telling a tale and connecting to the Black experience. From his use of the vernacular to his adept reaching of the Black man's perception of the white worlds attitude's toward him, Mr. Wright's work brings a certain comfort in knowing that some one else has gone through what the reader has.

Richard Wright is well known as the author of classic American books like "Native Son", but this was my first sample of his short story work. Eight Men is a collection of short stories about Black men in very different and unusual situations, but all of the stories involve their struggles in life."The Man Who Lived Underground" was the story that struck me the most. The elements of this story took a considerable amount of time to analyze back when I was a freshman in college. It is the story of Fred Daniels, a black man, wrongly accused of murder, who escapes to the sewer and there realizes the harsh realities of his existence. More happens in that sewer than you probably imagine. It is the longest of all of the stories."The Man of All Work" is the story that had the most humor in it. "Eight Men" is a collection of fairly sad stories that detail the oppressive conditions of Black men in the 1930's, and this short story joined with "The Big Black Good Man" as the only ones with noticeable humor to them. The resourcefulness of a Black man in a town where there were no jobs for Black men is the basis of this story.Our book club found "Eight Men" to be very interesting on a number of levels. The discussion was lively, and everyone had contributions. The meeting ran past the scheduled time, and that is the highest praise that we can give to a book.

I really enjoyed all the readings in the book. All of the readings were captivating. This book displayed the expertise that Wright displays in all his works.