***Group Read: Invisible Man Prologue & Chapters 1-12

Discussie1001 Books to read before you die

Sluit je aan bij LibraryThing om te posten.

***Group Read: Invisible Man Prologue & Chapters 1-12

Dit onderwerp is gemarkeerd als "slapend"—het laatste bericht is van meer dan 90 dagen geleden. Je kan het activeren door een een bericht toe te voegen.

1billiejean
aug 2, 2010, 10:02 pm

Here is the place to post your thoughts on the first half of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.

2george1295
aug 25, 2010, 9:03 am

Started reading last night. So far, so good, but I'm only in the second chapter.

3ALWINN
aug 31, 2010, 11:26 am

I will be starting this in the next couple of days.

4george1295
sep 3, 2010, 12:27 pm

Over half way through and the pace is picking up.The I-man is a very interesting character to say the least.

5Yells
sep 6, 2010, 5:37 pm

He does get himself into some interesting messes doesn't he? I found on more than one occasion that I had to re-read a passage just to make sure that I read what I thought I'd read!

6billiejean
sep 7, 2010, 2:22 am

#5 I totally agree! This book hooked me from the prologue, but I must admit that I could not believe just how much trouble the narrator managed to get in. It seems to me that the only good thing that happens to him in the first half is meeting Ms. Rambo who takes care of him after his release from the "factory hospital." I don't know what exactly I expected, but this was not it. I can't wait to see what the second half has in store.
--BJ

7ALWINN
sep 7, 2010, 9:19 am

You know I still dont understand what happened or how he ended up in the 'factory hospital'. I remember reading about him being down in the basement with the old man and then all of a sudden it is strapped down in the hospital.... But I am enjoying the book very much other then that.

8billiejean
sep 7, 2010, 3:46 pm

I think that something exploded as the gauges were not watched and maybe his boss said some unflattering things about him. It was pretty surreal, wasn't it? I was not really sure about any of it either.
--BJ

9Yells
sep 7, 2010, 8:30 pm

If I defer to my handy-dandy copy of The Book of Great Books by Campbell, he sums up that scene by saying:

After lunch, Brockway accuses him of being a tool of the union, and during the fight that follows each forgets to monitor the machine, which explodes and knocks the narrator unconscious. He wakes up, confused, in the factory hospital receving shock therapy from a white doctor who uses him in an experiment to test a new machine.

The shock therapy really confused me because, really? You can get knocked out at work and wake up part of an experiment? I could buy the other strange things that happened to this poor guy (why does he never, never get a name?) but that was just plain weird.

I finished it and although I found it to be a strange novel, the language really made it for me. It's definitely worth finishing and I am glad it's on the list because I probably wouldn't have given it the time of day before.

10ALWINN
sep 8, 2010, 8:43 am

haha I honestly thought I had missed something important, I was like okay the old man was upset they started fussing and then all of a sudden we are reading about shock treatments.

I am on the last quarter of the book hoping to finish it tonight.

11billiejean
sep 8, 2010, 10:27 am

I had not clicked to the fact that he had no name until the doctor kept asking him "What is your name?" Then I read on the back cover that we never find out. I hope to start the second half today.
--BJ

12jdaniel3760
Bewerkt: sep 28, 2010, 8:20 pm

My late comments....

I'm about 3/4 through - I'm finding it quite hard to get a handle on the character.

Sometimes he's totally without guile and falls into the darnedest situation. Overtime’s he's just crazy angry. I'm really interested to see how this one pans out.

(edit - I saw an errant apostrophe, oops!)

13ALWINN
sep 28, 2010, 9:07 am

Yes is was a interesting character to say the least.