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Gems sometimes come from unexpected places such as Richard Wright’s autobiography/novel Black Boy.

I decided to read this because I discovered a free literature course named The American Novel since 1945 from Open Yale and it was the first title discussed. If interested in the course check this link: .

I have to admit that I did not know much about the author (he seems to be famous in the US) and I was not so keen about reading this book even after watching the introduction made by the course teacher. I was increasingly surprised when pages started to fly and I found myself totally immersed in Richard Wright’s childhood as a poor black boy in the South at the end of WW1.

That was a horrible time for an intelligent and curios black boy to be alive and try to accomplish his dream of telling stories. Even though slavery was abolished, black people were treated not much better than animals by the white folks. His curiosity and his love for books made him suffer endless beatings and the wrath of his family. Moreover, His honest and straight-forward manner created conflicts with the whites. He slowly learned to control his feelings and put all his strengths in finding a way to escape to the North.

I did not feel like the author was trying to make us feel pity for his childhood. The intent was more to present the facts as they were, how life was back then for a black boy. His intention is supported by the name of the book, Black boy. A generic name that can let us imagine that his experience is the experience of many of the black boys from that period. In the beginning of the review I said this is an autobiography/novel because there are many voices/proofs that contest the reality of some of the facts presented in the autobiography. It appears that some adventures were copied from other children’s experiences and some of the events happened differently than pictured here. That comes to support the idea that he wanted his autobiography to be generic.