Read it in my first semester as a freshman Biochem major in college with a great grad student as the teacher of a class on American Lit. Really changed how I thought about books and how I approached writing.
The class was incredibly challenging. I stopped going to my chemistry classes and changed my major to English/Creative Writing.
That was 20 years ago and things have worked out OK. I’m sure I’m happier now (business management career) than I would be in a scientific field.
Reread it this past summer with my college age daughter who was reading it for school. Realized how much more of it I understood now, and how little of it could possibly make sense to her. The experiential depiction of a Black man in Harlem in the 1940s/1950s is like the purest amber fossil. That world in so many ways no longer exists but the vivid rendition brings it alive. Brilliant, brilliant book to read as an adult.
Ha, yeah I was just wondering about that. I haven’t re-read more than a few passages of it since that class. I remember the world Ellison described and the feeling of being there on the street with the narrator was so real.
Turns out it’s only $2.99 on Kindle right now. That’s inspiration enough to give it another read :)
Read it in my first semester as a freshman Biochem major in college with a great grad student as the teacher of a class on American Lit. Really changed how I thought about books and how I approached writing.
The class was incredibly challenging. I stopped going to my chemistry classes and changed my major to English/Creative Writing.
That was 20 years ago and things have worked out OK. I’m sure I’m happier now (business management career) than I would be in a scientific field.