21 Comments

You're an excellent writer and your reviews are always evocative and engaging. Thanks for sharing.

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Joseph, thank you so much! I’m glad you’re enjoying them. They’re almost as fun to write as the books are to read!

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Thank you for this review. Wright’s autobiography and novels are part of my library. Did you know later in life, when he was sick & dying, and living in Paris he wrote hundreds of Haiku? His daughter compiled his Haiku into a book.

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I had no idea. I’ve got the two Library of America volumes but I don’t think those are contained in them. I’ll have to check that out.

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@Joel J Miller the haiku are not in the Library of Congress books. The book is called Richard Wright Haiku This Other World. There’s also a biography of him: Richard Wright Daemonic Genius: A Portrait of The Man A critical Look At His Work by Margaret Walker.

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His life story seems interesting and inspiring. But I had to read Native Son in high school and it was pure Communist propaganda. Didn’t make me a fan of his literary output.

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He distanced himself from communism later on—mostly because of communists themselves.

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Thanks Joel. I’m not an expert in Richard Wright, but from a quick search and reading a few hits on the fantastic repository of information that is Marxists.org, it looks like he just moved with the times to a more Hegelian style of Marxism. Is that fair?

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Not sure. But my understanding is that he remained sympathetic to the goals of communism, though he couldn’t stand humans organizing as communists. It’s like it brought out the worst in people.

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I feel fortunate to have found your Substack, Joel. Your writing is clear and enlightening; the books you cover eye- and mind-expanding. Thank you!

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Thanks for being here, Jeremy. There’s more good stuff coming!

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Have the book, recommend it others.

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I’ll be doing the same going forward.

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It's astonishing that his grandmother would discourage him from learning to read. Mine was exactly the opposite, since she was a published author.

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His family situation was so astonishingly restrictive it boggles the mind. I’ve known a few people with tendencies that direction but to see it recounted as a form of full-blown fanaticism was wild.

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Hello Joel. I had not heard of American Hunger by Richard Wright. I will check that out next! Thank you, as always, for the fantastic book reviews. :)

And now I am EXTRA interested in this book because it is NOT available on Kindle, lol.

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You’re welcome! Thanks for reading!

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OK, I need to read this.

One more book on the mile-high stack!

I read his chapter in The God that Failed, and it was memorable.

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He became significantly disillusioned with communism, mostly because of the behavior of his fellow communists.

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Thanks for sharing your list!

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Thanks! I’m doing the same for classic fiction this year as well. You can find more about both lists here: https://www.millersbookreview.com/p/life-is-too-small-without-books

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