Customer Reviews

A Father's Law (P.S.)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have always been a fan of Richard Wright. "Black Boy" was one of the first books that I ever read to completion in my early years, along with S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders", and then "Native Son" by Wright. Ponyboy and Bigger made great impressions on me as a rural Mississippi kid with hopes of living somewhere that would remotely resemble a world in motion.

I learned of "A Father's Law" through an online group. Dr. Jerry Ward, Jr. had written a review of the book before it was available to the general public. I placed my order before the book was available and anxiously waited for delivery.

I read this book slowly, because reading this book brought back memories and themes from his earlier works. Expelling them was not to be done. Instead, I weighed them against the lines and tones of the new work. The unfinished story shifted my perception of Mr. Wright away from the racial themes that predominated his other works. Mr. Wright was writing a story that seemed to be freeing him to go beyond doing the necessary work of using literature as a form of protest. He was using literature to create the type of books that made writers great because of how they wrote, and not what they wrote. "A Father's Law" shows progression. Once there was Bigger and now there is Police Chief Ruddy who has a troubled son, Tommy, that echoes the Bigger character-type but who also demonstrates the distance that we now see between generations. The effects of that distance within the story is seen in the actions taken by the son.

The plot of the unfinished novel is an unfinished reality we continue to ponder with, especially regarding youth and crime. Ruddy was able to rise out of the themes Wright presented to us in Native Son and other stories. However, he was successful in using Tommy to show us what we now know by experience and the evening news of the late eighties and nineties which had the young and old facing and moving in different directions.

The book is well done. His daughter, Julia, paid great tribute by completing this project and submitting the manuscript. It is a gift to us all. It ended at a very exciting point in the story. I would be certain to guess that the author was gearing to steer us to a dynamic conclusion. While reading, I thought I'd feel cheated with this being an unfinished novel. I was not cheated at all. Instead, I was left at a crossroad marvelling at the various paths that lay ahead.

Also, The story put me in the mind of Walter Mosely and his Easy Rawlins novels at times. With revisions that would only come with the work that time didn't allow, this book could have been a finished product that would serve as a pivot point in the career of a great writer. "A Father's Law" is a great celebration.

I'm a pretty big fan of Wright, so I was surprised to see A FATHER'S LAW on the shelf in the store while on vacation (I had no idea it was coming). If you like Wright, it's well worth reading; if you're not familiar with him, it's not likely that you'll care for the book since it is, after all, unfinished--and ends at a crucial point in the action.

For scholars and fans, all the Wright-isms are here: the stream of consciousness, the quick plot turns, the psychological aspects, the pointed dialogue (the racial themes are muted here, though present). It's amazing to me how he was able to make such potboilers as fascinating as did. I knocked off the 260-odd pages in three sittings, and can only imagine where Wright would've taken things had he lived.

Amazing work. I only wish there would have been a conclusion. It has prompted me to read other works by Richard Wright. I knew going in I would be left hanging because it was an unfinished work but after a few pages I didn't care. I threw causion to the wind and fell head first in love with the story.

I've been fascinated by Wright's work for some time (my Master's thesis is based on analyzing one of his most obscure and scathingly criticized works, THE OUTSIDER, as a work of tragedy rather than as the banal, existential work it is so commonly viewed and limited as being). I, too, was taken aback when I stumbled upon A FATHER'S LAW while on vacation in San Francisco and, immediately, I swiped the only copy off of the shelf. I put my vacation on vacation to read the book. I am still ambivalent about how to receive this work. I realize it is unfinished, and I am unsure was to how "unfinished" it is, but my proclivity for Wright's craft compels me to urge interested readers into reading this work with their expectations on their proverbial sleeve, because it truly gut-wrenching disappointment is not much toward the work's being unfinished, but moreover the author's mortal preclusion from refining his genius just one more time in full.

Native Son and Black Boy gave me an insight into something I was not at all familier with, the lives of early 20th century black man. His writing left me teary eyed and heartbroken. Amazing stuff. A Father's Law can't possible be by the same Richard Wright. Reading it was like watching a UPL comedy with Reginald VelJohnson playing the father and Jaleel White as the son. It was kinda fantasy like. A black cop in the early 50's gets to be the police chief of a ritzy Chicago white sub burb. Sure. Happens all the time. I was actually embarrassed reading it.

Richard Wright's last book wasn't very interesting in my opinion. I thought it was a change in style and a lack of suspense. The ending was very predictable since you knew who did the murders early on. In most of my reading of his works the main character was a victim but in this story he was no victim just crazy. It is too bad the author passed away before he could have added more to the book and refined the story. Maybe I expected Black Boy or another Native Son.

My book was received on time as promised and was in good condition. Very pleased.