These 13 stories by the author of The Invisible Man "approach the elegance of Chekhov" (Washington Post) and provide "early explorations of (Ellison's) lifelong fascination with the 'complex fate' and 'beautiful absurdity' of American identity" (John Callahan). First serial to The New Yorker. NPR sponsorship.
Flying Home: and Other Stories
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Though he was the author of two highly regarded collections of essays, Ralph Ellison's fame rests on his prize-winning novel Invisible Man. For years, he labored on another novel, but he died in 1994 with it still unpublished. Here, Ellison's literary executor, John F. Callahan, collects 13 stories, many of which are published for the first time. The stories give us an intriguing look at Ralph Ellison's development as a writer (some early ones, for example, clearly show the influence of Hemingway), and his early attempts to articulate his concerns about the nature of blackness and the American identity.
From Publishers Weekly
To read Ellison's early short stories after having read Invisible Man is like looking at the first sketches and blueprints of parts of the Taj Mahal after having stood in the complete palace itself. Most of these 12 early stories (written between 1937 and 1954) are clearly apprentice work in which Ellison is struggling for control of voice, timing and structure. In the earliest work (including "Hymie's Bull," his very first story), Ellison tries to shoehorn his own experience, including hoboing freight trains in the 1930s, into some boxed-in notion of literary form. But Ellison was a fast learner. While the four stories featuring the antics of Buster and Riley, two smart-mouthed African American boys, owe more than a bit to Mark Twain's Huck and Tom, they also show Ellison developing more supple language and a comic touch. "A Party Down at the Square" (discovered by Callahan, his literary executor, shortly after the writer's death in 1994), is an account of a lynching breathlessly narrated by a white Cincinnati boy visiting his uncle in Alabama. In the dramatic title story, Todd, a black pilot, a northerner trained at Tuskegee, crash-lands in rural Alabama and is rescued from redneck medics by Jefferson, an old black man exuding rustic ways and folksy tall tales. Though Jefferson represents everything Todd is trying to escape, the old man's wisdom and quick thinking ultimately lead the pilot to a reaffirmation of his roots. In these later stories, the moral core of Ellison's great novel is apparent: the passion for simultaneously exploring black identity and American identity, the determination to write deeply about race without writing only about race. His stories display, individually, the commitment to craft and, collectively, the acquired range that later enabled him to assemble, block by block, one of the great monuments of American literature.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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More About the Author
Ralph Ellison (1914-94) was born in Oklahoma and trained as a musician at Tuskegee Institute from 1933 to 1936, at which time a visit to New York and a meeting with Richard Wright led to his first attempts at fiction. Invisible Man won the National Book Award. Appointed to the Academy of American Arts and Letters in 1964, Ellison taught at several institutions, including Bard College, the University of Chicago, and New York University, where he was Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Flying is easy if there is no buzzard on the way,
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This review is from: Flying Home: and Other Stories (Paperback)
Ralph Ellison is a great writer. In this collection of old short stories we see him grow and develop under our own eyes. He deals with the problem of racial relations and of race definitions with a tact and humor that make some of his stories extremely funny. But some others are dramatic and deal with a more general and abstract matter. The title story is typical of that. A black pilot is confronted to all kinds of reactions, from his dead father, from a vulture that crashed his plane, from the white owner of the field where he crashes, from the blacks who try to solve his problem : he broke his ankle in the accident. The father is being humorous about heaven and white Saint Peter. The white owner is deeply racist and brings two « nurses » from a psychiatric hospital since a black man has to become crazy if he flies. The black witnesses are just trying to help the poor fallen pilot without getting any antagonism from the white owner, which is not exactly easy. In each story we find such situations that bring racism to the fore or that reveals the « education » a black man has to go through to become « adapted » to this racist society, to make himself, if not invisible, at least unconspicuous. Those stories are worth a little voyage into this writing that we see building itself stone by stone. Of course the real walls are the novels, but here are the handy tasks that shaped Ralph Ellison's hand and pen for the novels. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great stories for the Ellison fan,
This review is from: Flying Home: and Other Stories (Paperback)
This collection of stories is a must read for those who treasure to work of Ellison. In these short works, the voice that would give us Invisible Man can be seen developing. They are not as powerful or as deep as his great novel, but they do offer an entertaining and meaningful read. The lengthy introduction is informative and insightful. When I first read Invisible Man, I could swear that I heard jazz as I read. Callahan explains Ellison's musical background which convinces me that I heard the jazz in Ellison's words by design. These works carry the same music.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
At Home with Ralph Ellison,
By
This review is from: Flying Home: and Other Stories (Paperback)
Ralph Ellison's "Flying Home and Other Stories" apparently is the first posthumous collection to be published by his estate. And it is a remarkable collection at that. There are thirteen stories here, six of which had never been published before. The editor, Professor John F. Callahan, did a fine job at choosing the stories to be included, and he describes the fascinating selection process in the book's introduction. Professor Callahan includes three early Buster-and-Riley stories which inspired me to write my short story, "Los Angeles, 1970" (Outsider Ink at: http://outsidermedia.com/00/spring/olivas.html). The Buster-and-Riley stories capture the wonderful and lively banter between the two boys while showing how the racism of the real world touches and affects their childhood. There is also "A Party Down at the Square" which is a chilling story told in the first person by a white boy who witnesses the burning of an African-American man. Each story is well-crafted and powerful in its understatement. Ellison's graceful and evocative language paints a picture of human strength and frailty with the same honest, unflinching brush. Though he is best remembered for his novel, "Invisible Man," this collection demonstrates that he was also a brilliant craftsman of the short story.
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