Juneteenth [Hardcover]

Ralph Ellison (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: VINTAGE (2000)
• ASIN: B000OLNEMG
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Genius on a level with Joyce's Ulysses, October 1, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Juneteenth: A Novel (Hardcover)

Of course, this book was difficult to read at times. Anyone who has read Invisible Man had to expect that. Nonetheless, there is a complicated genius that emerges in Ellison's life-work the same way Joyce's Ulysses rewards those who make it to the end. I tried reading this book at the beach, which was a mistake. I was more successful finishing it at home with a serious outlook, an overstuffed chair and long sittings. Whatever you do, don't quit in the middle.

Ellison captures the ambiguity of racial and ethnic heritage in the identities of individual characters. While the large racial drama has played out through our country's history, individual players have lived in their own unique spaces within the play. Hickman and Bliss are exquisitely drawn examples.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Glimpse at Greatness, October 16, 1999

By 

Dave Newsom ([e-mail]) (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Juneteenth: A Novel (Hardcover)

While Ellison's skill as a stylist is undeniable (on the level, possibly, of even Joyce or Proust), and while with INIVISIBLE MAN he may have very well written one of the ten greatest books of the 20th century, what we have in his long-awaited, highly anticipated follow-up is nothing but a "momentary glimpse" at the greatness it could have been.

One cannot help but wonder what JUNETEENTH would have been like had the original copy not burned in Ellison's legendary house fire. Would it, in fact, even have been called JUNETEENTH? Callahan says he believes this is what Ellison intended to title his multi-volume epic, but we will never know. It is merely speculation. It is an "editorial decision," as is the whole book. And therein lies the problem with the novel.

JUNETEENTH is a monumental testament to the power of friendship and editorship (Callahan and Ellison). I am not denying the bravery and dedication it had to have taken Callahan to sort through all the disparate notes, and passages of dialogue, and sections of narrative told in the bits and pieces that Ellison left behind, and then to dare to somehow put it all together in some sort of coherent form. It was a monumental task, and Callahan is to be commended. But the final result is messy, incomplete, and largely unsatisfying.

As the editor of an unfinished volume, Callahan was left with making authorial decisions on the line of narrative structure, and character development development, etc. He had to repeatedly ask himself (as editor) questions that only an author can fairly ask, and so I'm afraid the book is finally more Callahan's than Ellison's.

While there are scenes in JUNETEENTH that hint at Ellison's lyrical and haunting brilliance, the "jigsaw puzzle" effect of the storyline is finally disappointing, leaving me with a mixture of emotions--sadness that Ellison never lived to finish his great life work, and anger that JUNETEENTH, as we have it, is a novel that maybe never should have been published.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars try the Audio version, April 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Juneteenth: A Novel (Audio Cassette)

I found the book a little too much for my liking. But the audio version(Blair Underwood-reader)excellant. He has a wonderful voice and captures the spirit of the story.