Steve read and liked Paul Aslanian's review of Black Boy (The Restored Text Established by The Library of America):

"Solfrid had for at least 45 years urged me to read this book. I put it off for all those years thinking it was just another bleeding heart liberal book which was intended to make me feel guilty and/or love blacks. Well, I should have read this book...more Solfrid had for at least 45 years urged me to read this book. I put it off for all those years thinking it was just another bleeding heart liberal book which was intended to make me feel guilty and/or love blacks. Well, I should have read this book 45 years ago. It is an amazing story of Richard Wright's life as a poor black kid growing up in a poor southern small town. Some of my take aways:

--I was amazed at how violent his family members were to each other--lots of slapping, hitting, spanking

--This was in a family that, I'm sure, would think of itself as "God fearing" church attending.

--Perhaps the violence in Wright's upbringing was a way for the family to slap him around so he would learn his place at home which as he grew up he could take with him into the larger world of his town--a black boy had to know his place, which, from my perspective, was a horrible place.

--The south in general seems to me to so much more violent than the the place where I grew up. Lots of violence not just white inflicted violence upon blacks, but lots of white on white violence and black on black. For me an uncomfortable amount of violence.

--I learned how it feels to have no rights. That is whites could treat blacks in way which are totally wrong, but the blacks were helpless to fight for their rights, because they really had no rights. The fear among the blacks of the whites was palpable.

--Wright moves to Chicago in the 30's only to learn that northerners are just more sophisticated at being racist.

--he flirts in a serious way with Communism (remember this was in the 30's) but finds even the policy makers of the grass roots Communist movement were, bottom line, racist.

For me, it gave me what felt like a first hand glimpse of what it was to be a smart, poor black growing up in the south. The part that smacked me the hardest was Wright being treated in ways that are wrong from any point on the compass and not fighting back because to fight back often meant being killed. Nice options. It sure made me better understand the drivers behind the civil rights movement of the 60's.

So, belatedly, I have to thank Solfrid for pushing this book on me. My hunch is all of you have read this book. Shame on me for being so late.

So let me know if you have read Black Boy. An tell me how to get Goodreads to copy the one who writes the review. Sure miss spell check.(less) "