Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison

 

Hello my lovely readers!

It pains me to write the review I'm about to write for this book. Sigh. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
In Washington, D.C. in the 1950s, Adam Sunraider, a race-baiting senator from New England is mortally wounded by an assassin's bullet while making a speech on the Senate floor. 

From his deathbed, Sunraider calls out for Alonzo Hickman, an old Black minister, to be brought to his side. Out of their conversation a story emerges. Sunraider, once known as Bliss, was raised by Reverend Hickman in a Black community steeped in religion and music. 

Together one last time, the tow men retrace the course of their shared life and confront their most painful memories that hold the key to understanding the mysteries of kinship and race that bind them.

MY THOUGHTS
This was the long-awaited second novel of Ralph Ellison, but it was never finished. Ellison worked on this novel for 40 years and by the time he passed, nothing ever came of this work.

He lost the original manuscript for this novel in a house fire. After his death, editor John F. Callahan worked to compile roughly 2,000 pages of notes and drafts into what's now known as Juneteenth. 

I wonder if Ellison went crazy trying to write this novel or if he suffered from fear of failure after being the author of the great American classic Invisible Man.

More than 2,000 pages of this manuscript were found and there was no clear conclusion. Callahan did the best that he could, but it did not measure up. Should we judge this as a full novel or a work in progress? Ellison gave no direction on what should become of his work after he died, so Callahan was at a loss, which I understand...but this should've been left in the drafts. 

Some authors just have their one great work like Invisible Man or To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It doesn't do the author's legacy any justice to dig around and search for notes, an unfinished manuscript, an unedited novel and publish it for the masses decades after their death. I don't think it's what the authors would want. Some things are better left alone. This novel was all over the place and unfinished and you could tell. The premise was great, but I wish Ellison would have finished it before he passed.