Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison

An African-American man's search for success and the American dream leads him out of college to Harlem and a growing sense of personal rejection and social invisibility. nNATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER - NATIONAL BESTSELLER - In this deeply compelling novel and epic milestone of American literature, a nameless narrator tells his story from the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. nHe describes growing up in a Black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of the Brotherhood, before retreating amid violence and confusion.

n nOriginally published in 1952 as the first novel by a then unknown author, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, James Joyce, and Dostoevsky.n