The tragedy here is not what ultimately befalls Daniels, but how a single interaction with the police causes him to profoundly question his own identity. For a time, Daniels is optimistic. He believes the ordeal is “a dream, but soon he would awaken and marvel at how real it had seemed.” And then, once he enters the interrogation room, the confession feels inevitable. As much as I wanted the officers to believe some evidence that Daniels offers, I expected the brutal beatdown and forced admission of guilt that follows.

A tale for today. . . . [Wright's] restored novel feels wearily descriptive of far too many moments in contemporary America." New York TimesThen, when Murphy punches him (when he’s offered water), another officer comments that his timing has gotten very precise, indicating that the officers are having fun inflicting violence and that this is something that’s done frequently. The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright is a novella published in April 2021, the truncated form of which was published as a short story in Wright’s Eight Men collection. Written in the early 1940’s, Wright’s publisher declined to publish it in its full form, fearing it was too graphic and controversial.

The audiobook was read by Ethan Herisse. I believe that he is an actor, which surprised me because his reading was very flat. A more experienced narrator might have done a better job. 3.5 stars rounded up because of the author.Finally, this devastatinginquiryinto oppression and delusion, this timelesstour de force, emerges in full,the work Wright was most passionate about, as he explains in the profoundly illuminating essay, ‘Memories of My Grandmother,’ also published here for the first time.This blazing literary meteor should land in every collection.” Underground, Daniels becomes truly invisible. He is no longer a husband. Never thinks of himself as a father. The underground strips the markers of his identity just as any prison sentence does. And so, while the book is no longer concerned with the police and arrests and beatdowns, Wright forces readers to ask what the cost of this freedom is. In The Man Who Lived Underground, Fred is a man who has been forced to sign a false confession for murder, demoralized and treated in a way that leads him to understand that he no longer has a place in the world. As he flees into the underground, he wrestles with this new perspective and tries to reconcile it with things like his religious upbringing. In the meantime, he finds that through the sewer system, he can tunnel into the basements of local business and take what he likes. Moves continuously forward with its masterful blend of action and reflection, a kind of philosophy on the run. . . . Whether or not The Man Who Lived Underground is Wright’s single finest work, it must be counted among his most significant.” This is a summary for the novel The Man Who Lived Underground, which was published in 2021. (This is NOT a summary for the short story version of this which had previously been published.) Part One

Afterwards, they decide to take Fred to see his pregnant wife (to protect against accusations of mistreating him). When his wife learns what has happened, the stress causes her to go into labor, and they rush her to the hospital. While they're there, Fred sees an opportunity to escape, and he does. Daniels walks into the story with the pride of a man happy to have worked for an honest week’s pay. Between beatings and racial epithets, Wright captures Daniels as he cycles through feelings of fear, rage, and confusion. None of his childlike, raw emotions allow him to articulate anything beyond barely coherent pleading. This moment initiates the disintegration of his humanity, which Wright wants to highlight. In fact, Daniels’s wife calling out to him amid her fear and pain is perhaps the final time that he is named outright. The police refer to him as “boy” or worse. The character’s most effective response to the police was to slink away from his overseers and retreat into the sewer, where the narrator simply refers to Daniels as “he.” Here he becomes invisible to all of society—essentially free. The Man Who Lived Underground reminds us that any ‘greatest writers of the 20th century’ list that doesn’t start and end with Richard Wright is laughable. It might very well be Wright’s most brilliantly crafted, and ominously foretelling, book.”—Kiese Laymon The Man Who Lived Underground reminds us that any ‘greatest writers of the 20thcentury’ list that doesn’t start and end with Richard Wright is laughable. It might very well be Wright’s most brilliantly crafted, and ominously foretelling, book.”—Kiese LaymonThe Man Who Lived Underground is a powerful book one that will resonate with modern readers even though it was written in the early 1940s. I love Wright’s writing in this novel, he was so vivid in his descriptions especially his details of the underground world. Wright use of alliteration and anaphoras was exceptional. What these men said, what he said, the blows and curse words, were all neutral and powerless to alter the feeling that, though he had done nothing wrong, he was condemned, lost, inescapably guilty of some nameless deed. 14 as a clash between God and the devil, but as Wright was speaking—after the London Blitz but before the bombing of Pearl Harbor—America’s potential Wright died in 1960, the year my mother was born, and lately, I’ve been troubled by the fact that I am 40 years old and just a dozen years younger than he was when he died. Sometimes it’s impossible to escape the belief that the America Wright chronicled in his writing did the kind of damage to his heart that leads to an early death. At the station, a policeman asks him what he wants, but Fred rambles a little and talks about being in basements. The officers think he’s crazy. Finally, they figure out that Fred wants to talk to Lawson.

But when he sees his chance, Fred Daniels, makes a run for it. With the world now against him, there is only one place left to hide: Underground. Taking residence in the sewers below the streets of Chicago, Fred's new vantage point takes him on a journey through America's unjust, and inhumane underbelly. I’m telling you that Richard Wright minced no words and spared no details illustrating the realities that America did not wish then and still does not want to engage with surrounding police brutality. It was necessary but that doesn’t make the stripping away of life, not by murder but by damage, any easier to read. Fred, of course, is wrong. The three cops—Lawson, Johnson, and Murphy—ask him what he’s doing in the neighborhood and whether he has ever been arrested before. Though Fred answers their questions truthfully, Lawson says, “We’d better drag ‘im in.” “I ain’t done nothing…” Fred protests and adds, “My wife’s having a baby,” to which Johnson replies, “They all say that.” The three cops force him into their patrol car, and Murphy says, “I think he’ll do.” After this ominous remark, Lawson asks, “What did you do with the money?” They continue to question him as they drive to the police station, and Fred begins to have “the terrifying feeling that these men knew what he would be doing at any future moment of his life, no matter how long he lived.” His life is now out of his hands and in those of the state. 10 Julia Wright said she believed that the previously unpublished portions add context to the story of a man’s adventure in the sewers, a realistic dimension to an otherwise fantastical tale. “We need what’s happened in the daylight, in the critical daylight, to understand the change that Fred Daniels goes through in the underground,” she said. One of the most horrifying slim masterpieces I've read in a long time, I did not know that this novel was once published as a short story by Mr. Wright. Now fully restored as a novel, it is a frightening novel of fear, hopelessness, schizophrenia and the need to be seen, rather than be othered.They then take Fred to Lawson’s house while they figure out what to do with him. They contemplate taking him to an insane asylum, but Lawson worries that Mr. Wooten will learn he’s there and investigate. Finally, they tell Fred to show them where he hid, and Fred happily agrees. On the way, he answers all their questions truthfully, such as about what he ate, but they dismiss most of it as insane rantings. Tell me that this scene couldn’t happen tomorrow in New Haven or Memphis or Houston or a dozen other cities in America and history will call you a liar. In a pandemic-ridden world where we are struggling to face our systemic racial inequalities and other incomprehensible things, The Man Who Lived Underground was almost a weirdly timely book. From his marginalization and unjust treatment at the hands of the police, to trying to understand the world in the face of tragedies, a lot of the sentiments and frustrations that the character expressed are easily translatable into present day. To me, this book was primarily about the demoralizing effect of police brutality, injustice and racism. The main character’s turn towards nihilism is likely relatable for those who have experienced similar things in their lives. Read it or Skip it? When he wakes fully, he continues his exploration up a flight of stairs. He ends up in a factory with small steel machines of some sort, which he soon recognizes is a jewelry shop. He takes some watches, a box of rings and jar of diamonds. He turns on the light and is instantly fearful when he realizes there is someone else in the room. Then, he sees that it is the night watchman, who is sleeping on a cot, with a gun at his side and a photo of his family nearby. Fred is initially too scared to move, but he eventually takes the gun as a memento and leaves. He rubbed the money with his fingers, as though expecting it suddenly to reveal secret qualities. It’s just like any other kind of paper, he observed…. As he toyed with the money, there was in him no sense of possessiveness. 20