74 min listen
Episode 103: The Man Who Lived Underground
FromBetter Read than Dead: Literature from a Left Perspective
Episode 103: The Man Who Lived Underground
FromBetter Read than Dead: Literature from a Left Perspective
ratings:
Length:
87 minutes
Released:
Oct 9, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
We couldn’t wait to read the new novel-length version of Richard Wright’s The Man Who Lived Underground, and it absolutely did not disappoint. Published as a short story in 1944, collected in Eight Men in 1961, and finally published as the novel version last year, the book serves as a major touchstone in Wright’s work, negotiating the space between his naturalist “early” work and his philosophical “late” work. We discuss race, religion, space, and style.
We read the 2021 Library of America version with Wright’s essay “Memories of my Grandmother” and afterward by Wright’s grandson Malcolm Wright. We also consulted the Harper Perennial 1996 reprinting of Eight Men with introduction by Paul Gilroy. We recommend Lauren Michele Jackson’s New Yorker article “What We Want From Richard Wright,” from May 2021 and Bill Mullen’s Tempest article “Richard Wright and the Police State,” from October 2021.
Find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @betterreadpod, and email us nice things at betterreadpodcast@gmail.com. Find Tristan on Twitter @tjschweiger, Katie @katiekrywo, and Megan @tuslersaurus.
We read the 2021 Library of America version with Wright’s essay “Memories of my Grandmother” and afterward by Wright’s grandson Malcolm Wright. We also consulted the Harper Perennial 1996 reprinting of Eight Men with introduction by Paul Gilroy. We recommend Lauren Michele Jackson’s New Yorker article “What We Want From Richard Wright,” from May 2021 and Bill Mullen’s Tempest article “Richard Wright and the Police State,” from October 2021.
Find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @betterreadpod, and email us nice things at betterreadpodcast@gmail.com. Find Tristan on Twitter @tjschweiger, Katie @katiekrywo, and Megan @tuslersaurus.
Released:
Oct 9, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Episode 6: 1984 by Better Read than Dead: Literature from a Left Perspective