'Black Boy' is a memoir about growing up in the Jim Crow-era South, a story of survival in a sick society that treated 1/3rd of its population as sub-human chattel. I'm not sure Black Boy was banned because of Wright's Communism (excusable considering that-until the 1950s-the US Communists were the only political party committed to racial equality) but rather because it offended many Southerners, and also due to the book's frank descriptions of sex, violence, and racially-charged language. Despite its rough edges, Black Boy is one of the great classics of American Literature, outstanding in both subject and style. My favorite passage is Wright's discovery of H.L. Mencken's writing: "I was jarred and shocked by the style, the clear, clean, sweeping sentences. Why did he write like that? And how did one write like that? I pictured the man as a raging demon, slashing with his pen, consumed with hate, denouncing everything American, extolling everything European or German, laughing at the weaknesses of people, mocking God, authority. What was this? I stood up, trying to realize what reality lay behind the meaning of the words . . . Yes, this man was fighting, fighting with words. He was using words as a weapon, using them as one would use a club. Could words be weapons? Well, yes, for here they were. Then, maybe, perhaps, I could use them as a weapon? No. It frightened me. I read on and what amazed me was not what he said, but how on earth anybody had the courage to say it...."

This, though well written, isn't exactly a pleasant read, but I get the feeling that bookburners can't make up their minds whether to burn it because Wright was a Communist at one time or because he married a white chick.

A Raw and compelling novel about a black boy growing up in the South of the early 20th century. I really enjoyed this book. It does present graphic images of child abuse and may be deemed anti-religion by some, but it is a brilliant novel that I highly recommend.