Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

It is amazing to me that Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, was written in the late 1940's and won him the National Book Award in 1953. When I read it, I assumed it was written in the 1960's at the begining of the Black power movement. This book was way ahead of it's time, but seems to have been well received when it was first published. The unnamed narrarator is an African American man who sees himself as invisable to the white world. As a young man he witnesses harsh brutality towards blacks and his seniors contuinually selling-out to conform to white expectations. After college he moves to New York and becomes part of a militant group called the Brotherhood, which at first seems like a good thing, but takes several bad turns, leading the narrarator to long for invisibilty.

Ellison lived until 1994, but his second novel Juneteenth was not published until five years after his death.