Invisible Man: Race and Identity by Kerry McSweeney (review)

HUMANITIES 137 ala lettre (qu'on Ies aime ou qu'on y soit hostile). Mais en fait, Ie grand probleme avec lui, c'est celui de ses outrances. II est beaucoup plus 'litteraire' que ne Ie pense Lebrun. Citons a ce propos ces lignes penetrantes de Cioran: Parmi les penseurs qui, tel Nietzsche ou saint Paul, eurent Ie gout et Ie genie de la provocation, une place non negligeable revient a Joseph de Maistre. Haussant Ie moindre probleme au niveau du paradoxe et a la dignite du scandale, maniant l'anatheme avec une cruaute melee de ferveur, il devait creer une oeuvre riche en enormites, un systeme qui ne laisse pas de nous seduire et de nous exasperer ... Ce cote passionne et litteraire expliquerait bien des contradictions dont Ie personnage n'est pas exempt et que sa derniere biographie ne tente pas de resoudre. Le portrait qui s'en degage, celui d'un homme tres intelligent, qui a su se montrer fin politique dans les differents postes qu'il a occupes, cadre mal avec ses eloges frenetiques de l'Inquisition, de la guerre et du bourreau. On comprend mal que ce catholique intransigeant ait ete si attache a la franc-ma~onnerie, pourtant condamnee par l'Eglise. L'etude si bien documentee de Lebrun, impeccable d'un point de vue strictement biographique, ne semble pas en definitive apporter d'elements decisifs pour une meilleure comprehension de Ia pensee de ce I defenseur du trone et de I'autel.' Les epreuves du livre n'ont pas ete corrigees avec tout Ie soin desirable. On y releve beaucoup de coquilles, parfois vraiment facheuses. Citons par exemple cette phrase: 'When monarchies were finally restored in Europe in 1814, rulers such as Louis XVI (!), by force ofnecessity, had to act more or less as Maistre had recommended to his government in 1799' (168). (E. LEHOUCK) Kerry McSweeney. Invisible Man: Race and Identity Twayne's Masterwork Series 17. Twayne. xiv, 138. us $18.95; $7.95 paper Kerry McSweeney's study of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is a sound addition to Twayne's Masterwork Series. Ellison's novel has enjoyed a large critical reputation since its publication in 1952, and its inclusion in this series of readings of classic texts is no surprise. It is nonetheless a welcome choice, particularly in a series designed for a wider audience of undergraduates. Like other volumes in this series, McSweeney's discussion may be divided into two parts: the Chronology and the first three chapters provide an account of Ellison's life and of the literary-historical context of his novel; the remaining five chapters offer a non-canonical but balanced 138 LETTERS IN CANADA 1988 reading of the text. McSweeney's account of the novel is particularly strong in its discussion of narrative technique, specifically in identifying the distance between the retrospective narrating 'I' and the 'I' who experiences the events depicted in the text. McSweeney also presents detailed analyses of important episodes in the novel, and he is a close reader of Ellison's strategies of repetition, or what McSweeney calls in his commentary 'the variation-in-repetition that signals significance.' Elsewhere, however, McSweeney is perhaps less incisive than one would wish, particularly in a text designed at least in part as a guide for students. He might, for example, have been more precise in his discussion of the relationship of realistic discourse to narrative technique in Ellison's text, although this, admittedly, is a notoriously difficult aspect of Invisible Man. McSweeney is more detailed in his discussions of the use of blues, jazz, and Afro-American folklore in the novel, and he makes judicious use of Ellison's own extensive commentary on the novel. A discussion of Invisible Man in the context of a Masterwork Series may appear to invite an act of critical genuflection before an acknowledged classic. McSweeney avoids this pitfall, but at times his evaluative commentary suggests that he would feel more comfortable discussing Ellison's novel as a flawed masterwork. He argues, for example, that 'both the character and characterization of Mr. Norton seem distinctly thin,' and he later remarks that Jack, one of the major figures in the Brotherhood...