Review by Choice Review
A well-written, accurate introductory overview that offers little new insight into the work of a major American novelist. Adhering to the Twayne format, Busby (Texas A & M) provides a biographical sketch alongside summary-style analysis of Ellison's short stories, essays, and Invisible Man. Busby's discussion of Ellison emphasizes the theme of cultural amalgamation, the mixing of popular and elite culture, of African American and European American traditions. His most original contribution lies in his analysis of Ellison's use of southwestern humor. This leads to a valuable insight concerning the parallel between the frontier sensibility and the jazz theme of "freedom within restriction." Nonetheless, almost all of Busby's factual information and much of his interpretive perspective derives directly from Robert O'Meally's The Craft of Ralph Ellison, (CH, May'81). Complemented by Alan Nadel's theoretically oriented study, Invisible Criticism: Ralph Ellison and the American Canon (CH, Sep'88), O'Meally's book remains the definitive book of Ellison criticism.-C. Werner, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
