Three Days Before the Shooting... by Ralph Ellison

Three Days Before the Shooting... Reviews

• 
  Eugene

  An unfinished masterpiece - like the United States.
• 
  Vel Veeter

  So going into this, you should know that it's not Ralph Ellison's second novel. And despite what the cover of the other version of this material "Juneteenth" says, that's also not Ralph Ellison's second novel. John F Callahan edited both, but his editing here suggests he knows better. Instead, this represents some half of the written material that Ralph Ellison wrote after the publication of Invisible Man. The basic editorial decision making process was: where they could determine Ralph Ellison's intentions, they honored those. That's a difficult process in part because he rewrote numerous of the sections, sometimes with very little change. According to Callahan, one section was a nearly identical section except for one punctuation change. So what we're looking at here is about 1000 pages (and these are dense pages too) of text toward a second novel, and not the 2000-3000 pages of total material produced. This suggests to me (and this have nothing to do with intent) is that we have more than enough material to make some choices as readers. If you have read the collected letters, you'll recall that Ellison talking about the novel begins before the final edits of Invisible Man were complete in 1952 or so, and he continues to work on it possibly to the day he died 40 years later. He published a few pieces of it throughout the years, but that amounts to like a 30 page chapter in the early 60s, and then another in the 70s. You've probably run across an anthologized version of "Battle Royal" in lit anthologies. Imagine trying to extrapolate the whole novel from that chapter.
  
  So the novel begins in Washington DC where a group of Southern Black church members fronted by Rev Hickman have arrived to warn a US senator of some kind of danger. They are turned away at his office, where they are harassed by security, and later that day he is shot by an assassin. We know from this opening that this group knows this senator, and there's clearly some sense of their losing that connection over the years. The next section is narrated by a white reporter who is on the scene and tries to piece together event through he very confused perspective and the ambiguous pieces of information available to him. And by first section, I mean some 300 pages or so. From there, the next big section is about the origins of Hickman and a boy named Bliss, who will grow up to become the senator. What I haven't mentioned is that the senator is a kind messianic/demagogue figure that embodied the worst impulses of racist white America.
  
  So I mention these first two sections because according to the Callahan, they are the oldest and most polished (or possibly most worked over) sections. What seems clear to me is that Ralph Ellison was just simply not working on a single novel. The quality of these opening sections tells me there's at least three novels, and possibly four. So the shame of the project is not so much that he couldn't pull it all together (which he never needed to do) but to recognize the more fractured nature of the project and turn this into a multi-novel writing project like Marilynne Robinson's Gilead books, where it's not all one continuous narrative, but a constant revisiting. Or maybe Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha is a better comparison, given Ellison's affection for Faulkner's work and the clear influence on this novel (as well as Invisible Man).
  
  For me the novels are this:
  1) The shooting told by McIntyre
  2) Hickman's and Bliss's origins
  3) Hickman in DC, Georgia, and Oklahoma
  4) The further continuing story of Bliss
• 
  Liam

  Difficult to review an unfinished novel as I am left with more question than answers. But I thoroughly enjoyed living in the world Ellison created, and, as with INVISIBLE MAN, I found his use of imagery, symbolism and stream of consciousness narrative powerful. It left me wishing there was more to read, and wondering where he had intended the story to finish.
• 
  Steve Chisnell

  My disappointment that Ellison could never finish this work is now all the greater. The opening of these characters: McIntyre, Hickman, Bliss . . . and the machinations beyond them and within them, have created such a reflective layering of challenges to identity and vision, to the word and the idea, are so much further in their ambition than Invisible Man. Even so, I cannot imagine how or where he might have taken them all to create a synthesis of any kind--no wonder he was so blocked. For that reason, I return to it for its long scenes and moments of characters sitting on a porch trading the wisdom of youth, of quasi-historical sermons, of asylum interviews. Read it for these, for the moments he created for us. And we take it where we will.
• 
  Carl

  In a way I am glad I read this before I read Juneteenth. Three Days Before the Shooting allows one a privileged glimpse into the mind of Ellison, his work process, his ambitions, and the shape of his project. Three Days effectively shows that Ellison's second novel is not simply an unfinished novel, but an epic, sprawling project mutating throughout Ellison's career and blending narrative fiction with essay. So much of the language here can best be described as ecstatic revelry. It borders on indulgence the extent to which the language thoroughly enjoys itself.
  
  Three Days might also point to the limitations of Ellison as a novel writer. I remember Invisible Man being very episodic, with the ending being more of a retreat with a hint of possibility rather than a resolution. This episodic nature is very present in Three Days, with much of the book revolving around scenes being written and rewritten. There is a plot, but I wonder if this plot could have been resolved satisfactorily? Where do you go once you have Bliss, MacIntire, and Hickman in the hospital? Perhaps Ellison could have collated his notes together into the next great American novel, but his priority lied more in language and exploration. In a way his language and exploration makes this work better and all the more fascinating.
  
  Like with any unfinished work, Three Days leaves you wanting for the work that could have been while prompting you to realize that what you just read is more complete than you thought, just not in the way you expected.
• 
  Bryn Greenwood

  Well, this is my third attempt to read this, and once again I am giving up before it's done. This doesn't mean I won't try again, just that right now I know I won't be finishing it any time soon. Ellison was a genius and his writing here is brilliant, but it's easy to see why he never finished. He took on something enormous and lost his way. All the same, I'll be trying again.
• 
  Evan

  My favorite moments reading were when listening to Duke Ellington. Jazz especially enhanced Hickman's and Chief's speech. I believe Ellison is an exceptional craftsman, and these drafts have incredible sections. If Ellison had more time, perhaps this novel could have rivaled Invisible Man as Ellison's magnum opus. Based on the fragmented books, his notes and reimagined plots, the story seemed dauntingly enigmatic, even for him.
  
  A personal favorite from an epistolary section:
  
  'I've entered the age where I am forced to realize that experience is experience long before words can impose the unstable meanings for which they're employed. Therefore I realize wisdom is wisdom, no matter how it's gained, and no matter the words through which it finds expression' (706).
  
  
• 
  Abbe🐱💫

  Read books 1 and 2 for class—so not the whole collection but just gonna say finished reading lol. I want to re-read / read the entire thing at some point but honestly don’t know if I ever will because it’s pretty intense and a difficult read (especially if I tried to read it outside of class environment). But despite all that it was really really good & I enjoyed class discussions a lot
  
  Also, I want to read Invisible Man by Ellison because professor talked a lot about it!
• 
  Diana Haemer

  Read this before you read "Juneteenth." It might seem tedious to read similar passages over again, but it is fascinating to discover what Ellison changed about this manuscript as well as what the editors left out of the posthumously-published novel.
• 
  Melanie

  As a writer it was fascinating to read what Ellison had written and what the editor created via Juneteenth. There is a lot of genius in here and a lot of compelling storytelling but not a complete narrative arc. this is for fans of Ellison but it is far from a complete novel.
• 
  Kaleigh O'toole

  Put this book in front of me again and i will violently have diarreia. Dont play me . This was actually the worst thing ive ever tried to read
• 
  Mary Pamela

  I enjoyed the preface to the book. Ralph Ellison spoke about his difficulty in writing the book. I felt a kinship when he spoke about his writing process and how long it was taking him to finish the book. Reading this part first helped me understand the book better. Ellison's writing style was engaging and interesting. The story had emotion, and sometimes I wished I had his talent for writing a believable story. The way he described the conflict between blacks and whites in that time period, I could see the scenes unfolding. We have a lot to thank the ones who came before us not only writers, but activist as well. I feel like we are regressing to that time once more where hate is more fashionable than love. Great weaving of details. All writers should pick this up to learn about the literary process.
• 
  Josh

  I had to remind myself that I was reading a novel that was never finished- wanting the cohesive ending to tie up everything, but not getting it. The prose is outstanding, though.