To honor our watching of Back to the Future for the first time… we went back to 1940s Chicago with Richard Wright’s Native Son which deals with racial and social inequality. It’s a powerful novel and an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America. Wright is one of those exceptionally intelligent writers and it shows. We learned a lot from this book and think it’s an important read for a variety of reasons that you’ll hear about in this episode.
Please enjoy our discussion about Native Son by Richard Wright.
About the Show
Hosted by novelists and entrepreneurs Daniel Breyer & Jeremy Streich, Good Scribes Only is a podcast for curious minds to explore, challenge, and think differently through books. In Season 4 we’re traveling through the 20th century, decade by decade, because Dan really wanted to see what the world was like before plumbing was a common thing.
Episode Notes
0-10 min — Intro and a brief discussion of race
10-15 min — Casting the movie
15-25 min — Plot first third
25-35 min — On Richard Wright and communism
35-40 min — Plot second third
40-45 min — Chicago in the 1940s
45-55 min — Plot final third
55-60 min — Conclusion