Native Son

Strong stuff when it was published and strong stuff 80 years later, Native Son by Richard Wright is a devastating and at times sickening indictment of racist America. The way the main character, Bigger Thomas, responds to being thwarted by society is, as one of the characters says in his defense toward the end of the novel, an act of creation as well as murder. I have rarely been in the grip of a more powerful story and storyteller.