Ellison's writing is very powerful and expressive as he tells the story, through the voice of an anonymous protagonist, of a sort of coming of age in an environment of severe cultural turbulence. There is unforgettable power and drive on the personal level in that anonymity, as the protagonist is given identity beyond the basis of the individual.
Publisher's description:
In the course of his wanderings from a Southern Negro college to New York's Harlem, an American black man becomes involved in a series of adventures. Introduction explains circumstances under which the book was written. Ellison won the National Book Award for this searing record of a black man's journey through contemporary America. Unquestionably, Ellison's book is a work of extraordinary intensity--powerfully imagined and written with a savage, wryly humorous gusto.