A Father's Law By Richard Wright
Just months before his death in Paris in late 1960, Richard Wright was still wrestling with the same demons: class, politics, religion and racism. His last reflections - 360 pages found in a binder - make up A Father's Law, a previously unpublished novel now out to mark the centennial of the author's birth.
Assembled by Wright's daughter Julia, the book is being marketed as a "final literary gift" from the author of Native Son and Black Boy. The story's bare bones speak volumes: Rudolph "Ruddy" Turner, the father of the title, is a status-quo sort: A black man, politically conservative, he is about to retire from the Chicago police department and has a nice home in the suburbs, a doting wife and a son, Tommy, in college. But a growing fissure separates him from Tommy, who with each passing day seems more like a stranger.
