Books: Black Boyhood

BLACK BOY—Richard Wright—Harper ($2.50).

Richard Wright, 36, is generally accounted the most gifted living American Negro writer. His new book makes it clearer than ever that he has one of the most notable gifts in U.S. writing, black or white: a narrative style that is simple, direct, almost completely without pretense or decoration, yet never flat. In Black Boy, that narrative tells the story of his first 1 8 years, in Natchez and Jackson, Miss., Elaine, Ark. and on Beale Street in Memphis. The story is a brilliant account of how it feels...