Ellison's Juneteenth is a layered and subtly allusive book. It depends
heavily on a stream of consciousness style, and it asks for a greater demand
on the reader who seeks to learn about it and grasp it's whole. The settings
and landscapes of the book are almost entirely psychological and dialogical,
and easy to get lost in. Juneteenth's formal derangement's reflect a grown
man's crafted, carefully managed self coming undone.
The main character in the book is a man named Bliss. He was born by
a white woman who suddenly disappears and a man who is never identified.
Bliss is raised by a black Jazz musician named Hickman, who later becomes
a revivalist minister. Bliss leaves his foster father and his name behind to
become an itinerant filmmaker and a con artist called Movie Man. Bliss being
white or just passing for white is left unknown. Finally he has morphed into a
better person and gains a seat in the US Congress as Senator Sunraider.
The story starts in the early 50's, when the famous big toed Sunraider
is shot while addressing the senate. While in the hospital his foster father
Hickman comes to visit him and maintain by his side. Hickman and Bliss or
Sunraider set there and talked for a while. Hickman and Bliss recalled events
throughout out there lives the bound and separated them. The name Bliss still
applies. As the wounded Sunraider sinks into delirium and resurfaces, his
memories swing from childhood to adulthood and back again. He remembers
back in the day his fling as a young man with a beautiful black Oklahoma
woman. And a Juneteenth fair during the time he was the 6 year old Reverend
Bliss. He is his foster father Hickman's side kick. One of the sermons
Hickman and Bliss delivered was in a call and response style, the
commemoration of Juneteenth. That was when a Yankee solider told Texas
...