Hell of a Book

“He was a man who had been afraid of the eyes of others for all his life. How could he not want his child to learn the impossible trick of invisibility?”

This quote introduces the theme of the danger of Black visibility and raises the subject of self-love. William, and eventually Soot as well, is self-conscious because of his body and feels generally uncomfortable with being watched. William is never able to learn to truly love himself, not only for his skin but also for his skinny body.

“‘You’ll be unseen and safe for as long as you live,” his father said. “‘[…] Can you even imagine it?” 

“Unseen and safe” is a refrain that repeats throughout the novel. It is a mantra that William and his wife teach Soot as they try to also teach him how to become invisible. Visibility can be dangerous because when Black people are seen they are made vulnerable to racial violence. Hell of a Book leans on the concept of visibility to comment on this vulnerability because of the way that race for most Black people is a visually apparent part of one’s identity.

“Then his mother hugged him and the three of them danced and laughed and smiled like they never had before. In that moment, the worries that had always hung over their heads were suddenly gone.”

This is the last moment where Soot and his family are perfectly happy and safe. Following this scene, Soot’s narrative is increasingly sad and difficult. Yet, while this scene is happy, it raises the question of why Soot’s parents would teach him to turn invisible.