I have to be honest. 
The only reason this is 3 stars and not 4 stars is because animals were hurt in the making of this book and I cannot abide by that.
However, the book was beautifully written, illustrating the racial injustices Wright experienced and fought against (or his friends did, considering this may not be fully autobiographical). 
The first part was very compelling, reminiscent of many coming of age tales. The second part wasn’t as interesting because it focused more on politics and Wright’s fall into communism, which had the potential to be interesting, but somewhere fell flat. 
Still, if this is a true memoir, it’s really hard to judge and rate it (especially a classic one!) because it’s someone’s life. You can’t say anything about the plot because it actually happened. 
I can say the writing and commentary was beautiful and evocative, the themes were strong, and you can tell he had things to say. 
But also please don’t hurt animals :( 

hard to get through, but I'm glad I got through it. interesting to read about issues in the south 100 years ago, & to realize that conditions -- social, economical, emotional -- aren't better or worse for Black men, just different. happy to have read this, and wish I did before I wrote my own memoir about similar topics!