One book on the list:Invisible ManRead about the other books on the list.
by Ralph Ellison
The protagonist of Ellison's masterwork may love sloe gin, but he also has a transformative experience with weed while listening to Louis Armstrong's "What Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue" at bone-shaking volume in his underground lair. He comes to a Nietzschean conclusion: Great music and chemical intoxicants belong to the same existential class, implements of the Dionysian. (Although he does eventually give up ganja.) A nearly-infinite number of adolescents have repeated this experiment, with continually worsening music and far less impressive philosophical results.
The Invisible Man comes in second on the list of the 100 best last lines from novels; it is one of Joyce Hackett's top ten musical novels.
--Marshal Zeringue
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