Invisible Man was published to instant acclaim, though its complexity did not necessarily make it an easy read. Writing in Commentary in

1952, Saul Bellow called it "a book of the very first order, a superb book," praising in particular the episode in which Jim Trueblood tells his tale of in cest to Mr. Norton. "One is accustomed to expect excellent novels about boys, but a modem novel about men is exceedingly rare." Anthony West wrote In The New Yorker that Invisible Man was "an exceptionally good book and in parts an extremely funny one" and praised its "robust courage," though he recommended slapping the Prologue and Epilogue and "certain expressionist passages conveniently printed in italics." Like Bellow, West congratulated Ellison on having written a book "about being colored in a white society [that] yet manages not to be a grievance book" and noted Ellison's "real satirical...