This book marks the end of the late great Dr. Marable's work while (hopefully?) simultaneously ushering in a fruitful re-examining of Malcolm X's life and place in the historical record. This means, of course, that it isn't quite the definitive work some people are holding it up to be, but would it really have been possible to capture something so complex and important in a single volume? Probably not, and especially not when so much remains unclear and so many sources remain unavailable (and, I have to say, Marable is entirely explicit about this - there is an enormous amount of conjecture in this book, but it is always presented as such, and he is always clear that as new sources become available, the story will continue to evolve).

I, personally, could have used more of a theoretical/structural analysis: there was one brief discussion of Gramsci's prison experiences and the growth of organic intellectuals, but I would have loved further elaborations along that line. I also hated the lack of footnotes.* On the other hand, this book can be (and is being and will continue to be, I'm sure) consumed by a pretty diverse audience, so again, hopefully this will start a wider conversation that involves a variety of voices.

Some of this open-endedness, of course, also stems from the fact that Malcolm's life was cut short so early and in the midst of such a profound transformation. This leaves the field pretty wide open for his legacy to be kind of a floating signifier, which is a problem that I think Marable himself wrestles with here - was Malcolm headed towards liberal reformism, pan-African socialism, or Black nationalism, or some combination of all or none of the above? I don't know, neither does Marable, and nor does anyone else, although theories are pouring out of the woodwork (it's that conversation at work!). It's pretty telling, though, that much of the furor centers on Marable's allegations of paid homosexual encounters and marital infidelity (a "furor" currently led most publicly, of course, by a review that misreads much of this work, plays fast and loose with some factual errors of its own, and is full of venomous and, frankly, patently ridiculous personal attacks on a man who is no longer around to defend himself), neither of which makes much of a difference in the long run except for, I guess, calling Malcolm's "masculinity" into question (as if that was a bad thing).

The fact that this isn't a hagiography seems to have convinced many a few very vocal readers that this must be at attempt at some sort of character assassination, but it isn't, and the actual text of this book makes that very clear.





* This is actually the one area where I'm afraid some of the criticism is deserved: there are definitely some assertions that really should have been sourced that are not, and even a few places where direct quotes are not attributed at all.