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What Members Thought
I was ready to give this book three stars because of its rocky beginning. But no, it's really that good (look in the future for a more in depth review).
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Coates doesn't point fingers or judge. This book isn't meant to assign blame, but rather lay bare the state of racism and race relations as they currently stand. There is no sugar coating or obfuscation: the prose dances gracefully between the deeply personal and the coldly impersonal facts of what living as an African American in the U.S. entails.
As a white man, this book isn't written for me. But it does offer painful insights into the lived experiences of African Americans. For me the confro ...more
As a white man, this book isn't written for me. But it does offer painful insights into the lived experiences of African Americans. For me the confro ...more
This book has the elegance of poetry and the flow of rap lyrics, making it a true pleasure to read, but it was even more fun to listen to the audiobook read by Coates himself. Coates’ perspective is one of a scholar and political pragmatist with real-world experience and a sense of duty to his forefathers and future generations.
Living in DC myself, I enjoyed how Coates described his education and growth at Howard University in rich detail (it was his Mecca, he says), and how he used his own exp ...more
Living in DC myself, I enjoyed how Coates described his education and growth at Howard University in rich detail (it was his Mecca, he says), and how he used his own exp ...more
You can tell why Coates is considered such an important voice in the field of cultural criticism. I won't pretend that I can comment on or truly comprehend the intricacies of the subject matter -- I'm not the right audience for that. That said, the book is an elegant exercise in form, as poetic as it is polemic. Coates also offers a valuable exploration of travel and immersing oneself in another culture, if only to gain perspective on your outsiderness versus your usual insiderness, if that make
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Jan 18, 2016
Katelyn
marked it as to-read
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review of another edition
Shelves:
non-fiction,
grown-up-books
