Shawn > Recent Status Updates

Easier to read on a cloudy, cool, overcast rainy day. Finally perking up a bit at the mystery though I still feel like this book should’ve been written as a single, conventional narrative w/a plot or story.
“Why did Louise prevent only a small number of people from getting their memory back? Why are the clients lying about speaking to Louise? Who is Louise looking for now? Has she already found them?”

Good idea, subpar execution. No plot, no maim character, no storyline, at all. The author chose to make this an anthology, a splashing of short stories. Who cares about any single character in this book?!

Some nice moments: “William tries, and usually manages, to live in the moment. Not for any healthy, happy reason. More because the past and the future are often too much to think about.” But William was just introduced, and after this chapter, William will prob not reappear or even be connected to any part of the story—so who cares about caring about William? But oh well, it ain’t about a single plot here…

Not bad, still wondering if there is a plot or story thread here. Prob not. IDK if it’s a contemporary thing or a fad but many books choose to do mini-stories, just one small character story, then on to another, never really digging deep into one character or basing the story off him or her. I don’t like this style. Constantly introduced to new characters is tiring reading…

smooth, flowing—i like me a straightforward, linear narrative

This is heavyweight: Cruse is picking apart & breaking down MLK Jr., not in a negative way but in a sincere & serious way.

whew, a convoluted argument is being composed here but I think it’s to the point of economics

A bit hard to follow & to interpret, however the point is manifestly important: Afro America, in reaching for The Goal, inadvertently grabbed hold of phantom handles on progress. Phantom handles such as The New Deal, which converted Afros to a religiously interminable dependency on federal government, or the Brown court case & the desegregation of schools, which undercut Afro excellence.

Dense, detailed, nuanced sections. A very in-depth, microscopic rundown of how the ‘economics’ aspect of freedom & equality was shortchanged during the course of struggles. The NAACP never had an economic plan for ‘colored people’. This book is narrowly focused now on the strengths of Jewish internal organization, the indomitable White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant group, and missed opportunities of Afro community.

“ of course, it was true that centuries of experience had taught the Jews a crucial lesson that without strong, purposeful internal organization there was a little chance for survival in a hostile world. To this very day, American blacks have not learned that lesson.” (134)

“ For all of its barbaric racism, uncivilized bigotry, and systematic genocide practiced on the Indians, the United States offered any immigrant with a white skin open access to the pursuit of whatever economic ambitions the immigrant aspired to and was willing to work for. Jewish immigrants were no exception.…made them oblivious to the black perception of the economic advantages European immigrants were offered