Rate this book

The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, And An Unlikely Road To Manhood (2008)

by Ta-Nehisi Coates(Favorite Author)

3.82 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0385520360 (ISBN13: 9780385520362)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Spiegel & Grau

review 1: What a great story. Poetically written. Intelligently and honestly told. It goes to show how intelligence isn't necessarily obvious by a young student's effort, performance, or grades. But his intelligence is evident in his devouring the material his Black Panther father republishes to keep the literature/information "alive" and available. The history of this country has multiple points of view, and all points of view are relevant, in my opinion. For example, if some people "won the West", someone else lost it, and both sides of that history matter. There is slavery from the slaveholder point of view, and from the slaves point of view, and both views matter. And there is experience from the privileged point of view, and from the disenfranchised. Both matter. I speak as a w... moreoman of color, whose people have been here for a very long time, some even before Columbus. I have a great admiration for Mr. Coates, whose articles I have been reading for a few years. I was surprised, actually, that his coming-of-age memoir is written in the vernacular. And it pleases me because it gives it a tone of his life experience, bringing readers into HIS world as a youngster growing up. He makes references to some things I am not familiar with so sometimes I felt lost. For example, I am not familiar with Dungeons and Dragons, nor "black historical figures and heroes", and just barely in terms of hip-hop (or rap) genre (and what I do know is only because I have children his age). But I took the time to look up some of the names he drops, because I wanted to know who he was talking about, and how this related to what he was saying. Knowing gives me a broader understanding. The whole comic book thing, as well as the Dungeons and Dragons thing, just makes him a typical "geek", an American "geek". Sometimes I felt I was reading in some foreign language, and could only catch the gist of what he was saying, but I didn't mind this. When I read "Tropic of Cancer" I came across the same issue. It just means I come from a different life experience. But I love the experience of reading extraordinary minds. I can just bet some people will be put off by Mr. Coates' language and his writing here. I think as a general rule people tend to be ethnocentric and forget to be open to cultural relativity. I think this is a beautiful memoir, beautifully written, by a very intelligent man that I greatly admire. I disagree with one reviewer, a teacher no less, who describes Mr. Coates as "ordinary". I disagree 100%. I read him as pretty extraordinary.
review 2: A book I'm glad that I read but that I didn't particularly enjoy reading. Coates' story is interesting and important, but it feels like a slightly lesser version of 'The Color of Water'. There's nothing left to chance here, as the reader already knows him as a successful national columnist. His brother's story and father's story are more interesting but they get less focus than the writer's. This feels like a mistake. Coates is a very talented writer with a vital story. In contrast to Wes Moore--a less skilled linguist, to be sure--he doesn't engage the reader (This reader?) in his admittedly beautiful struggle. The impact of his lovely words ends up washing away too much as a result. less

Download links for: The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood

Advertising