Malcom and Me by Ishmael Reed
My rating: 4 of 5 stars Revising “Cotton Patch” African American History Malcom and Me (2020) is Ishmael Reed’s concise memoir of his time in the early 1960s trying to make a living in NYC while trying to become a writer in the rich cultural milieu for African Americans then and there, particularly as all of the above were influenced by Malcom X. Reed has searing things to say about race relations and black history as lived and taught in the USA (“cotton patch history” as Malcom X called it or “We were taught that we had no history or culture” as Reed puts it), about the Nation of Islam (and its core creation myth), about police brutality in NYC, about the media’s depiction of Malcom X as a hater even after his post-Mecca transformation and assassination, about the divisions within the black community then as to whether to integrate with white culture or to separate from it, about the Europeanization of many African American writers and artists and activists in the 20th century, and so on. He recalls and recounts what forces drove many black people in the 60s to embrace Malcom X’s pre-Mecca, Nation of Islam messaging: “We wanted revenge” for a hundred years of white hate, brutality, rape, murder, and experimentation on black bodies. Here and there Reed does some name dropping, but it’s usually in the service of his memoir, and it’s good to learn the names of influential African Americans that one (from a position of white ignorance) doesn’t know about. And some name-dropping he does in the epilogue turns harrowing and inspiring as Reed introduces two of the original targets and unsung heroes of the appalling 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and its aftermath. There is dry humor here, as, for instance, when Reed confides that a DNA test revealed that he has more Nordic genes than Steve Bannon. Reed reads his text with an appealing voice and manner: gravelly and witty and savory. I do have some sympathy with the criticism of this short (90 minute) audiobook that Reed after all doesn’t say SO much about Malcom X that one wasn’t somewhat aware of before and doesn’t go into SO much detail about him or about his interactions with him. But, again, the memoir is absorbing and illuminating about many important issues in African American culture in the 20th century. And he does convey how charismatic, articulate, and intelligent (“electrifying”) Malcom X was. And how photogenic and addicted he was to media coverage. And how complex and ambiguous his memory is: was Malcom X motivated by idealism or by ambition? And Reed has made me want to listen soon to The Autobiography of Malcom X. View all my reviews
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Jefferson Peters
This blog is for book reviews. Please feel free to comment on any of the reviews! Categories
All
Archives
May 2024
Jefferson's books
by Sabaa Tahir
A Young Adult Epic Fantasy with Lots of Violence & Romance
Elias is an elite Martial soldier, Laia a naïve Scholar slave. As they alternate telling their stories (in trendy Young Adult first person, present tense narration), we soon rea...
"It must be due to some fault in ourselves"--
George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945) is an anti-totalitarian-communist allegory in which the exploited animals of the Manor Farm kick Farmer Jones out and set about running the farm. At first...
by Lu Xun
Perfect Stories of Life in Early 20th Century China
Chinese Classic Stories (1998) by Xun Lu is an excellent collection of seven short stories by perhaps the most important 20th century Chinese writer of fiction. Lu Xun (1881-1936) stu...
Fine Writing, Great Characters, Immersive World
The Surgeon's Mate (1980) is the 7th novel in Patrick O'Brian's addicting series of age of sail novels about the lives, loves, and careers of the British navy captain Jack Aubrey and the ...
An Overwritten, Oddly Compelling Gothic Father
Matthew Lewis' notorious and influential Gothic novel The Monk (1796) takes place during the heyday of the Spanish Inquisition. Ambrosio, the monk/friar/abbot/idol of Madrid, is nicknamed ...
|
My Fukuoka University