A delayed review so I'll likely never capture how much I absolutely loved this book. Every single page rips through the veneer's we use to gloss over A delayed review so I'll likely never capture how much I absolutely loved this book. Every single page rips through the veneer's we use to gloss over our lives and lays bare the reckonings that are at the heart of family, love, lust, hate, race, fear, violence, empathy, and compassion. Wally Lamb is such an incredible writer in his ability to move a novel forward while pulling the reader so deep inside. There are lessons upon lessons to be drawn from this book that could be re-read a hundred times. From the every changing tides of romantic love and its effects on family dynamics, to an almost unimaginably compassionate understanding of the trauma experienced by perpetrators of sexual violence and their difficulty relating to the world yet with a very clear picture of the harm their actions nonetheless wrought. And, of course, the sweetness and yet sickly persistence of revenge and it's ugly brain children. What a powerful and moving read. I loved it....more
Powerful memoir by one of the founders of the Black Lives Matters movement. This book seeks to contextualize and concretize a movement that seemingly Powerful memoir by one of the founders of the Black Lives Matters movement. This book seeks to contextualize and concretize a movement that seemingly emerged overnight - but often without much discussion or analysis of where it came from or the very real people making very real efforts to ensure that the message gets out there.
Patrisse Khan-Cullors' story rips at the heart as she lays bare the racial violence that pervaded her childhood upbringing in Los Angeles. Her personal experiences with police as a seemingly occupying force in her neighborhood, their violent interactions with her brother battling mental illness, and the relative ease with which these same enforcers readily over look the transgressions of students are her mostly white and affluent schools all play a pivotal role in driving her to become the activist that she is and has been. When these institutions repeatedly tell you over and over and over that black lives do not matter, that their health do not matter, that their safety and security do not matter, that their mere existence is a crime - then it's no surprise that the response is as beautiful, powerful, and simple as: Black Lives Matter.
Khan-Cullors' story is an inspiration and an awakening. It is a tragedy in the way that reading about anyone's struggles is. But it is perhaps even more tragic when recognizing that her experience is not exceptional - but rather a norm for those who this country has decided to police, abuse, subjugate with violence for the past 300 years.
A beautiful and poetic read that illuminates the human rights struggle that is recognizing the value of humanity in Black lives....more
To try and put Coates into my own words seems like such a futile effort. This writing is so powerful, so informative, so beautiful, so comprehensive, To try and put Coates into my own words seems like such a futile effort. This writing is so powerful, so informative, so beautiful, so comprehensive, and so moving. And, it's clear that, at least on some level, he knows this.
At first, I believed We Were Eight Years in Power was 'simply' a collection of Coates' Atlantic writings over the past decade. In one sense, it is. Including his essays on race, America, politics, history, the civil war, redlining, Jim Crow, policing, Obama, Michelle, Trump, whiteness, blackness, and the whole host of interrelated matters. However, it is not just these essays (if one can even appropriately use the term just to describe extraordinarily compelling longread non-fiction).
In between each chapter, or, as an intro to each, Coates reflects on where he was at the time while writing, how the piece emerged, and in many cases, his thoughts on the content or even context looking back. He talks about what pieces have held up, which have not. Which he would have written differently, and which he feels are timeless.
In presenting these memoir-like texts, the reader glimpses Coates the writer, not just Coates the commentator. And here I am perhaps most fascinated. After spending a decent amount of time talking about 'writing' with a close friend, and observing my brother developing a practice for the trade, I am so fascinated by what it takes and what it means to 'be a writer.' To let one's internal world pour out. To do so without inhibition. To express vulnerability. And, perhaps most importantly, to simply be honest.
Coates talked a decent amount about this phenomenon at the Miami Dade College talk a few weeks ago. How writing, or at least good writing, is inherently vulnerable. And, his vignettes make this clear. Sharing his thoughts and his worries. His financial and emotional struggle. His trying to find his place in the world of writing. And, trying not to lose himself as he does so. It must certainly be a funny feeling to write in relative obscurity and unrewarding poverty for decades, railing against the world that raised you and screaming to be heard. Only to suddenly, almost in the blink of an eye (but certainly not without years of toil) to have people on the street and in elevators recognize you, and, frankly, pay to see you speak. And, how?
The essays themselves are likely timeless pieces that can't help but keep their readers honest about the world in which we live. The additional writings bring the author's humanity squarely forward, presenting the complexity, difficulty, and incredible tenacity of someone who otherwise appears to simply have magically made it.
Loved the writing, loved the musings, couldn't recommend it enough....more