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4.47 AVERAGE
4.47 AVERAGE
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
I loved this! I learned so much about Malcolm X that I didn't learn in school, and there were so many plot twists with all the jobs he had. Highly reccomend!
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Ever since I was introduced to the world of leftist thinkers, this has been on the top of my reading list. I remember visiting my best friend in New York City and shopping in a small, independent, left-leaning bookstore. I passed by one of their display tables & the red caught my eye; I was thrilled when I saw that a new edition was only $9. My friend and I each bought a copy. I didn't read it for a little over a year or so after this purchase, but my eyes were finally opened to its brilliance. It is charged with passion & constructed with immaculate prose. I recommend this as a cornerstone text for people newly reading leftist thought or interested in Islam. On the other hand, this is also the perfect novel for someone who also just wants to read a good story. I would structure this book into three main categories: life pre-Islam, Nation of Islam, and life in true Islam. The character development & crafty storytelling pull you in, & it's impossible to put it down. (Nevertheless, it is a very long book & it can feel a little slow at times, so I understand that it's daunting.) It is clear that the Malcolm X & Alex Haley duo achieved a trifold task well: a compelling masterwork that illustrates the political, religious, & familial/emotional/personal life of Malcolm X. In summary, it is extremely difficult to find an audience who shouldn't read this book.
After reading authors like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Isabel Wilkerson, I felt compelled to learn more about the man who had been referred to, in theirs texts and others, with a sort of cautious reverence. This autobiography, dictated to Alex Haley in a manner than makes it even more poignant given its timing in relation to Malcolm's death, is the saga of a man evolving in real time. It is immensely entertaining, and enormously important as it demystifies one of the most misunderstood public figures in American History.
Malcolm is unabashedly the product of his environment, and as that environment changes, so too do his opinions and his philosophies. Malcolm chooses deliberately to recount stories in as if he still held the viewpoints of his past self -- it can be confusing to hear the notoriously ascetic Muslim recounting drug-addled nights of his youth. This effect pays off enormously especially in the later chapters of the book, where Malcolm's thinking matures and he reflects on his past views.
It's the story of an individual's evolution. It's an inspiring memoir of self-reform. And it's a brutal, heartbreaking example of how systemic injustice can rob the world of a human's full potential.
Malcolm is unabashedly the product of his environment, and as that environment changes, so too do his opinions and his philosophies. Malcolm chooses deliberately to recount stories in as if he still held the viewpoints of his past self -- it can be confusing to hear the notoriously ascetic Muslim recounting drug-addled nights of his youth. This effect pays off enormously especially in the later chapters of the book, where Malcolm's thinking matures and he reflects on his past views.
It's the story of an individual's evolution. It's an inspiring memoir of self-reform. And it's a brutal, heartbreaking example of how systemic injustice can rob the world of a human's full potential.
I wish I still had a copy. This is the story of an incredible man sadly killed in the prime of his life.
medium-paced
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
slow-paced