Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Black Boy: A Record of Youth and Childhood by Richard Wright

4 reviews

micaelamariem's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

3.5

I have to be honest. 
The only reason this is 3 stars and not 4 stars is because animals were hurt in the making of this book and I cannot abide by that.
However, the book was beautifully written, illustrating the racial injustices Wright experienced and fought against (or his friends did, considering this may not be fully autobiographical). 
The first part was very compelling, reminiscent of many coming of age tales. The second part wasn’t as interesting because it focused more on politics and Wright’s fall into communism, which had the potential to be interesting, but somewhere fell flat. 
Still, if this is a true memoir, it’s really hard to judge and rate it (especially a classic one!) because it’s someone’s life. You can’t say anything about the plot because it actually happened. 
I can say the writing and commentary was beautiful and evocative, the themes were strong, and you can tell he had things to say. 
But also please don’t hurt animals :( 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Racism, Cursing, Death, Grief, Chronic illness, Bullying, Classism, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, and Violence

earthtokb's review against another edition

5.0

hard to get through, but I'm glad I got through it. interesting to read about issues in the south 100 years ago, & to realize that conditions -- social, economical, emotional -- aren't better or worse for Black men, just different. happy to have read this, and wish I did before I wrote my own memoir about similar topics!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, and Racism

Moderate: Bullying, Racial slurs, Eating disorder, Abandonment, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Hate crime, Antisemitism, Murder, Child abuse, and Chronic illness

Minor: Mental illness, War, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, and Classism

antitypically's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Racism, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Violence, Animal death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Murder, Abandonment, Antisemitism, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Chronic illness

Minor: Addiction

notthatcosta's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

4.25

I found Black Boy to be a highly frustrating book at times; Richard Wright viscerally recounts what it is like to grow up as a perennial outsider, merely for wanting agency and respect in a world that denied both to him at every turn.

My knowledge of American history has many gaps, so the additional context offered by this book around the North/South divide was very insightful.

Despite it being very slow-paced and dense, I found myself getting much more into the book as it progressed, particularly from his late teens onwards. My main complaint would be that a lot of time was spent on his childhood, and while those formative experiences were very important and defining for him, I found it excruciating read about him getting accused of acting a certain way and beaten, and then repeat by several adults. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Child abuse, Bullying, Classism, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Murder, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Abandonment, and Animal death