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micaelamariem's review against another edition
3.5
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 :(
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
antitypically's review against another edition
4.5
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
4.25
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.
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