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savaging's review against another edition
3.0
"We die too easily. We forgive and forget too easily." - George Jackson
There are sublime moments in this book. Jackson's terse and compelling autobiography at the beginning, or his letter two days after his little brother is shot and killed. Masterpieces. Jean Genet's introduction to the original edition, placed at the end of this edition, is also compelling to read.
And the general tone of a person locked up on an indefinite sentence and constantly at the mercy of guards and parole boards -- it clarifies how hateful and racist prisons are.
Another compelling aspect was to see Jackson struggle with the conventionalities of his parents -- the cruelty of his letters to "you people" who keep sending those goddamned Christmas cards to a rebel maltheist; the tender hope that at some moments the people who have known you the longest finally understand you. The dream that your family could be your comrades (he calls his father Robert, or he calls him his brother). And then they say Be a good boy or they send him a book on St. Augustine, and Jackson is plain angry again, saying he doesn't see any use in communicating. This fraught bond with his family across politics is beautiful and awful.
But the book is impossible to read if you have the faintest trace of feminism in you. A stupid and embarrassing misogyny pervades the letters. He meets Angela Davis, and you think he's learned his lesson now, but he ruins it by sexualizing her, fantasizing about protecting her, and pontificating to her with his political analysis.
Pontification, in general, is a draw-back of the book. Jackson has had time to think and books to read. But though his analysis of the world is surely more accurate than the average persons' on the right side of the bars, he's hard to trust. Wide-ranging comments, whether about the lack of hunger in China or the herd behavior of buffalo, and are simply incorrect, grate on me.
There are sublime moments in this book. Jackson's terse and compelling autobiography at the beginning, or his letter two days after his little brother is shot and killed. Masterpieces. Jean Genet's introduction to the original edition, placed at the end of this edition, is also compelling to read.
And the general tone of a person locked up on an indefinite sentence and constantly at the mercy of guards and parole boards -- it clarifies how hateful and racist prisons are.
Another compelling aspect was to see Jackson struggle with the conventionalities of his parents -- the cruelty of his letters to "you people" who keep sending those goddamned Christmas cards to a rebel maltheist; the tender hope that at some moments the people who have known you the longest finally understand you. The dream that your family could be your comrades (he calls his father Robert, or he calls him his brother). And then they say Be a good boy or they send him a book on St. Augustine, and Jackson is plain angry again, saying he doesn't see any use in communicating. This fraught bond with his family across politics is beautiful and awful.
But the book is impossible to read if you have the faintest trace of feminism in you. A stupid and embarrassing misogyny pervades the letters. He meets Angela Davis, and you think he's learned his lesson now, but he ruins it by sexualizing her, fantasizing about protecting her, and pontificating to her with his political analysis.
Pontification, in general, is a draw-back of the book. Jackson has had time to think and books to read. But though his analysis of the world is surely more accurate than the average persons' on the right side of the bars, he's hard to trust. Wide-ranging comments, whether about the lack of hunger in China or the herd behavior of buffalo, and are simply incorrect, grate on me.
themahtin's review against another edition
4.0
Books like this are an important part of US history. We need to know more about racism, the Black Panther Party, radical history, and how the US prison system (the prison-industrial complex) works, and this book is an important source about these subjects. I felt like it got a bit long.
kobusu's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
4.0
The dragon has come.
bedsidearchive's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
5.0
civil6512's review against another edition
5.0
I can't remember how I found out about this book. Maybe it was mentioned in some documentary, or it was referenced by some Wikipedia article I was reading. When I marked it to read, I found that a friend had previously read it, which encouraged me to give it a try.
What a book!
First, I couldn't help hating George Jackson. The way he treated his family in his letters, the way he patronised them, how sexist he was... I was unable to empathise with him, and started thinking these were the reasons he was unable to be paroled out... and that's when it stroke me, that's when I realised how I am part of the system: eager to find reasons not to question the status quo, to find reasons to justify the systemic racism, to find reasons to bend, to fit.
At that point, I kept reading with more passion. What they did with George Jackson is a shame: he was sentenced to one year to life for a $70 armed robbery. He was told that pleading guilty would see him out of prison earlier than trying to argue his case, but instead he was kept incarcerated for 11 years, spending many of them in isolation, until he was finally killed in a riot.
George Jackson educated himself during his time in jail: he studied languages, read about Marxism, Maoism and essentially revolutionary ideology.
Learning about him from his letters is hard, since the reader lacks half of the context. Sometimes they are written after receiving a visit, sometimes they answer other letters, sometimes he's angry, sometimes he's hopeful... In the end, he learns to expect nothing.
I won't attempt to summarise his letters: he talks about politics, oppression, racism, capitalism... And his letters also talk about Martin Luther King and why his nonviolent activism could never work (this he says before MLK is murdered, and repeats afterwards)
The book is available online here: http://historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/soledadbro.html, and I encourage everybody to read it.
What a book!
First, I couldn't help hating George Jackson. The way he treated his family in his letters, the way he patronised them, how sexist he was... I was unable to empathise with him, and started thinking these were the reasons he was unable to be paroled out... and that's when it stroke me, that's when I realised how I am part of the system: eager to find reasons not to question the status quo, to find reasons to justify the systemic racism, to find reasons to bend, to fit.
At that point, I kept reading with more passion. What they did with George Jackson is a shame: he was sentenced to one year to life for a $70 armed robbery. He was told that pleading guilty would see him out of prison earlier than trying to argue his case, but instead he was kept incarcerated for 11 years, spending many of them in isolation, until he was finally killed in a riot.
George Jackson educated himself during his time in jail: he studied languages, read about Marxism, Maoism and essentially revolutionary ideology.
Learning about him from his letters is hard, since the reader lacks half of the context. Sometimes they are written after receiving a visit, sometimes they answer other letters, sometimes he's angry, sometimes he's hopeful... In the end, he learns to expect nothing.
I won't attempt to summarise his letters: he talks about politics, oppression, racism, capitalism... And his letters also talk about Martin Luther King and why his nonviolent activism could never work (this he says before MLK is murdered, and repeats afterwards)
The book is available online here: http://historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/soledadbro.html, and I encourage everybody to read it.
staceyrenee10's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
3.75
rubytwosdays's review against another edition
5.0
Rage rage rage. George Jackson, you are not forgotten, and your words live on. Trapped in a cell, but the freest mind of all.