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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Death of parent
challenging
dark
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Young is an effective writer, for sure. His commentary about his own Black experience in America is rich, fascinating, informative, moving, and often times hilarious, as he is able to find humor even in his negative experiences. There are a lot of great parts of this book. There are layered, nuanced conversations about how the American healthcare system continually fails and endangers Black women; the intersection of race and class; whiteness; Black “rites of passage”. There is a lot of meaningful content in this book. The book though, as a whole, just didn’t do it for me.
What does not work for me is how he fails to fully confront his misogyny and homophobia, especially in his not-so-distant past. A lot of the stories fizzle out with little resolution, after some heterocentric ramblings. The essays sometimes come off as overly defensive or just gross.
It’s like… I’m glad he can reflect on his own examples of heinous misogynoir, for example, but it doesn’t make it any easier to read in the first place. The repentance doesn’t always absolve the sin, especially when the reader (like me) is just reading about that sin for the first time, with no further context of who this man is.
I really hated portions of this book, actually. The first two thirds of Chapter 10, for example, make for a pretty tough read.
There’s also a lot of unnecessary, graphic sexual content that does not add to the essays whatsoever. Intimate descriptions of masturbation and worse: depictions of sex that feel, at the very least, disrespectful to the other party mentioned. I will give the benefit of the doubt and assume that he checked in with these women before writing about their intimacy.
There were many parts of this book that were giving college-aged male feminist. He was using all the right keywords, but then couldn’t help but adding “I also made her cum, trust me” or “women say I’m really good at sex.” Okay?? This attitude really detracted from some of his arguments.
I’m confused about the way that he tells certain stories. He writes an essay about his mom’s death, but dedicates more than half of the word count discussing his dad. I don’t know why he introduced the story without discussing his mom. Strange. Anywayyyyy...
Maybe I will read it again someday. Maybe not.
Maybe I will read it again someday. Maybe not.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Sexual content
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Classism
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
A glorious, funny, unique style of a memoir. I would highly recommend because it really just feels like someone telling you the funniest stories of their life that have an undoubtable influence in their growth into the person they have become today. Insightful for those with a perspective different than his, hilariously truthful and representative that can connect with his experiences. Just....really good and I feel like I got lost in the experiences he shared.
Engaging and witty memoir in essays that continue to prove the personal is political. Personal stories woven in to political and sociological analysis of race and gender in contemporary America. Enjoyable. Read by the author.
Read this for class sophomore year. I think this is a really good gateway into understanding Black boyhood in America and especially the systemic systems that work against their existence. We see internalized thoughts become explicit as we become more aware of the things that motivate us.
Loved it! Damon Young is really funny too and this was a swell and easy read!!
Loved it! Damon Young is really funny too and this was a swell and easy read!!
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
I enjoy Damon's voice, but I still realized I'm not actually paying attention to what he's saying. Will have to try this one another time.
medium-paced
challenging
funny
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced