Category: Race Relations

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, by Manning Marable

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention

Written by Manning Marable, Narrated by G. Valmont Thomas

Reason for Reading: This was one of the books I’d listed as potential reading for my Social Justice Theme Read in February. I chose it because it won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2012 and was a finalist in the National Book Award.




Review
In Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, Manning Marable set out to honestly portray a man and to humanize an icon. Marable intended on filling in holes left by truth-bending and necessary lack-of-future-knowledge in The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Since I am not an expert on the subject, I have to say that Marable’s book seemed very thorough and well-researched. It was also an engrossing narrative. I feel it well-deserves its Pulitzer Prize. My only complaint was towards the beginning of the novel, Marable inserted some innuendo about Malcolm X’s sexuality – which was unnecessary, and rather rude since he didn’t have any hard evidence to support his claims. That innuendo was referenced obliquely a few times in the first quarter of the book. Luckily, those references stopped for the last three quarters of the book, or I would have been left with a very bad taste in my mouth.

The only reason I bring up that complaint is because I was looking for hints to why there’s a controversy about this book. I was wondering if there was anything I, personally, could pick up. I’m not very familiar with what the controversy is about – and I haven’t seen any controversial reference to the innuendo that bothered me. Mostly, the controversy seems to be about Marable’s lack of respect for the impact Malcolm X had on the Black Liberation Movement. If you’re interested, here’s an interesting article on the topic. There’s also a book entitled A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X, if you really want to delve into the issue. However, I am satisfied that Marable did a lot of really good research, and wrote an interesting and informative book. The issue of exactly what long-term impact Malcolm X had on the Civil Rights Movement and the country as a whole is an opinion, in my opinion. 

G. Valmont Thomas did an excellent job of narrating this book. Quite enjoyable. 🙂

Noughts and Crosses, by Malorie Blackman

Noughts and Crosses 

Written by by Malorie Blackman, Narrated by Syan Blake and Paul Chequer

Reason for Reading: Group read for my Social Justice February theme (which didn’t go so well this year due to a month of hospital runs….but things are looking more perky now!)

Review
Callum McGregor and Sephy Hadley have been best friends for as long as they remember. But recently their feelings for each other have begun to develop into something…stronger. Unfortunately, Sephy is a member of the dark-skinned upper class of Cross, and Callum is a pale-skinned, low-class Nought. The teens’ romantic problems intensify when Callum’s family gets caught up in a terrorist liberation organization that Sephy’s father (a politician) has sworn to stamp out. Sephy and Callum must learn to love each other in a tumultuous world of hatred. Does this scream out “star-crossed lover” to you? But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? (I got the same Romeo and Juliet vibe from Warm Bodies, which I just finished reading. I think it’s fun when the cosmic net of connected concepts captures me.) 

I’ve heard fantastic things about this book, but I wasn’t as impressed as I thought I’d be. Maybe it’s just because I wasn’t in the mood to read depressing race-relations books (and they’re all a bit depressing, aren’t they?), but this book wasn’t a slap in the face of my preconceived notions.  It was just another book about racism, much like a book written about a white girl and teenaged member of the Black Panthers. The whole skin-color switcharoo seemed like an unnecessary literary device to me. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it was a bad book…I was just expecting more amazingness, that’s all. It was a tragically-sweet love story about a very important issue – racism, and the ease with which we can be swept away by other people’s causes. But I think the book would have been more powerful if she’d focused on  the realism of the story instead of trying to build a new world that was simply too similar to our own to justify the effort of creation.  

What do other people think? I imagine there are people out there who think the skin-color switcharoo added to the story? If so, please let us know. 🙂