For a number of years--through the Atlantic magazine and website--I've read and come to admire Ta-Nehisi's writing and "voice." I'd wanted to read this memoir for a number of years and, when I realized I could get it through the library, I jumped at the chance.Well written and insightful, it's a great read. Admittedly, I had to skate over unfamiliar references to rap music, street slang, and basketball stars. But it was worth it. I adore Coates' writing for the Atlantic, but this didn't quite click for me. There were some passages that were mesmerizing, almost free verse rather than prose, but other stretches that just didn't work for me -- I don't know enough about the Black Panthers or 80s rap to understand all the references, and he wasn't interested in explaining.Neither Ta-Nehisi's story of growing up nor his brothers' is dramatic enough to carry the story -- although it's good to be reminded that there are options for young black men in Baltimore (and elsewhere) other than the success or disaster of "The Other Wes Moore" -- you can muddle through school, as Ta-Nehisi did, and still succeed later on.The most inherently fascinating story in the book is that of Paul Coates, Ta-Nehisi's father. His story could make a book -- veteran, Black Panther, publisher, very present father to 7 kids by 4 women. But Ta-Nehisi clearly didn't have the distance from him to write more than the outline of that book. Maybe he could do it now, but not then.
What do You think about Beautiful Struggle (2008)?
Coates' gift for wordplay is indisputable. Moving, lyrical memoir.
—aaronkristopher
