Amazon.com

Nineteenth-century African American businessman, activist, and educator Booker Taliaferro Washington's Up from Slavery is one of the greatest American autobiographies ever written. Its mantras of black economic empowerment, land ownership, and self-help inspired generations of black leaders, including Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and Louis Farrakhan. In rags-to-riches fashion, Washington recounts his ascendance from early life as a mulatto slave in Virginia to a 34-year term as president of the influential, agriculturally based Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. From that position, Washington reigned as the most important leader of his people, with slogans like "cast down your buckets," which emphasized vocational merit rather than the academic and political excellence championed by his contemporary rival W.E.B. Du Bois. Though many considered him too accommodating to segregationists, Washington, as he said in his historic "Atlanta Compromise" speech of 1895, believed that "political agitation alone would not save [the Negro]," and that "property, industry, skill, intelligence, and character" would prove necessary to black Americans' success. The potency of his philosophies are alive today in the nationalist and conservative camps that compose the complex quilt of black American society. ... Read more

Book Description

This poignant memoir of one abandoned child's wrenching search for some-one to love--and to be loved by--gives compassionate voice to the plight of abused and unwanted children everywhere. What happens to a child when her own parents reject and abandon her? At birth, Regina Louise is deposited by her mother in a foster home where she grows up with the constant specter of severe beatings and other harrowing abuses. But at 10 years old, this extraordinarily bright and resilient child strikes out on her own. Set adrift, she re-encounters her mother, who chooses the men in her life over her daughter's safety, and is then foisted upon a father she has never known, who is at first indifferent and then emotionally abusive. She inhabits over 30 foster and group homes in her painful quest to be loved. Distinctive and arresting, Regina's story offers a scalding look at the life of a child no one wanted--and her discovery of the love that for so long had eluded her. ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Insightful!
The memoir Somebody's Someone, provided insight into an experience many of us are uncomfortable imagining and even more, acknowledging that it exist. Regina Louise truthfully does not write a "feel good" or "happy ending" book for readers to walk away from unaffected. On the contrary, she challenges the reader to face the reality experienced by a child when they are discarded by their parents and unwanted by their family. Although this talented author vividly depicted her life for all to read, I dare to say that no words could ever accurately describe her journey through life. I struggled to finish this book due to the realism and authenticity that Somebody's Someone represented. The only encouragement I received in reading this book was knowing that this little girl I was reading about evidently fought her way to success and did not allow what many would perceive as defeating circumstances to define her life.

**** Submitted by Sherna Graham for www.goodgirlbookclubonline.com The GOOD GIRL Book Club

Can Anyone Love Me?
Regina wanted to be somebody, anybody, someone loved. SOMEBODY'S SOMEONE: A MEMOIR by Regina Louise is the story of Regina Ollison told through the voice of a young Regina, age ten through fifteen. We hear first hand the account of her life as a foster child in Texas, North Carolina and finally California. Regina deliberately and painstakingly lays before the reader a first hand account of her ordeal as an unwanted child and what an ordeal it was. So much so that no child should be subjected to life that Regina led. While reading, a few questions came to mind such as, why was this child literally abandoned to a family friend with a history of harboring children and allowing their mistreatment by others? Were her parents so selfish not to want this child but as the years went on, continued to have other children whom they treated like gold? Were Regina's behaviors so incorrigible that she could not be loved?

Through it all, Regina possessed a spirit of wanting, forgiveness and determination that literally saved her from herself and others. At times her antics were humorous but for the most part, this is a sad account, told with a strong southern dialect, which forces the reader to savor the message that Regina was trying to get across to the adults in her life. Her voice resonates her need for a mother and a family regardless of color, which is something that no one inside of the system captured with exception of one woman.

While reading I was hoping to get a glimpse at Regina today and where she stands. I went to her website and discovered that she is doing wonderful things for children "caught" in the system. She is artistically creative and continuously giving of herself through the arts. Anyone who reads SOMEBODY'S SOMEONE: A MEMOIR will be affected by the life of Regina Louise. I highly recommend this novel if you can stomach the pain that may come along with it....

Awesome
Somebody's Someone was the book I was looking for. It made me feel as though I can be somebody even if I don't have anything. She was able to take close to nothing and make it something. I am waitng for the next one.I also want to just say Thank you. God Bless Ms. Louise
Bye-4-now

One Helluva Story
Triumph of the spirit! I hope the author gets all that she deserves in life and God knows she desereves better than what she came from and went through. It is hard to believe that we still treat children as we did in the beginning of the new world: as though they are meaningless and insignificant. I recommend this book to all who want a reminder of how precious we all are even when we have no one to REALLY love us. This story speaks to the grace of God's presence in a little girls life.

A Child's Story
It is hard to believe that this is a memoir. That a child could be treated with such disregard and cruelty as Regina was.

This is Regina Louise's story of her life from ages 10-15. In these years, Regina shifted from home to home, with a simple request that any child has - to belong and be loved by someone. As the story opens, Regina is living in Texas with a surrogate grandmother, Big Mama, whose house is full of other people's children. In this house, Regina was abused by her "siblings" and ignored by Big Mama. After one of the older children in the home beats Regina at about age 11, she is sent on a bus ride alone to North Carolina to live with her mother, Ruby.

Her time with Ruby seems hopeful, as Ruby is stable and working. But, as the story progresses, and Regina's sister, Doretha comes to live with them, things fall apart. Ruby's boyfriend, Mr. Benny begins making advances at the girls. Doretha fights back and ends up fighting Ruby and getting put out, while Regina sits quietly by, realizing that Ruby wouldn't believe her anyway, and desperately wanting her mother's love and approval.

When Regina finally tells her mother of Mr. Benny's advances, Ruby sends Regina to live in California with her father and his wife. Her time with her father is unsuccessful, and she ends up in foster care, where she becomes attached to one of the counselor's, Ms. Claire. To tell the details of what occurs while Regina is in foster care, would give away several important details and themes that emerge in this.

It was easy to suspend reality and to act like this was merely a story, rather than a detailed account of a girl's life. The book is written in first person, simple narrative form with broken English, as though you are reading out of Regina's journal, or someone merely transcribed her words, spoken into a mini-tape recorder. I often found myself hearing her voice as I read her words. While I would recommend this book, it is not for the light-hearted reader, looking for an uplifting story. Even as I finished this book, I was still not sure if the story was complete. I guess I was looking for a nice, tidy ending, where everything falls into place and all ends well. That satisfaction was not realized until I found her website,
and read a little bit more about how she is now.

Tameshia
R.E.A.L. Reviewers ... Read more

Amazon.com

The beauty of former Negro League star Buck O'Neil's autobiography is its tone: it's filled with thankfulness for the life he's had. Born into an era of racial segregation, O'Neil--truly aninspirational presence in the Ken Burns documentary Baseball--has a right to be bitter for the opportunities denied him; instead, he is at peace with the opportunities he took. A man of unmistakable dignity, O'Neil is a marvelous storyteller, and I Was Right On Timereads like a fireside chat. He spins tales of baseball's barnstorming era, offers memories of his all-time Negro League all-star team, and weaves deft portraits of the stars he played with (and against), most affectionately his good friend and long-time teammate Satchel Paige. Still, O'Neil doesn't whitewash the past. He has stared down injustice and confronted insult, yet instead of lecturing, he opts to inform. Now in his 80s, O'Neil, as chairman of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, remains a living part of baseball memory. I Was Right On Time gives that memory a rich, resonant voice. ... Read more

Reviews (15)

For love of the game
I became aware of Buck O'Neil through the video series "Baseball" by Ken Burns. I found the book to be full of many of the same qualities I enjoyed about Buck's contributions to the video: His love of the game and the people he knew who played it. There are plenty of stories about well-known negro league players we all know of, but I think you'll enjoy hearing about other great players almost no one else has remembered. I also praise this book and the author for staying positive and for seeing the good in life rather than dwelling on its many injustices. This is a precious man and I think you'll enjoy this book as a chance to "meet" him.

I You Love Baseball, You'll Love This Book!
If you watched Ken Burns's Baseball, then you probably remember Buck O'Neil. If not, you should read this book and get to know him. In addition to telling tales from his days playing with Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Monarchs, O'Neil shares advice and life lessons. The title of the book reflects his feeling that he wasn't unlucky to miss an opportunity to play in the major leagues, he was lucky to be able to play baseball, the greatest game there is.

The Ambassador Of the Negro Leagues
I was impressed with this book and its author long before I had the honor of meeting Buck O'Neil.Mr. O'Neil gave up a $4.000.00 speaking engagement to come to Humboldt,Kansas and speak free of charge.The author writes of his years playing and managing the Kansas City Monarchs.He tells stories about Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson.There is no one better qualified to write this book about his life and how segregated baseball and life was then.Mr O'Neil helped found and lead the Negro League Baseball Museuem In Kansas City, Missouri.Mr O'Neil is one of only about 300 Negro League ballplayers still living and one of only about four still living who played in the Negro Leagues in the 1930s.Mr O'Neil is a treasure and his book tells the story.

Must Have
this Book reflects so much to me overall.Buck O'Neil is a special figure in any sport too me.He is somebody that whenever He is on tv I have too stop what I'm doing&listen.this Book is the same way for me.so many great stories&reflections of what He went through&all of the Great Players He played with&against is mentioned here.listening too Him is like having a Family Member telling you stories that you could listen too for a whole day non-stop he moves me.

A beautiful man tells a heartwarming story.
Buck O'Neil is a man with a story to tell - one of courage, hard work, joy, love, and history. Homespun, told as if Buck was sitting across from the reader, O'Neil reveals the bright side of a very sad period of history where great players were denied the opportunity to compete in the Major Leagues simply because of the color of their skin, but where great competition and inspiration occurred on the backroads and big cities of America as members of the Negro Leagues played all over the Western Hemisphere.

Buck refuses to be sad over the lost opportunity of playing in the Majors, but instead revels in being able to play with and against some of the finest players in the history of baseball. Because so many of his contemporaries had this same spirit, they enjoyed their lives and ended up paving the way for the Major Leagues to be integrated. This event is so much more than a mere baseball event, but an event that changed America in a great and grand way!

Reading this book was inspirational to me, and let me see that no matter what the circumstances, good can be found if you look for it. Buck is a person who reveals the secret of life - love others. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Paul Klebnikov tells the incredible story of Boris Berezovsky, a one-time Russian car dealer who assembled a huge--and illicit--fortune after the collapse of Communism. "This individual had risen out of nowhere to become the richest businessman in Russia and one of the most powerful individuals in the country," writes Klebnikov, a respected reporter for Forbes. "This is a story of corruption so profound that many readers might have trouble believing it." Yet Godfather of the Kremlin is a careful work of journalism in which Klebnikov documents the business dealings of a man who once bragged to the Financial Times that he and six other men controlled half of the Russian economy and rigged Boris Yeltsin's reelection in 1996. Berezovsky survived both an assassination attempt and a murder investigation, and paved the way to power for Vladimir Putin. He and the other crony capitalists of post-Soviet Russia like to rationalize their deeds, writes Klebnikov: "Whenever I asked Russia's business magnates about the orgy of crime produced by the market reforms, they invariably excused it by pointing to the robber barons of American capitalism. Russia's bandit capitalism was no different from American capitalism in the late nineteenth century, they argued." Yet nothing could be further from the truth: Carnegie, Rockefeller, and their peers transformed the United States into an economic superpower. Berezovsky, on the other hand, has "produced no benefit to Russia's consumers, industries, or treasury." It's not that he didn't have an opportunity. To pick one example among many, he took over Aeroflot when it had a monopoly position in a booming market. But the company barely grew, and instead experienced myriad problems. Berezovsky controlled many businesses, but he was a lousy business manager; his only authentic success--as an auto dealer--depended on collusion. His real skill is shady dealmaking, especially with corrupt government officials. That's the way to success in modern Russia, as this well-told but troubling book reveals. --John J. Miller ... Read more

Reviews (41)

A good read about capital flight.......
What is capital flight? According to the author, a man named Boris Berezovsky was quite the expert at this. Take over a Russian company with government funds, kill anyone who gets in the way, and take over its assets by funnelling them out of the country, or filling filthy Chechen rebels' pockets with ransom money thus stripping the country of its vital tax assets to pay for social programs, pensions and wages.

What isn't good about this book has been the reviews. Some are calling it bunk because Berezovsky is in Spain now, or the author wrote the book at the time he was involved in a lawsuit with the man, but they don't get specific enough about why this discredits the book. To dismiss Berezovsky as not being capable of the fiscal atrocities he has caused Russia is to dismiss Stalin, Hitler and Napoleon as well. Of course the former didn't commit his acts alone(the book is clear about this) and neither did the latter.

Insofar as to the credibility of this manuscript, Harcourt and Amazon.com both have some apologizing to do for selling what could be a complete joke or they don't have to do anything at all because what Klebnikov wrote is indeed factual.

What do I believe? I truly believe this book confirms that Boris Yeltsin screwed the Russian people out of millions of their own rubles and did so because he allowed a kniving little Russian business mogul and thief named Boris Berezovsky to do so. This book explains this relationship very well. I would also like to request that any negative review of this book be accompanied by similarly massive appendices and footnotes to the contrary that Klebnikov afforded his readers to clarify his findings.

He paid with his life
Paul Klebnikov died yesterday (7/10/04) in Moscow because he had the courage to print the truth as he uncovered it through relentless investigative journalism. Anyone--such as some of the reviewers at this site--who dismisses this book because of some trivial libel suit brought by Berezovsky in London is making a mistake. Klebnikov was no small-time journalist with an axe to grind. He had a PhD in Russian history from the London School of Economics and was a senior editor for Forbes magazine. He was an American of Russian heritage who spoke Russian fluently and who used his abilities to investigate the looting of Russia that took place in the early 1990's. He loved Russia and wrote what he learned about the looting that was going on.

Everything Klebnikov says in this book can also be found in The Oligarchs by Hoffman (Washington Post), Putin's Russia by Shevtsova (Carnegie Endowment) and The Tragedy of Russia's Reforms by Reddaway (George Washington University). They all cite and/or quote Klebnikov with approval.

I can't recommend this book highly enough to anyone who wants an introduction to the murky world of Russian privatization during the '90's.

Incidentally, Berezovsky actually took out a full-page ad in the New York Times to tell the world he is not a crook. However, like some of the other oligarchs, he is wanted in Russia for tax evasion, fraud, etc. Read the book and find out all about him.

Good Man, Good Book, Great Loss
Sadly, I did not pick up Paul Klebnikov's book until July 9, 2004, the day of his gruesome murder. I have always had a passing interest in Russian culture and was a reader, and admirer, of Mr. Klebnikov's pieces in Forbes.

-Godfather of the Kremlin: The Decline of Russia in the Age of Gangster Capitalism- reads like a novel. However, these events did happen, despite the blind eye Mr. Yeltsin turned. Mr. Klebnikov puts together strong arguments and raises some disturbing questions as to what was going on in Russia during the 1990's.

Further, his murder has done nothing but confirm, in my eyes, what he had written and discovered.

I hope others continue his work, and I hope Forbes continues to employ those with Paul Klebnikov's thirst for knowledge and truth.

I send my deepest regrests to his family.

True hero
He is a real Russian hero and ironically an American. Honest and fearless, he was doing it all for Russia which he truely loved. My condolences go to his family, people who knew and understood Paul....

A good guy
I also write upon hearing about Paul's tragic death. I knew him in high school and hadn't talked since, but he was a bright, cheerful, memorable person. He was clearly trying to "do the right thing" in Russia and I'll never forget him for it. ... Read more

Book Description

What is race for? That bracing question animates every page of The Accidental Asian, a powerful work from one
of the nation's leading young voices. In these personal and poignant reflections on assimilation,
Eric Liu articulates a vision of American identity that will provoke and inspire. For Liu, the price of
assimilation became clear when he tried to read a memorial book about his father's life, composed in Chinese,
and found himself staring at a blur of indecipherable characters. There in his hands was the measure of his
inheritance. Liu, meanwhile, has watched with both wonder and concern as a pan-ethnic Asian American
identity has taken shape. Here now is a race that offers a new source of roots--but also tightens the hold that
color has upon our minds.
Like so many in the second generation, Liu doesn't know whether to embrace, resist, or redefine assimilation--
and ends up doing all three at once. He speaks candidly about his journey from a fierce pursuit of racelessness to a slow
rapprochement with race. He is not afraid to reveal his ambivalence. At bottom, Liu is an "accidental Asian"--someone who has stumbled upon a sense of race, who is not always sure what to do with it.
         Weaving narrative and analysis into a series of elegant essays, Liu addresses a broad range of questions:
 ¸          Is whiteness America's fundamental race problem?
 ¸          Are Asian Americans really the New Jews?
 ¸  Should we fear the rising might of China?
 ¸          What does a journey through Chinatown
reveal about our own lives?
 ¸          What might intermarriage mean for Asian
Americans--and for the future of race itself?

         The clear voice in these pages will resonate with Americans of every hue. Beyond black and white, conservative and liberal,
native and alien, lies a vast and fertile field of human experience. It is this field that Liu, with insight and compassion, invites us to explore. ... Read more

Reviews (48)

Brilliant and Hearfelt Arguments for Omniculturalism
"The Accidental Asian" is a deeply introspective collection of essays on growing up as a second generation Chinese American. However, the essays constitute much more than that, being a brilliant and heartfelt series of arguments in support of what Eric Liu appropriately calls "omniculturalism" and what others, with derisory connotations, call "assimilationism". It is a book which has as much to say about what it means to be an American, and where American culture and society are heading, as it does about the specific struggles of its author.

There is a scene which Liu describes in his essay, "The Chinatown Idea", which particularly struck me and which illustrates Liu's view of ethnicity and the claims of tradition. When Liu was a young boy, he and his family took a day trip to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a trip which Liu remembers vividly. "[W]hat I remember most is meeting the eyes of an Amish boy about my age. He stared back at me, pale and expressionless, as if from a history book. To me, this was a boy already dead, consigned to live out his days in someone else's past."

This memory, like many others, form the ground for Liu's compelling arguments for individual choice and against the claustrophobic, lock-step claims of ethnic and cultural traditions. Since "[e]very identity is a social construction, a drawing of arbitrary lines," each generation (indeed, each individual within each generation), must establish his or her own cultural identity, drawing on traditions of the past, but ultimately deriving authenticity from the exercise of freedom. As Liu writes, with thinly veiled gratitude to his parents, "[i]t just happens that I was raised with great latitude--to preserve, discard, combine, and create." Thus, Liu proffers a kind of existential argument for assimilation, or at least for having the freedom to choose the degree of one's ethnic identity. As Liu notes, "Chineseness isn't a mystical, more authentic way of being; it's just a decision to act Chinese."

In arguing for "omniculturalism" or "assimiliation", Liu provides a particularly insightful discussion and analysis of the development, since the 1970's, of the so-called "Asian American" identity, an imagined community that has sought to unify the interests and cultures of the polyglot Asian ethnic groups. He also notes the compelling demographic trends which establish, "that America is white no longer, and it will never be white again." Thus assimilation in America no longer has the same meaning, and rejecting the past in favor of a future in an omnicultural society "is an act of creation, as much as destruction."

While you may disagree with Liu's ultimate position, "The Accidental Asian" is a lucidly written, thoughtful examination of the issues raised by ethnicity and the claims of tradition, a memoir which deeply mirrors the cultural and social turmoil of America at the dawn of this new millenium.

Interesting Perspective
The Accidental Asian makes for quick, fascinating reading. Eric Liu is very eloquent and his viewpoints are very thought provoking. I really recommend the book. But however, his viewpoint is of an "ABC" who grew up primarily in a white suburb and occasionally visits the "Old Chinatown" (in NY). He does mention Monterey Park and the new Little Taipei but lacks experience in that community. There's a whole new world of Asian Americans out there in Southern California left to be explored hopefully by other authors. We immigrated to the U.S. when we're in grade school and grew up in the U.S. in mixed culture and race neighborhoods unlike the polar extremes presented in Eric's book: white suburban neighborhood or a very Chinesee-Chinatown. We grow up fully aware and accepting of our dual-cultural upbringing and identity...and quite comfortable at that. It's like the Irish Americans and the Italian Americans...we're Chinese Americans. We also grew! up in affluent, professional Asian American neighborhoods, with friends who all attend prestigious universities and graduate school. Eric does make a good point that the "Asian American" is an artificial and contrived term.

pretty good
This book is honest and the author doesn't try to say more than he knows. Nothing exotic thrown in for effect or drama. He writes for Asians and for himself which is uncommon.

It's not perfect but I gave it five stars anyway.

one of the worst books i've read
this is by far one of the worst books i've read. as a 2nd generation asian american (chinese) i thought i would be reading a book that i can relate to. mr. liu is living in a secular society where his views are those of a priviledged upper middle class society. don't waste your time on this one.

accidental race awareness
By titling the book "The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker" Eric Liu leaves little doubt as to his outlook on racial self-identity. He is Asian only by 'accident'--if it were up to him he would shed his skin like an ermine coat in summer. He wants to make sure you know he is a Native Speaker. Of what? And this is supposed to shock and please: don't all Asians speak English with a bad accent? On his list of things about himself that he thinks people might characterize as 'white', Eric Liu mentions that he speaks 'unaccented English'. The mere fact that he thinks an 'unaccented English' exists at all speaks volumes--the myth that there is a normalcy, an order in which anything that is not mainstream is to be slapped with otherness. There is the Southern 'accent'; there is the Australian 'accent'; and he speaks the 'unaccented' English. Oh the model minority. The good ol' 'if you try hard enough, you can almost become white' sentiment, without the hard edge. The same type of racial unawareness would persist throughout the rest of the book. And the fascinating thing about the book is that it is supposed to be a reflection on racial self-identity.

Eric Liu describes how in college he avoided Asian student groups because he did not want to be a member of self-segregating, crusading fanatics. He prides himself on the fact that race notwithstanding he was able to penetrate into the 'center of power'--if being a speech writer for Clinton can justify that claim. He never was subject to ostensible forms of racism. What Eric Liu does not realize is that if things were as easy for most people of color as they were for him, nobody would in their right minds choose to be a race militant.

The book does, however, appear to have honest intentions. Eric Liu speaks in the first person not of opinions or personal agenda, at least for the most part, but questions and reflections. He may not be adequately knowledgeable about race issues--partly due to the upper middle class success that shields him from reality--but at the very least he makes an effort to examine them. The book has the appearance and the candor of an edited personal diary, telling stories that many Asian Americans can relate to. Episodes like the struggle with Asian hair, the rebellion against stereotypes by running the opposite direction, the history of assimilation and then rebirth of self-identity, and the adolescent frustration with 'getting chicks'--would evoke the shared experience and the understanding smile on perhaps 9 out of every 10 Asian American men. The book is a recommendable read, although readers who do not hope to deceive themselves should also read Malcom X's autobiography and "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" by Dr. Tatum--books that I itched to send to Eric Liu while I was reading his book. ... Read more

Book Description

In “the most honest book to emerge from Africa in a long time” (USA Today), a black american correspondent for the Washington Post reports on the horrors he witnessed in Somalia, Rwanda, South Africa, and other troubled African nations-and reflects on his own identity. Map; updated with a new afterword.
... Read more

Reviews (105)

Heart wrenching
"Out of America' is a tough read.

Mr. Richburg's book has brought wails of protest from all over, in Africa certainly but from many other countries and nations as well and not the least America.

Mr. Richburg is a reporter; his book is a report of what he saw while on assignment in Africa. What he saw was appalling, the author does not sugar coat it and it rings with an awful truth. The truth is that today in Africa, black Africans are slaughtering other black Africans at a rate that is incalculable. An ongoing slaughter that is largely unreported in the mainstream media. What makes the book so controversial is Mr. Richburg's refusal to blame the past for Africa's murderous appetites of today. What makes the book so controversial is Mr. Richburg's courage in laying bloody Africa at the feet of today's African leaders. He makes no excuses for black leaders that treat their people like charnel.

It is this "no excuses" approach that infuriates Mr. Richburg's detractors. It is much easier to blame King Leopold, slavery, the colonialism of the British, or the Belgians than it is to look at the simple truth. What happened yesterday does not give license for the atrocities of today.

"Out of America" is an accurate portrayal of Africa
Several years ago, my father who was employed by a Hong Kong based textile manufacturer was stationed in the West African nation of Nigeria. My father had the opportunity on business travel to visit Ivory Coast as well as Kenya. While my father never witnessed the bloodbath described by Keith Richburg in Rwanda and Somalia, he became increasingly disillusioned by the future prospects for that continent. Massive corruption exists at all levels of the government. Bribes are a part of daily life in Nigeria. But foreign firms are equally to blame for looting the continent. All major industries in Nigeria are managed by foreigners (ie. Oil-Holland, Petrochemical-Japan, Textiles-Hong Kong, Autos-Germans, Motorcycles-Japan, Airline-Portugal, etc.). At the United Nigerian Textile Limited (UNTL) subsidary, kickbacks for foreign exchange into the Swiss Bank accounts of Nigerian government officials amounted to the hundreds of millions of dollars. What was even more amazing was the fact that the Nigerians educated in Europe would actually participate in assisting foreign multinationals in looting their nation. So while tens of millions live in poverty, an elite group of Nigerian government bureaucrats would enrich themselves with expensive cars, high priced prostitutes from Lebanon, and huge estates in Europe. A friend at the U.S. State Dept in Kaduna Nigeria described Africa this way: "Africa is called the dark continent. It's better that Africa stay in the dark"

Interesting Story, Shallow Analysis
Keith writes an interesting story. As a Kenyan in particular and African I was more than interested to hear an African-American's - sorry - a black-American's, perspective of Africa and Kenya in particular.

Most of his narratives and experiences appear to be authentic and plausible though not particularly representative. It is perfectly possible to spend a lifetime in say Kenya without ever encountering some of the experiences he claims to have seen on a routine basis. On the other hand his experiences may necessarily be different given that as a journalist he has to look for stories that will make headlines. In any case his few explanations are shallow and patently subjective. Keith Richburg clearly dislikes Africa. That however is not a good enough argument to support his conclusions.

It is difficult to agree with his explanation and maintain any semblance of objectivity. He casually exonerates nay praises the historical crimes of slavery and the holocaust for the simple reason that "good" things came of them. Why he chooses to see Africa's current problems in a different light betrays the pessimism and inferioirity complex he has apparently nurtured for a good part of his life about Africans and by extension - at the risk of offending him - his own kind. In any case I disagree that one can excuse a crime against humanity in the name of posterity. The violence that has happened in Africa and elsewhere can never be justified along those lines.

I totally agree with him from my own experiences that the African-American culture and experience is vastly different from most of the African cultures. Even then, I dont see that as a problem with Pan-African ties. Most informed people are not as deluded about the similarity in cultures as Keith was before setting foot in Africa. This is perfectly understandable given that his only experience of being black was in America, Europe and Asia. How was he to know?

Having spent the greater part of my life in Nairobi, Kenya I found Keith's naration while plausible a bit exaggerated. No quarrel with that as this may just be in the line of journalism. However he decontextualizes atrocious violence and crime in Nairobi to support his underlying and misleading message that the African is a doomed species. It does not take much imagination to portray comparable violence in the inner cities in the same light. There is a lot that is indeed wrong with Africa. Runaway corruption, large-scale violence and a general breakdown of the rule of law in unacceptably vast swaths of the continent. We can choose to ignore how this state of affairs came to be and simply blame the African's "love of wallowing in misery". I beg to differ. Keith's offering gives an interesting insight into the demons in his mind that he has had a life-long fight with.

A brutally honest book, and a must-read!
This book was a real eye-opener for me. It makes me realize that you can divide people into two different groups: those who have spent time in Africa, and those who have not. And when I say Africa, I do not mean Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, those Arabic-speaking countries of North Africa. I mean black Africa, or sub-Saharan Africa. As an African the author met on a train explained, "I mean REAL Africa."

The people who have actually spent time in Africa -- not passing through on a tourist expedition -- will tend to have radically different ideas about the continent than those who have done their travelling while seated in their armchairs.

Africa is a brutal, dangerous, and horrifying place, where the mentality is still largely tribal and the most important type of violence is direct inter-tribal violence of the most shocking sort. The genocidal slaying between the Tutsis and the Hutus in Rwanda is perhaps the most horrific, but there have been similar horrors in Somalia -- and all over the continent!

The author is a black American who realized, while he was in Africa, that he could not consider himself an "African-American." He was simply an American, born and raised in the USA. I believe Richard Wright and James Baldwin have had similar experiences while living in Europe: they realized that they were not at home, so to speak. And then they realized where "home" was.

One of the author's main conclusions is that he's very lucky to be an American, not an African. But the problem strikes me as a little more radical than that: leaving Black Africa for (say) Tunisia will already markedly improve your quality of life. The author seems to have no problems living in Asia or in Europe. The problem is that Black Africa seems to have its own unique set of problems, and so far nobody seems to have a clue about how to solve these problems. Until that happens, the outlook seems to be extremely bleak.

Highly recommended!

One of the most honest books, regardless of stance!
Out of America is a black man's journey back to Africa as a newspaper reporter. Within the book, a myiad of political and social issues are delved into and the answers - not THE answers, to be sure, but answers as good as any other - are disturbing.

While Mr. Richburgh makes clear towards the beginning of the book that he never felt his 'blackness' was his defining characteristic, his journey in the book sours him on Africa and wipes many preconceptions out of the window. Before anyone can help Africa, he concludes, Africans need to help Africa. The descriptions of tribalism, dictatorship, factionization, and senseless murder seemingly as a way of life, are disturbing and graphic. Richburgh pulls no puches. The irony is that in the process of reading a book where the author ultimately concludes that Africa may be less 'salvagable' than we thought, it is obvious that he is not callous about this judgment, that he remains all-the-while sympathetic, and that this conclusion is one of the hardest ones the author has ever had to make (he tells us THAT much).

Many who've read Out of America denounce Richburg as an out-and-out "uncle Tom". He is a black man who realizes that he is an "american" before he's an "african-american" (as if I'm 'european-american' instead of just plain 'white'). The irony is that those who are shocked that Richburg, a black man, would DARE criticize Africa seems to prove RIchburgs ancillary point. Black leaders, intellectuals, and arm-chair diplomats have pussyfooted around Africa, ignoring abuses of 'human rights', ignoring the deadly tribalism and murder, so as to keep the image of "Africa - the glorious motherland" alive. We may, of course, criticize Europe ("the hegemonic western world") but dare we ever criticize atrocities in Zaire?! How dare we! So it is ironic that the authors point - that we must be realistic instead of untopion when dealing with Africa - is played into perfectly by those so willing to call Richburg an 'uncle tom" or a 'sellout'.

So as not to rant anymore, this book is somewhere between a personal biography, a corageous political statement, and an insider glimpse at the sheer hell international journalists go through to get the story and the shot. Don't miss it. ... Read more

Book Description

I See You, I See Myself, written for young adult readers, examines the early experiences and choices that led Jacob Lawrence to become an artist. In bold colors and precise language, the book describes how the break up of his parents, a period of foster care, reunification with his mother, brother, and sister in Harlem, and the influence of other adults in his community shaped the decisions Lawrence made about his art and his life. The hurdles that he faced -- moving, parent separation, and discrimination -- are ones that challenge many children today. I See You, I See Myself describes how the choices one makes in dealing with these challenges start to shape a personís life. It includes 65 color illustrations of Lawrenceís work, accompanied by photographs documenting his early experiences in the Harlem community.

Jacob Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1917. Moving from there to Easton, Pennsylvania, and finally to Harlem in 1930, his family was part of the Great Migration of African Americans who relocated to the North from the South. Raised among the ìNew Negroesî -- the emerging African American writers, artists, and poets who were a manifestation of the Harlem Renaissance -- Lawrence was one of the first artists trained in and by the African American community in Harlem. At Utopia Childrenís House, a community daycare center, Lawrence received his earliest art instruction from Charles Alston, then a graduate student at Columbia University Teachers College. Lawrence continued to study with Alston throughout the 1930s at the WPA Harlem Art Workshop and at Alstonís studio. He encountered notable artists, writers, and activists, such as Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, William Aaron Douglas, Orson Wells, Alain Locke, Addison Bates, and Augusta Savage, who had a profound effect on his development as an artist. ... Read more

Book Description

Here is the story of perhaps the finest soul singer of the rock era--Etta James.

One of the great women of American music, equally at home singing blues and jazz, Etta regales us with tales of her chaotic childhood, the stars she has known, and her troubled trip to stardom in this mesmerizing autobiography. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

A Survivor's Story!
Despite all odds, Miss Etta is still with us: read this book if you have the courage to learn what life 'on the road' was like for an entertainer in the 50's and 60's, with the difficulty enhanced tremendously for African-Americans. The debt today's divas owe Etta and others from 40 years ago will never be repaid. The book pulls no punches: white record label owners shafted their acts in every way imaginable, yet there's a snapshot of Leonard Chess that you'll be thankful for. Etta writes of doing heroin with Little Esther, being in and out of jail, being up and down, getting her "X" by joining the Black Muslims, touring with Little Richard, the dangers of driving through Dixie in the late 50's and early 60's with a blond 'do' (and a monkey).

There's another reason to buy the book: you can dine out for weeks by sharing the story of Etta's father. The book includes a photo of the two of them side-by-side. Yup, amazing resemblance. And no, I'm not going to tell.

Etta did the Letterman tv show a few weeks ago; is still making music. She's a national treasure. When she appeared in Dallas I slipped a note to a member of her crew to pass along, thanking her for all the music that has meant so much to me. If you've never heard Etta, look for that two cd set of her Chess recordings. One listen, and you'll be hunting for a pen and pad to send her the same kind of note.

True Grit & Honest Story
Loved reading Etta James' story. I didn't know much about her life, but was quickly drawn into the story line. Etta James was very candid and the story was written so well that you felt that she was sitting at a kitchen table telling her story. The Etta James story tells the successes and failures of the music industry. This is one of the best biographies which I have read.

Understanding Etta James
If you're going to see Etta, read this book first. It will put some perspective on where this Diva has come from and help you understand some of her stage comments. To make your experience finer, read it while listening to "Her Best-the Chess 50th Anniversary Collection" and her newest CD "Roll On".

It's an honest and fresh read, very revealing and very scary as to how she survived racism, drug addiction and recovery. It also gives alot of insight on the R&B world players in the 50's, 60's and 70's.

I'd recommend it as a supplemental text in feminist/african-american/sociology college courses. It may be too controversial for high school courses but it would certainly get students talking. It's also a great summer read.

Not Your Typical Rags to Riches Story
Etta James. Powerful vocals and supremem attitude. This blues/jazz diva can only have a story that's as dramatic as her musical repetoire.

The biogrpahy is an easy read but full of emotional impact from her youth to her dificult struggle with her weight while climbing up the ladder to success. Family members bob and weave in and out of her life while she struggles to keep her head above the waters of black society.

Read about her survival and the road she took to make it there. Again, it is an easy read but the themes she brings up from her life are tough to handle. A true inspirational story, the life of Etta James will help any reader to appreciate her will to succeed and encourage all of us to strive to be our best.

I really wish I could say this was a great book
Maybe my expectations were too high. I've never heard Etta James sing a song I didn't love. Not only does she have one of the most breathtaking voices in popular music, but she uses it brilliantly. She sings every song from the depths of her soul, and at the same time she's a very intelligent singer, obviously very much aware of, and in control of, her craft. I was hoping she'd bring the same kind of feeling and intelligence to telling the story of her life.

And it's a great story. Abandoned by her father and growing up in poverty with a difficult mother, Etta James became a juvenile delinquent, and over the course of her life faced down just about every form of addiction you can think of, from food to heroin. She was saved by a gift for music, which other people, thank god, recognized almost as soon as she opened her mouth.

So I began reading, knowing I was digging into a great story written by an intelligent and sensitive woman. But as I read, I found myself growing more and more disappointed. The book has some wonderful anecdotes about the nastiness of the music business and the foibles of a lot of famous people. They're entertaining and sometimes even enlightening - and they're the reason I wouldn't rate this book any lower than three stars.

But something goes wrong when she writes about herself. A lot of reviewers have praised her "honesty" in accepting responsiblity for her mistakes and addictions.That's certainly an admirable quality, but it doesn't necessarily make for interesting writing. Again and again, James tells you the sordid details of her mistakes, says it was her own fault, and then goes on to something else. And every time she does so, I felt cheated of any insight into what led her down the paths she took. She sounds like someone who hasn't really come to terms with her problems, and therefore most of the book seems rather superficial.

The story is inherently interesting and it would probably make a great movie, but its unwillingness to probe below the surface kept it from being a great book. ... Read more

Book Description

"The tragedy of Tupac is that his untimely passing is representative of too many young black men in this country....If we had lost Oprah Winfrey at 25, we would have lost a relatively unknown, local market TV anchorwoman. If we had lost Malcolm X at 25, we would have lost a hustler nicknamed Detroit Red. And if I had left the world at 25, we would have lost a big-band trumpet player and aspiring composer--just a sliver of my eventual life potential."
From the Foreword by Quincy Jones

The real story of Tupac's murder may not ever emerge.This may be the only lasting testament to the many faces of Tupac Shakur--of a life lived fast and hard, of a man cloaked in contradictions.A young man who was just starting to come into his own.

"I believe that everything you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that's bad, I'm going to suffer for it. But in my heart, I believe what I'm doing is right. So I feel like I'm going to heaven."
Tupac Shakur, June 1996 ... Read more

Reviews (64)

aWesOme bOOk
vibe did an excellent job of letting its readers know who the real tupac was. this book is a compilation of the articles that vibe has published over the years dealing with tupac and the people close to him. The articles are interviews from tupac, death row associates and others, along with some letters sent to the editor, and quotes from people who knew tupac. it goes in-depth about suge knight and his multi-million dollar recording company, death row, and all the people who were involved with it. the book also goes behind the scenes of tupac's shooting in new york, his court cases, his enemies and his struggles with the law, prison and trying to make it in the world. many of the articles have to do with the conflicts that surrounded tupac and his music, his lifestyle and personality. tons of awesome, colorful photos are included, although there are no captions for them so the reader is left wondering when, where and who the photo is about. overall this book is very well put together in chronological order and should be on the shelf of any true 2pac fan. we miss ya pac and will never forget you!! your spirit lives on forever!

Essential, a must have!
This is one of the better books to be published about Tupac since his death. All props go to the people at VIBE who hit upon this concept of publishing all of their Tupac interviews, plus the interviews of other hip hop artists, in one book. This is a good method of examining Tupac's life and how and where he went wrong. From reading the interviews in this book, the reader can get an Idea of exactly where Tupac was coming from, and how he self-distructed his character in his last days. It was obvious that Tupac wanted attention, the kind that he didn't get growing up, the kind that only a father figure could give him. Through his words, it was obvious that Tupac was defintelely searching for a leader, someone too knock some sense into his head. Instead of trying to find that person, he became his own worse enemy. Tupac, wherever you are, I hope you find the peace that you so desperately wanted while you where alive. RIP.

Peace El-715

Tupac Shakur Book Is A Must-Buy!
As a massive fan of the late great Tupac Shakur, there are few publishings that capture as much information and insight into his life and career as this amazing book from the good people at Vibe Magazine. Consisting of every Vibe article and interview written on Shakur between 1994-97, this gives even the most casual of Pac's fans more information than they could ever dream of. With features on his early career, his signing to Death Row, and his infamous interview with Kevin Powell from inside Clinton Correctional Facility where he denounced "Thug Life", it's all here. This book also contains some of the most informative material on the feud between Death Row Records and Bad Boy. You'll get everyone's side of the story on the Can-Am Studio shooting. You'll hear what both Suge and Puffy had to say about the East vs. West saga. You will also get to hear Pac at his rawest and most candid. If you are even the least bit interested in the amazing story of Tupac Shakur, you should pick up this book.

huge fan
2pac is a legacy of our generation..he is and will always be the best, not only was he an awesome rapper, but he was also a good actor and poet. This book is very well done and covers so much. When he was shot the first time 5 times..and leading up to his unjustly death..i recommend this book to anyone if they want to learn about 2pac, he wasnt a bad man or a gangsta like most assume, he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time..or he just got involved with the wrong ppl...and like he said live by the gun..die by the gun..and that is exactly what happened to this man...may he rest in peace

A good in depth book
This book is not all about rap to start this review out. This book is more about his life and how he grew up in New York and lived on the bad part of the city. This book also mentions a lot of people who he has met many famous people before he was actually famous himself. The book tell some interesting facts about how his coward father left him and his mother alone and has some facts about how his sister was born and how she was also left by her father and how both of them were stuck with their mother that was on crack at the time and going through problems at school. I would highly recommend this book to any one who is interested in one of the worlds best and in depth rapper. I liked this book because it had a lot of facts and part where he ran into problems and how he handled most of them. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In writing his superb life of Crazy Horse, Larry McMurtry faced the same obstacle as every previous biographer of the Oglala Sioux icon: a notable paucity of facts. This didn't inhibit such chroniclers as Mari Sandoz or Stephen Ambrose (whose dual portrait of Crazy Horse and George Custer featured a certain amount of authorial ventriloquism). In this case, however, the shortage of documentation actually works to the reader's advantage. Unencumbered by reams of scholarly detail, McMurtry's book has the shapeliness and inevitability of a fine novella. The author may describe it as an "exercise in assumption, conjecture, and surmise"--but his phrase does scant justice to this elegant, admirably scrupulous portrait.

As McMurtry recounts, Crazy Horse was born around 1840 in what is now South Dakota. Already the arrival of white settlers--who brought with them such mixed blessings as metal tools, firearms, and smallpox--had begun to transform the culture of the Plains Indians. But soon a more ominous note crept into the relationship: "The Plains Indians were beginning to be seen as mobile impediments; what they stood in the way of was progress, a concept dear to the American politician." As whites sought to remove these impediments with increasing brutality, Crazy Horse led his people in a sporadic and ultimately doomed resistance, which peaked at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. Within a year the young warrior (and occasional visionary) had surrendered to the United States Army. Four months later he was dead, stabbed in a highly suspicious scuffle with white and Indian policemen, and the Sioux resistance died with its legendary leader.

McMurtry's powers of compression are formidable. In no more than a few rapid paragraphs, he gives a sense of how this "prairie Platonist" divided the world into transient things and eternal, invisible spirits. He also conveys his opinion of Caucasian double-dealing with fine, acerbic efficiency: "In August, Custer emerged and described the beauties of the Black Hills in mouthwatering terms. In another life he would have made a wonderful real-estate developer. In this case he sold one of the most beautiful pieces of real estate in the West to a broke, depressed public who couldn't wait to get into those hills and start scratching up gold." McMurtry's Crazy Horse is the leanest and least rhetorical version yet of this American tragedy--which makes it, oddly enough, among the most moving. --James Marcus ... Read more

Reviews (44)

A little balance perhaps
I am a fan of the Pengin Lives books. I'll say that up front. But Mr. McMurtry's book on Crazy Horse falls short of the standard the series sets with other works like the book on Rosa Parks. The author has clearly done a great deal of reading and researching to prepare for his task, however, through that he seems to have become bitter about the amount of speculation there has been to fill in the unknown holes of Crazy Horse's story. So he sets out to write a book with just the facts. Nothin' but the facts. And he clings to his effort by breezing past events of the day that were influencing Crazy Horse's life both directly and indirectly. He drops names and dates and places as if we had all done the research with him. In the end the writing and tone of McMurtry's work culminates in a dud of a biography that is lacking in richness. I won't go so far as to say that there is nothing to be learned from reading this book (as some other reviewers have said); I learned a thing or two. I am just left with the feeling that Mr. McMurtry has squandered a great opportunity by pinning himself to flimsy rules out of seeming contempt for other authors on the subject. For shame.

A Good Beginning Book About Crazy Horse, the Man
Crazy Horse has been puzzled over by genertions of historians. Larry McMurtry gives a sensitive portrait of the great Sioux warrior who became a reluctant leader at the battle of the Little Big Horn. It is a short biography with a wonderful story teller's touch! It's worth the read.
Evelyn Horan - teacher/counselor/author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl Books One - Three

Very nice quick overview of the whole thing
This is my first run at Crazy Horse, so I have nothing to compare it to. While McMurchy does an excellent job of giving only the facts, this book was more about the Sioux then of Crazy Horse.

This book is a great overview, but that's it. I would recommend this book as a primer, then maybe some other historical account of his life

brief encounter
I have not previously read a Penguin Lives book so I don't have a point of reference on how much to expect from one of these biographies. I have noted that none of the volumes seem to be any thicker than McMurtry's "Crazy Horse". I will assume that the purpose of this series is that the reader gets a brief overview of the highlights in the lives of an important historical person. That sounds like a nice idea but the question I have regarding "Crazy Horse" is this; Does it half to be THIS brief?

I was inclined to accept McMurtry's observation that little factual information exists on Crazy Horse. In fact, I think he's soured me somewhat on reading Mari Sandoz's much lengthier biography. However, this book goes in some strange directions dealing with this paucity of information. For example, in trying to describe the great gathering of Indians at the Ft. Laramie Council of 1851, McMurtry inexplicably quotes Wilfred Thesiger's account of an Ethiopian gathering of African tribesmen. Shortly thereafter, he describes the tribal warfare of the Sioux by quoting Peter Matthiessen's description of tribal warfare in New Guinea in the early 1960's. Well, the primary resources on Native Americans may be limited but not so much that we must wander to other continents for our facts. (On second thought, maybe I WILL read Sandoz's book). McMurtry suggests at one point that it would be "hubris" to think that we can read Crazy Horse's mind. He momentarily passes on speculation of Crazy Horse's thoughts and motives and then spends much of the remainder of the book doing just that. So much of these 141 pages are devoted to events that happened during the time of Crazy Horse that little space is left to the man himself. As a biography of facts this work seems more along the lines of Charlie Browns Christmas vacation book report.

However, Larry McMurtry's talent is spinning a tale rather than reporting the facts. This is the saving grace of "Crazy Horse". It reads like a well-written short novel and will leave the reader exasperated but sensing nonetheless that he has just read a good story.

If you like McMurtry...
Larry McMurtry is, in my mind, one of the greatest living authors. His novels make Texas come alive for anyone who reads them. His most famous works, like Lonesome Dove and The Last Picture Show, deserve all of the praise they get, and even his less famous works, like Zeke and Ned, and Boone's Lick, are worth a read. However, he does not often turn his pen to nonfiction, as with his biography of Crazy Horse. It was a tough subject to tackle, due almost entirely to the shortage of facts regarding the legendary Indian leader. This may seem a daunting setback, but McMurtry perseveres, writing a thoroughly engaging biography. Particularly enjoyable are McMurtry's quips at Ambrose. ... Read more

Book Description

From the author of Death and the Maiden, this fascinating memoir offers an elegant meditation on language, exile, and memory.

In this remarkable memoir, Dorfman describes an extraordinary life, torn between the United States, South America, and his Jewish heritage, between English and Spanish, between revolution and repression. Interwoven with the story of how Dorfman switched languages and countries--not once, but three times--is a day-to-day account of his multiple escapes from death during Pinochet's military takeover of Chile in 1973. Combining eight vignettes of his life before 1973 with eight scenes from the coup, Dorfman filters these events through an engaging, hybrid consciousness.A beautifully written and deeply moving auto-biography by one of the "greatest living Latin American writers" (Newsweek), Heading South, Looking North is at once a vivid account of a life as complex and mysterious as the fictional characters Dorfman has created, and an enthralling search for a permanent home, a political cause, and a cultural identity.

"A fascinating memoir ... intensely personal and often moving."-- The New York Times Book Review.

"Dorfman has written the most universal of stories, a meditation on the fragility and uncertainty of life."--The Boston Globe ... Read more

Reviews (13)

A passionate look at bilingualism
This is a great book. I have seldom read a book that is so honest and, at the same time, so full of sound and fury. Yes, it is highly idiosyncratic, especially when Dorfman tries to explain his reasons for chosing English over Spanish and vice versa, but, at the same time, it is written with such passion that one cannot help sympathizing with him. Being bilingual myself, going from English to Spanish and from Spanish to English every single day of my life, being an expatriate yearning for the lost paradise of my birth and childhood, I found in Dorfman's "Heading south, looking north" many of the encountered feelings that a person who participates in two cultures has--and I rejoiced in that I was not alone in my feelings.

But, apart from being a passionate meditation on the virtues and 'ravages' of bilingualism, "Heading south, looking north" is a corageous book full of the ironies that make up life and a hymn to the Allende revolution in Chile. There is much to be gained from his soul searching, much to be learned from his criticism of the revolution that he loves so much (yes, I think it's appropriate to use the present tense), and, above all, much to be admired from this singular journey. I highly recommend this book.

Pivotal moments
This book is the internal memoirs of a man whose defining moments were exile from his homelands and his languages. Exile was a longstanding way of life in Dorfman's family, from his grandparents who had to leave Eastern Europe, to his parents who had to flee both Argentina and the US, and now Dorfman himself, who was forced into asylum after the fall of Allende in Chile. But exile is more of a secondary or co-theme of this book. The other major theme is Dorfman's search for identity through his languages. Throughout the book, Dorfman describes how he came to know language, and the identity traits that go along with a language. He also describes how he came to choose which of his two languages, English and Spanish, to use in different contexts and to consciously construct different identities.

Rather than tell his story chronologically, Dorfman works from a repertoire of pivotal moments. He has asked himself, when and why did I first start using English? When did I begin to write? When did I embrace the philosophy of non-violence? He then describes these episodes in detail, and speculates and philosophizes on them. The story of Dorfman's political activities in Chile and what happened to him during the coup constitute about half of the book, with these political chapters alternating with chapters about the other significant events in his life. The bouncing back-and-forth between time periods moves almost smoothly, like the thought patterns of an insomniac reflecting back at the end of a busy day.

I found many aspects of this book quite interesting. The first-person account of bilingualism, and its ties to a conflicted identity were described very clearly. The inside perspective on the Allende regime and its fall was also informative. What was particularly telling was the speculation on why the regime lost popularity amongst the Chilean people- -how Dorfman himself shamed people who were celebrating the Allende victory with a right-wing singer who was trying to mend fences, and told them the singer was not welcome in the revolution, or how he didn't reach out to a neighbor whose job was jeopardized and then lost because he wasn't an Allendista. Another aspect of this story that I found intriguing was Dorfman's identity as a gringo English speaker brought to Chile against his will as a young teenager, who came to adopt the country and become active in its politics. I couldn't help but think of another young man, Michael Townley, who was also brought by his American family to Santiago in his teenage years, and also learned the language, married a local girl, and wanted to call Chile his permanent home. But Townley was on the other side of the revolution, and became a right-wing terrorist working for the Chilean intelligence forces. Did Dorfman ever encounter Townley? Of course, Dorfman wasn't actually American- -he was an Argentinean who spent a significant portion of his childhood in the US, but he looked and spoke the part. How many other young Americans adopted Chile during this period? What was their combined influence on Chilean politics?

why am I suprised
While Mr. Dorfman's experience of crossing cultures and language during a high profile time in Chilian and American history is poinent, it is not unique or objective. His self absorbtion is irritating. His self rightousness criticism covers unresolved suvivor's guilt which would be better resolved in the analysts chair. It is unfortunate Mr. Dorfman presents such idealised view of the Salvador Allende. I have lived and worked in Chile and am well aquainted with many people,peers of Mr. Dorfman, who also have parents who immigrated from Europe or Russia. Allende caused terrible harm to the Chilian economy in his repartiation of middle class businesses and land amoung other things. Middle class housewives demonstrated in the streets begging the military to oust him. No one approved of the repressive regime, the fear and the disappearances of the early Pinochet years, but in the last years Pinochet opened the Chilian markets to the world. Pinochet was voted out and democracy in with the addition of "primary" elections so that no one will be elected with 33% of the vote as was Allende. There were no monsters in Chile, no saints,but there is complex history, culture and politics. It is a shame Mr Dorfman with his high visability couldn't have addressed that.

A master story-teller's own story of multiple exiles
Both as a memorial to the democracy that was delayed for a generation in Chile (and to his friends who were casualties in the Pinochet terror) and as an account of how a major writer became the bilingual hybrid he is by rejecting first one and then the other of his linguistic selves, this is a fascinating book. . Battered from continent to continent by political events of the twentieth century, Dorfman's survival (as he knows well) depended on considerable luck and on his father's connections. Although he has accepted that his vocation is to tell stories, especially the stories of repression in Chile, there is no doubt that he harbors a considerable amount of survivor guilt.

Contrary to the misrepresentation of earlier reviewers, Dorfman does mention Borges (three times, all with respect), criticizes Castro as well as Pinochet (though Chile is a place to which he gave his heart and soul), and is not just aware, but explicit that it is ironic "I should have become a spokesperson for the poor in Latin America because I had spent so many years in the rich North" and of the recurrent ironies that the connections of his marxist father got them out of harm's way.

This is a very honest, un-narcissistic account of an interesting life of multiple exiles, observing failures of democracies, making clear the different selves that emerge in different languages. I would have liked more on the second American exile and assenting to bilingualism, and I regret that the hardback cover composition was replaced by the duller, less bicultural one on the paperback.

Beautiful story & insights, beautifully written
This book is a wonderfully woven, yet economical, description of one young man's constant self examination and exploration of his surroundings. I would like to think that I and others could be as sensitive and compassionate. Also, between the lines I understood what amazing, positive people his parents must have been. Thoughtful, provoking, and above all, beautifully crafted. ... Read more

Book Description

Thomas Cannon (referred to as "The Poor Man's Philanthropist) is a retired postal worker of modest means who awards gifts of $1,000 to deserving individuals. Over the past three decades, Cannon, a retired postal worker, has given $146,000, usually in $1,000 checks, to individuals he feels are setting an example for others. This book outlines his life story and focuses on some of the recipients of his philanthropy. ... Read more

Book Description

The writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed by Nigeria's military dictatorship in 1995. An outspoken critic of military rule, he helped bring the environmental and human-rights abuses of Shell Oil and the Nigerian military before the world. The name Ken Saro-Wiwa became synonymous with the struggle between a traditional way of life and the juggernaut of global commercial interests. In the Shadow of a Saint comprises a history of modern Nigeria, a biography of an activist, and a frank depiction of the author's childhood and relationship with his controversial father. The book shines light on how Wiwa made his way in the shadow of his father's expectations, how he came to terms with his father's imprisonment and execution, and how he coped under international scrutiny. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Fathers and sons
A moving and evocative memoir of Ken Wiwa's difficult coming of age, caught between two cultures and the collision with history of his domineering father, Nigerian playwright and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. In effect the story is told in two parts - the author's life up to his father's hanging on trumped up charges in 1995, and his subsequent attempt to come to terms with his fathers ambiguous personal legacy, in part from seeking out the children of other political martyrs such as Nkosinathi Biko and Aung San Suu Kyi. One gets the sense that by the end of the book Wiwa has achieved some sort of closure and establishment of stable, constructive self-identity. Recommended to anyone interested in Nigeria, international diplomacy, or the relationship between fathers and sons.

amazing
I remember where I was the day I found out Ken Saro-Wiwa had been murdered. It's a day that will forever be with me.

Ken Wiwa does a beautiful job of honoring his father's human rights work and expressing the complexity of their relationship. It is a shame that Mr. Saro-Wiwa will never be able to see his son's heartfelt tribute.

A great book, for anyone to enjoy
This is a beautiful, inspiring book. It is not just a biography of internationally acclaimed activist and novelist Ken Saro-Wiwa, but also an account of a son who manages to find himself despite the notoriety of his famous father. Ken Wiwa traces the history he has shared with his father, and examines his changes in perspective through his childhood, adolescent and adult years. He recounts his father's successful life, from government worker to TV writer, novelist, and finally, to political activist. He tells of his father's efforts to improve the lives of the impoverished Ogoni people, which included a heroic struggle against a multinational oil company. With brevity, and brutal honesty, Ken Wiwa leaves no stone unturned in examining his own thoughts and emotions in relation to these events.
It would have been easy for Ken Wiwa to wax poetically about his father's heroism in the face of such a powerful opponent, and to fill all the pages of a book on this subject alone. He could have possibly sold many more books this way. But he purposely chose not to, and instead invites his readers on a rich, multi-faceted exploration of his father's life, his family and of his own growing self-awareness.
In the end, we, the readers, are just as proud of Ken Saro-Wiwa as his son is. But it is