How to be Black by Baratunde Thurston
After my last two books I needed some light and funny reading. I got funny, however the topic is anything but light. Thurston's book is part biography, part guide book, and part interview. It is an amalgamation that works, even though at the onset it seems a bit over done. I enjoyed Thurston hop scotching from one genera to another. He transitioned it with ease, and has an immense talent. The man needs to write more books, and he needs to do this sooner rather than later. A voice like his is absolutely needed.
The biography is about a young man who grows up in drug torn Washington DC. Crack is epidemic, young black children go from selling lemonade to selling drugs, and violence is the norm. Thurston's mother does everything possible to get him away from it. She enrolls him at Sidwell Friends* and gets him involved with a Pan African group on the weekends. One was meant to balance out the other. Sidwell Friends was nearly an all white institution the Pan African group was all black. Transitioning between the two groups Thurston develops a sense of who he is.
The guidebook portion of the book is interwoven with the biography pieces. Chapter titles like How to be the Black Friend and How to be the Angry Negro abound. It is a biting humor that follows. Many a truth is said in jest, and these chapters prove it.
The interviews, where Thurston convene a panel of Blackness. The conversation is fantastic I really wish he would expand the section, or write an entire book using the people he selected.
This was a great read. I laughed out loud more times than I could count. Pick it up and give it a go. You won't be sorry. My next book is The Last Unicorn somehow I have never read this book. It just never landed on my shelf until about a month ago.
After my last two books I needed some light and funny reading. I got funny, however the topic is anything but light. Thurston's book is part biography, part guide book, and part interview. It is an amalgamation that works, even though at the onset it seems a bit over done. I enjoyed Thurston hop scotching from one genera to another. He transitioned it with ease, and has an immense talent. The man needs to write more books, and he needs to do this sooner rather than later. A voice like his is absolutely needed.
The biography is about a young man who grows up in drug torn Washington DC. Crack is epidemic, young black children go from selling lemonade to selling drugs, and violence is the norm. Thurston's mother does everything possible to get him away from it. She enrolls him at Sidwell Friends* and gets him involved with a Pan African group on the weekends. One was meant to balance out the other. Sidwell Friends was nearly an all white institution the Pan African group was all black. Transitioning between the two groups Thurston develops a sense of who he is.
The guidebook portion of the book is interwoven with the biography pieces. Chapter titles like How to be the Black Friend and How to be the Angry Negro abound. It is a biting humor that follows. Many a truth is said in jest, and these chapters prove it.
The interviews, where Thurston convene a panel of Blackness. The conversation is fantastic I really wish he would expand the section, or write an entire book using the people he selected.
This was a great read. I laughed out loud more times than I could count. Pick it up and give it a go. You won't be sorry. My next book is The Last Unicorn somehow I have never read this book. It just never landed on my shelf until about a month ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment