Helpful Score: 2
The "autobiography" of Malcolm X, "as told to" Alex Haley, is a chill-inducing voyage through the mind of one black man in America at the dawn of what we consider the modern Civil Rights movement. At first enamored and later disillusioned by Elijah Mohammed's "Nation of Islam" ("Black Muslim") movement, Malcolm X was an intelligent, if formally uneducated, man who swallowed whole an amalgam of pseudo-theology and myth and later rejected it for "the true" Islam, apparently never questioning the more outrageous claims of either. The book is important in that it reflects the rage of part of the black community and shines a light on the conflict between Nation of Islam and the pacifist civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King. Well worth reading, but not for pleasure.
Helpful Score: 1
Malcolm X's searing memoir belongs on the small shelf of great autobiographies. The reasons are many: the blistering honesty with which he recounts his transformation from a bitter, self-destructive petty criminal into an articulate political activist, the continued relevance of his militant analysis of white racism, and his emphasis on self-respect and self-help for African Americans. And there's the vividness with which he depicts black popular culture--try as he might to criticize those lindy hops at Boston's Roseland dance hall from the perspective of his Muslim faith, he can't help but make them sound pretty wonderful. These are but a few examples. The Autobiography of Malcolm X limns an archetypal journey from ignorance and despair to knowledge and spiritual awakening. When Malcolm tells coauthor Alex Haley, "People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book," he voices the central belief underpinning every attempt to set down a personal story as an example for others. Although many believe his ethic was directly opposed to Martin Luther King Jr.'s during the civil rights struggle of the '60s, the two were not so different. Malcolm may have displayed a most un-Christian distaste for loving his enemies, but he understood with King that love of God and love of self are the necessary first steps on the road to freedom.
Helpful Score: 1
Fantastic book. I was hesitant to read it, but it surprised me with the depth of the story it told. Should be required college reading.
