My Grandfather's Son : A Memoir by Clarence Thomas Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of My Grandfather's Son : A Memoir
Book Review: Splendid career, splendid autobiography....
Summary: 5 Stars
Thomas survived a Liberal high-tech lynching, featuring a vicious attack on his personal life. But he has survived much more, rising from the absolute bottom to become (oh how Liberals hate this) the most powerful Black man in America. This is splendid; well-written; pulls no punches. Five stars because you can't give it six.Book Review: Revisionist Ramblings
Summary: 1 Stars
I suppose one could argue that it is in the nature of autobiographies, but I'm so tired of the kinds of self-serving revisionist ramblings exemplified by this book. Thomas' tenure on the Supreme Ct. has been sadly unremarkable . . . . His angry efforts to defame Anita Hill and rewrite the history of his unbecoming and unacceptable behavior is just sad, and shows a continuing lack of honesty and character - traits that I'd hope would be reflected in our highest court. Yet, it seems clear the current configuration of justices belies that ideal. I'd think that his grandfather would be rolling in his grave to see how his grandson has squandered an amazing opportunity to positively affect lives and our nation.
Book Review: An American life
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is the 21st century version of President Grant's celebrated autobiography. Written in a plainspoken, straightforward tone, the book traces Justice Thomas' rise from a hardscrabble childhood in the Jim Crow South to the pinnacle of American public life. Justice Thomas doesn't spare the reader the difficult points in his life, and his message seems to be, "if I could do it, you can too." He comes across as someone who does not shy away from asking tough questions, and will not settle for empty slogans as answers. Regardless of what one thinks of his approach to judging, this is a riveting tale well told, and a hard book to put down -- it offers a window into the soul of a complicated and often misunderstood American. The book isn't just (or primarily) for law junkies; it's a fascinating glimpse into an American life before, during, and after the civil rights revolution of the 1960s, told from a fresh and unusual perspective. Contrary to what some of his critics seem to believe, Justice Thomas did not arrive in this country from outer space; he is very much a product of his place and time. The book ends with his arrival at the Supreme Court, after some electrifying chapters on his confirmation hearings. Presumably his written opinions pick up the tale from there on. This is an important and interesting book, and one I suspect will still be on library shelves (or their cyber-equivalents) a century from now.Book Review: Inspriational and motivational
Summary: 4 Stars
While one can argue, with perhaps some justification, that this is a one-sided picture of Thomas, the book is truly inspirational. Regardless of your color or politics, you can gain the motivation to aspire to your highest desires. This book can help you to accomplish that.
Whether he did what Hill accused him of is not the concern of this review nor should it shade the value of the book. He may indeed be guilty of what she said he did. Or, he may not.
But one can still get motivation and inspiration from the words of someone who literally came from nothing to set on the bench of the highest court of the land.
His decision to return to his roots is something most people do as they age. For that reason, I think it was good that he waited until close to his sixth decade of life to write this book.
Highly recommended.
Book Review: Disappointing Screed
Summary: 2 Stars
With nearly a third of the book exacting revenge on Anita Hill, I found this unfortunate tale a missed opportunity to examine where one's sense of the Constitution and the rule of law abides. Thomas's story is an amazing account of his rise from poverty and racism to Yale, the federal judiciary and finally the Supreme Court. The early going of the book is riveting, and clearly his virtually superhuman effort and determination to accomplish unprecedented goals is inspirational.
However, once Anita Hill arrives on the scene, the focus is all about slamming her. It really is a function that less, well said, would have buried and settled it forever. For any one who remebers the whole sordid mess, it was categorically an insult and a blemish one everyone involved. Lynched? Probably. Still, that indignity would have been more devastatingly excorriated had Thomas not veered this side of stereotypical misogyny.
Thus there is likely a great story to tell here, but he isn't apparently the best one to tell it. His time on the bench thus far is not covered at all, and there is precious space devoted to his perception of the Constitution and the rule of law, to what cases he adjudicated in the federal system that formed or gave voice to his understanding of the Constituion, to the reasons he believes in conservatism and what challenges that posed him as an African American. The economic pressures he was under even up to his nomination are barely dealt with, and for anyone married under financial pressure, that stuff gets inside your way of thinking and your perception quickly. He has suffered one failed marriage, the Hill debacle and countless challenges. In some cases he seems to have learned something from the dialectic, in others there is only anger. That somehow diminishes the man and the office.
At the conclusion of the book, there is only the anger, in some cases against a white liberal he can't even remember. Maybe the salacious parts of the story are what interested Harper Collins (i.e. Rupert Murdoch) most. If so, is this just another case of a black man's frustration stoked to the financial gain of a white capitalist? I couldn't presume to comment.
It is a tragedy though that Thomas does not in this book rise above the Hill story. There is so much more he could have said that this is an opportunity missed. There is something very heroic about Thomas, he just may not be his own best advocate, and that's a principle every law student learns.