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Dec 03, 2018rlbeekman rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Pieces from the author's 8 years at The Atlantic plus framing and introductions for each article emphasizing its place in the author's career and life. Much better book than Between the World and Me -- probably because the author's self-involvement, being largely confined to the personal "packing material," doesn't intrude as much on the actual essays and reporting. Chapter 6 on reparations is the most famous, but Coates claims that Chapter 8, "My President Was Black," is his favorite. That is a pretty good article if one is willing to admit that it shows Obama to be a better political and moral thinker than Coates -- which I'm not sure was Coates's intention or view! I think that the best chapters are Chapter 5, "Fear of a Black President," and Chapter 7, "The Black Family in the Age of Incarceration," the longest and best researched. After reading those chapters, I was ready to rate the book as 4 1/2 or 5 stars. But then I read the one-sided and strained arguments of the last part of the Epilogue; they were so cranky (in all senses of that word) that they knocked my rating down to 4 stars. Still -- a very worthwhile book.