King: A Life

This was outstanding, and it's clear to me why it has been so acclaimed. The details and story telling make it a page-turner, and I learned a great deal more about King because of the depth and breadth of this biography. As a writer and historian myself, I'm so impressed with Eig's ability to recreate day by day minutia, as well as dialog, to create a rich and full picture of King's life as well as his family members' and friends' too.
This was an excellent listen, by the way. The narrator has King's cadence down.
Finally, in the final section of Q & A, Eig talks about the way that we have “hollowed” King and how we must see him as a real man. I have long felt this also, and this book helps us see King's complexity, his rage, and his sadness toward the end of his life. I have told my students that we have sort of made King into a “teddy bear” of sorts, and the reality of his depression, his sense that he might be killed, and his frustration with the movement actually make his greatness greater. There is also comfort here in our own often-depressing and scary time.

A great and important book. I loved the closing statements of the epilogue, which expresses better than I could why it is so worth reading:

“...in almost every school in America, King's life and lessons are often smoothed and polished beyond recognition.

...

Our simplified celebration of King comes at a cost. It saps the strength of his philosophical and intellectual contributions. It undercuts his power to inspire change... the nation remains racked with racism, ethno-nationalism, cultural division, residential and educational segregation, economic inequality, violence, and a fading sense of hope that government, or anyone, will ever fix those problems.

...

Today, his words might help us make our way through these troubled times, but only if we actually read them; only if we embrace the complicated King, the flawed King, the human King, the radical King; only if we see and hear him clearly again, as America saw and heard him once before.”