The Beautiful Struggle
Ratings9
Average rating3.8
An exceptional father-son story about the reality that tests us, the myths that sustain us, and the love that saves us.Paul Coates was an enigmatic god to his sons: a Vietnam vet who rolled with the Black Panthers, an old-school disciplinarian and new-age believer in free love, an autodidact who launched a publishing company in his basement dedicated to telling the true history of African civilization. Most of all, he was a wily tactician whose mission was to carry his sons across the shoals of inner-city adolescence--and through the collapsing civilization of Baltimore in the Age of Crack--and into the safe arms of Howard University, where he worked so his children could attend for free. Among his brood of seven, his main challenges were Ta-Nehisi, spacey and sensitive and almost comically miscalibrated for his environment, and Big Bill, charismatic and all-too-ready for the challenges of the streets. The Beautiful Struggle follows their divergent paths through this turbulent period, and their father's steadfast efforts--assisted by mothers, teachers, and a body of myths, histories, and rituals conjured from the past to meet the needs of a troubled present--to keep them whole in a world that seemed bent on their destruction. With a remarkable ability to reimagine both the lost world of his father's generation and the terrors and wonders of his own youth, Coates offers readers a small and beautiful epic about boys trying to become men in black America and beyond.
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An excellent read, especially if you read Between the World and Me and found it thought-provoking. You can learn so much from hearing where a person is from and how he or she was raised.
Hmm so I know that I, a 35-year-old white woman, am not the target audience for this book. I appreciated reading it nevertheless–Coates writes beautifully, of course, and I enjoyed the rhythm of his writing even if I didn't fully understand the content. I'm not sure how much of the disconnect is based on my whiteness, my age, my geographical location...and thus I'm not sure how much of this will be understandable for a teen in 2021? Obv I'd assume Black teens will be better able to relate to some of what Coates writes about but I also felt like some of this was issues of specific Baltimore/Black/90s slang? I know this was adapted for young readers from [b:The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 2784926 The Beautiful Struggle A Father, Two Sons and an Unlikely Road to Manhood Ta-Nehisi Coates https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320488176l/2784926.SY75.jpg 2810688], which I haven't read, and I suspect that elements of this story will work better for adult readers. But maybe in a classroom setting teens could work to unpack this memoir? I suspect they would find it rewarding. Or perhaps kids like Ta-Nehisi describes having been–struggling to complete coursework that didn't seem relevant to them, seeming to be a bad student, but devouring books of his (or his father's) choice that taught him more about his own history and culture–will appreciate this book. Again I myself appreciated the flow of this and feel like I understood the book as a whole despite not fully understanding words/phrases used. I am curious to know how this was adapted for young readers since it doesn't seem to shy away from a lot of “adult” content and it doesn't seem to be adding a lot of context?
A profoundly beautiful memoir that vividly encapsulates the experience of growing up black in Baltimore. This book can be a bit hard to follow at times since Coates writes the entire book with the urban vernacular of Baltimore, but understanding the context with which certain parts are written should set you straight. Some of the detailed descriptions of his experiences are so poetic that I often read them over and over again, wishing that I could write with such prose. A highly enjoyable read.
