| 14.4.22 15:07 |  |  | The Little Free Library came through once again with this copy of "Soul on Ice," apparently belonging to someone in my neighbourhood called "Sher Halstead" for right around exactly 50 years before Sher (or Sher's heirs) dropped it off for me to pick up. I didn't know what to expect, and I gotta tell ya......a lot of it wouldn't pass muster in 2022 - a lot of the writings are framed in a very binary way and the stuff that isn't outright homophobic is merely pretty misogynistic. I didn't have a whole lot of context going in; in high school we were assigned Alex Haley's Biography of Malcolm X so I had a LITTLE background about who was where at what time at least in regards to the Malcolm X/Elijah Muhammad stuff, but other than recognising his name I didn't know a whole lot about Cleaver. Learning a little more about his life after finishing the book....more yikes and yeah I probably won't seek out his other books, but I'm still glad to have had the chance to read thi!
s one. There ARE three really incredible, beautiful love letters snuck into ten pages in the middle of the book which say some things so well that I would love to read them out loud one day to a future like-minded partner or potential partner, but even that starts to feel a little cringe-y after you filter it through the lens of the rest of his writings and oft-repeated opinions on in the book. So....I dunno. I probably learned SOMETHING. Was it "be very careful with your book reviews?" That's up to y'all, I suppose. |
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