"The Autobiography of Malcolm X" (Review)

        'The Autobiography of Malcolm X' Review

“I’ve had enough of someone else’s propaganda. I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” - Malcolm X

Basic Info:

Originally published: 1965

Authors: Alex Haley, Malcolm X

Adaptations: Malcolm X (1992)

Genre: Autobiography

Country: United States of America

Awards: Anisfield-Wolf Book Award

Review:

First off, let me start with a quotation from CommonSenseMedia's Review of the movie, which also applies to the book:

    Lee is honest in giving us a flawed hero, a man blinded by his cause, a leader unafraid to publicly denounce his own philosophies as he awakens to new and more hopeful ones. 

  The movie does an excellent job, too, of stressing the importance of education, reminding us that we each have the power not just to change our own life, but the lives of many. That's a terrific seed to plant in the heads of high school students looking toward college and a future career.

This book is a milestone in anyone's reading career, whether you're black or white, this book will inspire, educate, change, influence and strengthen you. It's written so easily and vocally, that you can hear Malcolm's voice inside your head, which isn't surprising, as the book is basically a written interview, and that Alex Haley wrote that which Malcolm spoke.

When you see "Glorious" America through a young, black, disenfranchised man who saw the worst of the white man, and before he was 20, had been a drug addict, pusher, burglar, and many other things besides. You start with the murder of his father: laid on a railway track, nearly cut in half, hanged, shot. Then come the experiences of Malcolm as a child and his siblings; so hungry that they cooked grass, so poor, that the state took the children away, so discriminated that Malcolm, although he was the smartest student in his class, was looked down upon, and thought to be less worthy than the stupidest kid in class.

Then Malcolm comes to Boston, Detroit, and Harlem, becomes a drug addict, drug pusher, steerer, and burglar, and before he's 21, he's in prison.

Now comes the most inspiring and amazing part of the whole book: his redemption and absolute cleansing in his education: barely able to read a newspaper, he starts copying the dictionary from page 1, word for word, definition for definition. He starts borrowing books from the prison library. Books on philiology, psychology, philosophy, religion, history, anotomy, genetics and many other topics. He reads far into the night, when he is supposed to be sleeping. He completely changes himself, from being an un-educated, addicted, animalistic criminal, to a intelligent, far-seeing, educated, just human being.

This book is an absolute must-read, if you're 16 or 17 and over, as this book is definetely not for kids. For further information, read my parent guide. My rating for this book is for sure 10/10.