Soul on Ice

Rating:
Summary: a testament that rises from a shell of brilliant prose
Review: A document of searing introspection that forces you into places formerly unvisited in the dialogues of race and sexuality. The uncomfort it produces explains much of the reason why it will endure as a classic

Rating:
Summary: Noteworthy
Review: As a college student, I chose this book due to my interest in history. It relates to that and much more. The black man's struggle with trying to find an identity in a white society which continues to ignore it. How the prison system oppresses rather than empowers. This book paved the way for the Black Panthers and a better understanding of the civil rights movement. Even though Cleaver is angry and hateful, he is an intelligent and observant writer. He educates himself through reading and writing, even while in the depressing circumstances of prison. His experiences in prison have been captured beautifully. Anyone who wants to understand race relations, incarceration, religion,and literature should read this book!

Rating:
Summary: STILL FACING MENTAL SLAVERY
Review: CLEAVER CLEARLY STATES HE PRACTICE RAPING LIGHT SKINNED BLACK WOMEN (BECAUSE HE THOUGHT DARK SKIN WOMEN WERE INFERIOR) UNTIL HE COULD GET HIS HANDS ON WHITE WOMEN. HE HAS ZERO RESPECT FOR WOMEN OF ANY RACE AND HE WAS JUST ANOTHER CONCEITED BLACK MAN WHO THINKS THAT SLAVERY WAS JUST BETWEEN THEM AND WHITE MEN. HE IS VERY VIOLENT AND HIS IGNORANCE GLADFULLY BROUGHT HIM TO HIS GRAVE.

Rating:
Summary: Reveals why the black man has an inferiority complex.
Review: Cleaver gives us tremendous insight into the black man's inferiority complex and how it was fed and bred to him by the white man, so that it may alleviate the white man's own inferiority complex. This book reveals the white power struggle to control the mind, body, and spirit of the black man - a relevant and true account even as we enter into the 21st century. Judging from the present injustices and the apathy of the black masses, as well as the disproportionate black prison population, it is certainly true that the white man has ruled the back man's mind and body; however, Cleaver's testimony is proof that their spirit is unconquerable.

Rating:
Summary: Soul should have REMAINED on ice!
Review: Come off it! Eldridge Cleaver is just another criminal rapist who thinks he got smart in Prison. This book is so bad! It's supposed to be iconoclastic and insightful but it's really just a showcase for the extensive lexicon that Cleaver has. Serously, though, this book reads like that In Living Color skit where those dudes pontificate while they misoginate because they're ingrates and who cares what they ate! So if you are in for hearing how the Man has repressed his human brother for 400 years with a liberal sprinkling of .50 cent words then this book is for you. And there's really only one good essay dealing with prison life (the rest is junk, bunk, no GOOD). If you want to read the real deal forget this book and check out something by Donald Goines or Iceberg Slim.

Rating:
Summary: Early rantings from a fairly intelligent guy
Review: Eldridge Cleaver cleaned up his act in later days -- read "Soul On Fire" if you're not convinced -- but at this point in his career he was little more than your typical Black Panther thug. Read the book for his intensity of expression but don't take the political thinking very seriously -- too young, too callow. Brighter and more articulate than the likes of Huey Newton, to be sure, but watch out for the Victimology complex. Malcolm X used to say that freedom had to be won "by any means necessary." Now that we know that the only "means" are intelligence and dilligence, this sort of screed seems pretty out of date.

Rating:
Summary: Early rantings from a fairly intelligent guy
Review: Eldridge Cleaver cleaned up his act in later days -- read "Soul On Fire" if you're not convinced -- but at this point in his career he was little more than your typical Black Panther thug. Read the book for his intensity of expression but don't take the political thinking very seriously -- too young, too callow. Brighter and more articulate than the likes of Huey Newton, to be sure, but watch out for the Victimology complex. Malcolm X used to say that freedom had to be won "by any means necessary." Now that we know that the only "means" are intelligence and dilligence, this sort of screed seems pretty out of date.

Rating:
Summary: Over my head
Review: Eldridge Cleaver is spectacular. However, with my youth, I think some of his info just passed over my head because I couldn't relate. I did enjoy the book for what it was worth, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to partake in something that caused so much history in life.

Rating:
Summary: There are insights in here somewhere. . .
Review: Eldridge Cleaver writes his memoirs here, and much of the book seeks to justify his actions and sentiments. It is as if he knows that his actions have been looked down upon by America and he needs to tell us where he is coming from. I found it shocking, not only that he should admit to raping women, both white and black, but more so that he makes excuses for why he HAD to rape them. He also explains his veiws on the inferiority complex that has plagued the African American since slavery, and his motivation for violent response. These views, though, are exceedingly hard to sift out of the pontificatory run-on sentance that permeates this book. He will launch into the feelings of a black woman in this society, and while his point may be valid, his statement consists of two pages of metaphorical secondary clauses. But, for all of his circumlocution, Cleaver's points provide great insight not only into a black revolutionary, but a convict, a Muslim after the style of Malcom X, and the african american experience in general. In all, his thoughts are hauntingly true.

Rating:
Summary: immaculate
Review: Even though this was one of the most important and popular books of the 1960s, it is not discussed that much now, some thirty-five years after its initial publication. "Soul on Ice" is as much an allegorical masterpiece as it is a real description of black male (whom he refers to as Supermasculine Menials) attitudes towards prison-life, white racism (and white women in particular, who are here referred to as Ogres and the Ultrafeminines) and the Nation of Islam (Cleaver writes compellingly about his disassociation with the Nation, citing their racism--"The onus of teaching racial supremacy and hate, which is the white man's burden, is pretty hard to bear"). Cleaver's at-times amazing writing gives this book a peculiar power, and given this, it is easy to understand why the book was so popular in the late 1960s. For several reasons, though, it is easy to see why this book doesn't get as much attention as, say, James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time" [1963]. The chapter on Baldwin in "Soul on Ice," entitled "Notes on a Native Son" (a reference to one of Baldwin's early essays) is exceedingly homophobic, and other sections fairly hateful towards women (even though, in this regard, Cleaver is at times aware of his own misogyny--especially in his blushingly honest letters to one-time attorney Beverly Axelrod) and exceedingly macho. Many contemporary readers might not have the patience for this (especially given Baldwin's elevated status in the world of literature). Also, this book has lost some of its bite over the years because of excellent books written by participants in the Black Power Movement and the Black Panther Party. "Soul on Ice"--especially when compared with George Jackson's "Soledad Brother" (1971), Huey P. Newton's "Revolutionary Suicide" (1973), Amiri Baraka (1984) and Angela Y. Davis' (1974) autobiographies, and Elaine Brown's "A Taste of Power" (1992)--lacks the political vision, accuracy and believability of these other books, but it should also be credited for setting some of the standards by which these books would later have to judge themselves against, especially in regard to prison life (though Jackson's "Soledad Brother" is much more powerful in this regard). Nevertheless, "Soul on Ice" is a compelling read, and I agree with a statement that Ishmael Reed makes in the introduction that this book IS the 60s. If this memoir were a western, we could smell the sawdust on the floor.