Rating: 
Summary: Very thought prevoking reading.
Review: Mr. Cleaver seems to have been a very conflicted man. In this book he discusses his predicaments in his life and how he feels he came about them. He discusses his imprisonment, his life thereof and how he ended up there. He also shares his ideas on everything from corrupt government to his feelings about his convicted rapings of white women. I don't always agree with some of his views but they are very powerful nonetheless. If you are at all interested in the writings of Mr. Cleaver and have not read this book, I highly suggest that you do. To better understand his mindset. A very interesting book.
Rating: 
Summary: the real deal from an educated black man
Review: racism is still alive and well in the USA, despite surface gains by some people of color. this book goes into a theory for black/white tensions: the primeval mitosis, when humanity split into male/female, black/white, etc. and our dichotimies became external rather than held within each human. eldridge has some very serious ideas about why our gender roles are lined up with "race," and how the Body and Mind have become province to certain ethnicities. to heal our world, all humans must become whole: Mind, Body merging instead of blacks being all Body "supermasculine menials" and whites being "omnipotentent administrators." eldridge's glance into inter-racial love are interesting, if not at times confusing since he fell in love with his own (white) lawyer. eldridge's writing is strong and his prose is evocative. i think the best essay in this book is the one on primeval motosis, where he lays out his theory on tensions between the races. but all of them are excellent, especially when cleaver examines the vietnam war and wars against colonionalism the world over and links colonial/liberation struggles to the struggle for equality in the US! deep stuff, seeing as how "liberation" has been "won" because all nations, no matter how squalid and repressed, have the honor of participating in capitalism (aka globalism). blacks and other oppressed people in the USA have also bought into the switcheroo. read cleaver and see that many of the issues happening in the late 60s have not been resolved.another thing i often found myself thinking: for a man who was incarcerated, and before the advent of the internet, cleaver must have put in so much effort to get the political/social information he did. even prison can not hold the mind/thoughts of someone who will reach out despite constraints.
Rating:
Summary: Throw your fist up!
Review: Some people just can't accept the truth. Eldridge Cleaver tries to show the reality of blacks but the people who criticize it are the whites cant get a grip on reality. Ridicule is the burden on genious
Rating:
Summary: SOUL ON ICE
Review: Soul on Ice, written by Eldrige Cleaver is a collection of essays (written during his 9 years in Folsom State Prison during the 1960's) in which Cleaver discovers his racial identity. "I knew I was black, but never really stopped to take stock of what i was involved in. I met life as an individual and took my chances." Cleaver was sentenced 9 years for raping a white woman. Cleaver felt his crime was a way to "spit" on the white man's values and women. He lived his life only to benefit himself. After meeting with his attorney, he realizes the value of listening and absorbing what another human being has to say. "The price of hating other human beings is loving one's self less." Cleaver, educating himself in prison, also writes "In prison those things held and denied from the prisoner become precisely what he wants most of all."
Cleaver becomes especially interested in the writings of Thomas Merton, particularly his excerpt on the "New York Black Ghetto: Harlem." After many religious endeavors, Cleaver found himself most intrigued by the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. Malcolm X appealed to the black convicts caught in the vicious prison paroll cycle, like himself. One aspect in which Cleaver felt most attracted to in Malcolm was that the society owed a debt to prisoners and not vice versa. Malcolm X did not "compromise truth to have favor with the white power structure." The American tactic was to emmasculate the black leadership and to manipulate them. The unique black leader who would defy white power would ultimately end up dead, in prison, or forced out of the country. Classic illustrations of this policy are the careers of Marcus Garvey, W. E. B. Dubois, and Paul Robeson. White America crushes the black leaders while inflating the images of Uncle Tom's (black on the surface, white on the inside)and celebrities. Power is taken out of political and economic context and plainly debased to the level of good sportsmanship. James Baldwin was an author who wrote "Native Son" and "White Negro." Cleaver, inspired by Baldwin, felt that police brutatily was not caused by the hatred for the black man, but for social, economical, and political reasons. Blacks, having their freedom for approximately 100 years as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation, were still treated as "part of someone's invetory of assests."
After the most violent negro uprisings, the Burning of Watts, the white power structure pacifies the black community by appointing John Roseboro, an African American baseball player for the dodgers, to consultant for community relations. Cleaver also writes about the Vietnam War. Black soldiers are called upon to sacrafice their lives for freedom in Vietnam. In Watts they are killed because of their desire for freedom. Cleaver felt the black man should stay and die here for a better life.
Cleaver's first imprisonment in 1954, for a drug charge, set the tone for his next 9 year term. Cleaver hung a poster of a white woman in his cell like the other prisoners. One of the guards came by and tore the poster down. The guard would only allow Cleaver to hang a picture of a black woman. Cleaver realizes that his attraction to the white women is not because of beauty or sexual appeal but because of their status and symbol. The white woman displays a symbol of freedom while the black woman is a symbol of slavery. "I will not be free until the day i can have a white woman in my bed and a white man minds his own business."
Although Cleaver's actions were not always moral nor did he go about things in a peaceful way, his fight was to allow the black race to revive their eradicated identity. From the moment the blacks were brought to this country from Africa, the white man imposed their culture and heritage upon them. Cleaver's quote, dealing with the white woman in bed, hits the nail on the head. He does not care for trivial freedoms and rights such as drinking from the same water fountain or riding at the front of the bus, he cares for the freedom where he can do what he wants, when he wants, without the white man looking over his shoulder. "One task that we have in the black community is a coupe de'etat against our present leadership, to strip them from that machinery that controls the community. So that new ideas and new people can percualate up, then we can have a new agenda."
I thorougly enjoyed this book because Cleaver moves from hate and violence towards an understanding of himself and humanity. I recommend this book to anyone who is willing to gain a better understanding of the black struggle in the 1960's.
Rating: 
Summary: It had an overall deafening effect on me.
Review: The overall effect of the book was one of an eye opening experience where I was able to crawl inside the mind of a Black revoltuionary. The fact that this man was an American and not a part of a revolutionary force somewhere in the Uganda showd me that the crystal clean superficial of what we call America does not always have the same tint when we strip it down to its roots, with the oppressed. I wanted to read more about the author himself rather than read his highlt intelletual essays and for that reason, it took a great deal out of me to pick up the book after bringing myself to conclude one previous chapter. Not completely agreeable were some of the essays but at least they provided me with a new and often militant outlook on the situation that encased America for years. Cleaver opened my eyes and ears to an experience that will often be attempted to be left behind, but as long as the word is out, it will never die. "Stay Strong!"
Rating:
Summary: a challenging piece of work
Review: This autobiography upsetted alot of people, generally people who could not identify with what it was to be a young African American man post-civil rights. Cleaver reveals this to us, exposing even his own faults, the psychological enslavement of African America, and the reality of how it plays out in society. Despite those that believe that this book pertains only to this era are obviously blind to the fact that many of the same issues then exist today. What makes it worse is that many people are unaware of it now, the gimmicks of media and political correctness have only mastered camouflaging it. When I read this book, I cried, not just for my people during that era, but for my own children who will grow up in the same environment but not know it until it is too late. "Dont Believe the Hype!"- Public Enemy, 1987 AD.
Rating:
Summary: immaculate
Review: This book is a must! Whoever does not understand it, needs to read the book again, his words are poetic and revolutionary. Anyone who doubts this book, go back and read it.
Rating:
Summary: a savage, frank treatise
Review: This book is actually somewhere closer to three and a half stars. It may even move up to four upon a second reading. It is a harsh book that is difficult to accept at times. The homophobia and sexism can be usettling. Of course, one must understand where Cleaver was coming from. The rascism is easier to understand in that light. And it should be noted that a lot of the anger and bitterness began to wane in later years. Cleaver seems to have undergone a spirtual transformation similar to that of Malcom X. This remains an important book from the 60s. It is critical for Americans both black and white (and yellow, brown and red as well) to read books like this to try to understand the horrors that have underscored this nations evolution. Cleaver, overcame tremendous obstacles to achieve this degree of success.
Rating:
Summary: Best realistic inside look into the black male experience
Review: This book was the best inside look at the black male experience since Ellison's "Invisible Man" Cleaver cuts no corners, spares not feelings, and takes no prisoners. The book should be required reading for every African-Americans studies program in America, and every African-American Literature course in America. Cleaver is an excellent writer that proves that you don't have a PhD. to be an intelligent, articulate, person. Cleaver has knowledge he gained from school of hard knocks and the school of life. Like Malcolm X, Cleaver had to fall in order to get up and become a man!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: A turning point
Review: This book, which is pure genius, is an insight to what it meant to be a black man in turbulent times. It speaks truly on all matters. I do not believe in everything said in the novel, put is a perfect snapshot of an era. A MUST READ!
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