Bourgeois Blues: An American Memoir

Rating:
Summary: Worth reading, but Lamar paints himself as one dimensional
Review: Overall a worthwhile read. The author provides some keen insight into the complexities and duality alluded to by Fanon. An interesting observation about this piece is that if one reads into the characters you can begin to see the seeds of thought that comprise two African-American phenomena, "crabs in a barrel" and the placated desire of middle to upper-class Blacks to actively challenge social inequities. I was however disappointed by Lamar's reluctance to explore the obvious multiple dimensions of his written character. For example Lamar frequently stated that in many ways his own experiences and personality was that of his fathers', yet gave only surface answers to the questions of "how?" and "why?" I was also a bit rebuffed that Lamar painted middle class African-American life in such a boring manner. This is particularly unfortunate because the title and theme of the book was wrought with the contradictions and complexities of both being middle class and Black in contemporary US. As I mentioned before the book is worth reading and just reminded me that I need to get movin' on this writing thing.