My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas
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Book Reviews of My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir
Book Review: What a great book!
Summary: 5 Stars
Thomas' autobiography is as fascinating, inspiring and as well written as Booker T. Washington's "Up From Slavery." Like Washington, Thomas rose from poverty to a position of leadership via the dual virtues of hard work, and education.
As a child, Thomas moves from rural poverty, to urban poverty, then into the modest home of his very hardworking grandfather. His minimally literate grandparents pushed him to get a first rate education, and taught him the value of hard work.
After graduating from Yale Law School, which had begun an affirmative action program, he found that nobody wanted to hire him. Being a Yale Man meant something different when the man was black.
Fellow Yalie John Danforth finally hired Thomas, and became his lifelong friend. In one government job after another, Thomas took on enormous responsibilities, for mean pay. He was still paying off student loans when he chaired the EEOC.
The rigors of the confirmation battle are covered in wrenching detail, including the Anita Hill fiasco. Thomas complains that if a black man dares to think for himself, and come to conclusions other than those of the "liberal" Democrats, it isn't tolerated. For his independence, Shelby Steele called Thomas "the freest black man in America", in National Review. (Oct 5, 2007)
Throughout the book, Thomas describes not only his victories, but his personal failures and shortcomings in stark honesty. He describes himself as one more human being dealing with his problems step by uncertain step.
I wouldn't have been able to put the book down, except that I had work to do, and I could hear Thomas' grandfather urging me to get up and get to it.
Book Review: A Remarkable Read
Summary: 5 Stars
For Christmas, my mother gave me a copy of Clarence Thomas' 2007 289-page autobiography "My Grandfather's Son". It has proven to be a remarkable read!
Judge Thomas' life is an extraordinary from "poverty to pinnacle" story. Growing up in his grandparents impoverished home, with their southern moral temperament, young Thomas aspired to better himself and his peers' condition. Wracked with by lifetime of self-guilt, personal foreboding, other's prejudice, national racism, and other's hatred, he persevered to the highest levels of the American judiciary. His inspiring spiritual journey, away from religion later to return, to God is poignant and alone is worth the price of this book!
In this book Justice Thomas set the record straight about his years at the EEOC, the DC Circuit Court, and his Supreme Court confirmation hearings. He refutes Anita Hill's misguided attempt to besmirch him. He tells the truth about senatorial backsliding and backbiting. And he reminds that religious faith is always the cornerstone for powerful living.
Thomas' 13-year (1969 to 1982) walk from "angry black man" to "black conservative" is informative and convincing. His opposition to abortion, desegregation, big government, and government welfare are thoroughly reviewed. By the late 1970s his frustration with the Democrat Party caused his severance from social liberalism. He entered US Supreme Court life (a conservative, in 1991) as one dedicated to making America better for everyone.
This remarkable story is recommended to everyone wondering about Clarence Thomas, late 20th century Washington DC politics, or the power of personal religious faith.
Book Review: Honesty AND readability in a memoir?
Summary: 5 Stars
Clarence Thomas is a man who has succeeded because of his intellect, astonishing work ethic, persistence, drive, and faith. In his memoir, My Grandfather's Son, he details the life that these qualities created. The fact that he seems to not be bitter is testament to his personal faith and integrity. I picked up the book knowing very little about Thomas' life before the infamous confirmation hearings. Everything that happened before than is vastly more interesting. The section on his youth and upbringing by his grandparents made me cringe at times, simply because his grandfather seemed so driven to push his "sons". However, what is truly remarkable is how Thomas looks back at this strict upbringing and does not whine about how his grandparents raised him, or on the things he missed out. Rather he looks back and realizes the positives, accepts the negatives, and acknowledges the fact that all of these things helped make him the person he is. This memoir is not flashy diary revelations, and narcissistic prose, but rather an honest and heartfelt look back on the highs and lows of an interesting (and historic) life.
Many of the detractors of this memoir attack it because of Thomas' personal views. That speaks poorly of them. In the often dry world of autobiography, this text reads quickly, and easily. Thomas does not try to vaunt his considerable intelligence by writing over his audience's heads, nor does he wash over his own failings. Honesty and readability in a memoir. It is refreshing and interesting.
Read this text to learn about an important American life. Check the politics at the door.
Book Review: A Pilgrim's progress
Summary: 5 Stars
Judge Thomas writes about his difficult but always hopeful and persistent drive through his life to live up to his principles. These principles were constantly being challenged and no more so than when he was being considered for the post of a Judge of the Supreme Court.
Judge Thomas, it seems to me, was opening his diary with all his feelings about the good and the bad in his life providing a powerful and dramatic testimony to his rise from a poor Southern black man to a position as one of the nine judges on the highest court in the land.
Judge Thomas' adherence to his principles through a constant barrage on them and himself is not only admirable but difficult at times to read because there are so many particular instances of slights and condension by some people with whom he had to deal on a daily basis. His faith was a great help to him at times of crisis in his life, and he had some loyal friends too who believed in him throughout his public life.
It was very informative to learn about how the confirmation process worked and probably always works; where winning is more important than anything else and smearing an individual, in this case Judge Thomas, is not given a moment's thought. It is the game itself that becomes more important than truth. While we can see Judge Thomas' integrity at every turn, we also, alarmingly, see the lengths to which those who did not want to see him on the Court because of his Conservative views, would go to deny him. It is also a portrait of those people, and therefore, a very valuable lesson about Washington politics.
Book Review: A Wonderful Memoir
Summary: 5 Stars
The hero of this book is not Clarence Thomas. It is his grandfather who raised him and his brother from childhood. His mother was an illegitimate child, just as he was himself. The grandfather later married and, when his daughter, Justice Thomas' mother, was struggling to raise three children in the slums of Charleston, he took the boys in and raised them to be fiercely independent men. The grandfather and his wife had a neat and clean, though small, house and later he built a second house on family farm land outside the cty. He kept the boys working on that farm in the summer, much to their anger, to keep them away from other boys who were at risk of serious trouble in the streets of Charleston. Justice Thomas' early life was one of hard work and hard study under the nuns in Catholic school. His grandfather scraped up the school fees to keep his boys out of the evil atmosphere that dragged so many young black men into trouble. For years, Justice Thomas and his grandfather had a tense relationship as neither could express his feelings well and the grandson only realized years later what a debt he owed to this harsh but loving man. The confirmation story, and the alleged "anger" are near the end of the book. The rest is an inspiring story of love and discipline and a life that should impress anyone who reads it with the open mind. The book now goes to my daughter and it should be required reading for the pampered children of the middle class who have had few obstacles in their way thus far in life.