The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Penguin Modern Classics) [Paperback]

Malcolm X (Author), Alex Haley (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Modern Classics | Publication Date: June 2010

From hustling, drug addiction and armed violence in America's black ghettos Malcolm X turned, in a dramatic prison conversion, to the puritanical fervour of the Black Muslims. As their spokesman he became identified in the white press as a terrifying teacher of race hatred; but to his direct audience, the oppressed American blacks, he brought hope and self-respect. This autobiography (written with Alex Haley) reveals his quick-witted integrity, usually obscured by batteries of frenzied headlines, and the fierce idealism which led him to reject both liberal hypocrisies and black racialism.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books by Arrangement with Hutchinson (June 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141185430
• ISBN-13: 978-0141185439
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,852 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > United States > Civil War > Military Leaders
  • #1 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( M ) > Malcolm X
  • #22 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > African-American & Black

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars where it doesn't careen off onto Malcolm's diabtribes, it's a great book with compelling storytelling, November 28, 2009

By 

Joel Tenenbaum "sublimeguy14" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)

A compelling and often riveting look into one of the country's most controversial figures. We follow the story of Malcolm Little, whose family was endlessly persecuted in Nebraska before moving to small town Michigan where he manages to lead a relatively normal childhood though is disquieted when a well-intentioned teacher negates his dream of being a successful lawyer, on the basis of race. A visit to his half-sister in Boston exposes young Malcolm to an exhilarating lifestyle that proves irresistable.

I found his immersion in black 1950s urban culture to be one of the high points of the book. Malcolm manages to convey a strong sense of all that the city had to offer to a tall sociable black man. His sociability and pan-race interaction through his early legal jobs and onto hustling made the virulence of his anti-white racism that much more surprising. Here was a man who had a healthy acceptance of racial diversity even while living a degenerate lifestyle. The storytelling as Malcolm found himself trapped more and more by forces of law and dangerous hustlers was at a peak.

Unfortunately at this point the book's plot begins its precipitous decline in action-oriented prose. His revelations and stories from prison are still full of life though this is the point at which Haley begins to sacrifice plot by occasionally interspersing Malcolm's tedious diatribes, which become more and more lengthy as the book wears on. By the end, the reader is filtering through pages of how the white man's corrupting society causes ill to both races, how the liberal white man is only superficially sympathetic, just to wait for something new to happen.

I imagine this lends a sense of authenticity to the book. As mentioned in the book's forward, Haley apparently had to listen to hours of these repetitive acerbic discourses before he could even get any family history to write down. At one point, he was worried he would have to cancel the project.

There is another aspect explored by the book that the casual reader might not appreciate - the interplay between a public figure and the press. On account of the interviews I've done and what the writers have done with them afterward, I identified deeply with the relationship Malcolm seemed to have with an ever sensationalist media.

Overall, when TAOMX is telling a story, it succeeds brilliantly; when it isn't, it founders equally as spectacularly.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I am not worthy, June 10, 2006

By 

Miss Xeshu (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)

I must say I feel rather humble in my attempt to review this autobiography, hence the brevity of my Review. However I cannot sufficiently stress how the account of Malcolm X's life has given me as a native African (and gives the reader regardless of ethnic background) a crucially important Sociological, Philosophical, Political, Islamic and Pan African insight into African American culture and its' shaping in historical context.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Two Authors, July 2, 2010

By 

Mark Levine "leevyne" (Jersey City, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)

Like many in my generation I was deeply affected by this book and by Malcolm's words, oral and written. But decades of continued related reading heve left me wondering just which of those in this "Autobiography" are, indeed, Malcolm's. Amazon's way of listing editors reinforces the irony that this book really has two authors, one of whom (Alex Haley) had a less-than-militant history and a less-than-sterling reputation for accuracy. This book has, since its publication, been regarded as the "real" Malcolm, which has been perpetuated in film and in the conventional wisdom, scholarly and street. I am not saying it is inaccurate, only that it might be time for a serious scholar to examine with greater scrutiny the man's life and particularly its final months. There has not been a definitive biography for a man who unquestionably deserves one.