Customer Reviews

Bourgeois Blues: An American Memoir (Plume)

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As a Jewish girl from Boston going to CCNY it was interesting for me to read a book about an African American man who grew up in the Bronx and went to school at Harvard. We have many similarities and some interesting differences in out experience. I finished this book in about 24 hours. It is an easy enjoyable read but also forces you to see socioeconomic and race issues in a way that you may not be used to. This is not an academic book. This is a memoir. However, it adds a valuable historical perspective of the 1960s through the early '90s. Some other topics in the book which are touched on in interesting ways are gender in American society as well as how news reaches the public and what news reaches the public. It is a good introduction to thinking about race in the United States although I would not recommend it as a strictly historical reference.

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.