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42 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's a Letter to U.S. Citizens We Need to Hear, February 22, 2006
Does it ramble in some places? Yes. Does it propose some things that kinda scare me? Yes. Does it come up with brilliant, new and wholly-thought-out ways to change the world? No. Now, let's ask ourselves what it was meant to do...
It was meant to walk a reader through the mental steps it takes to lift themselves out of seeing their entire lives in the context of only their own navels. It's not intended to show people exactly how to change the world. It's intended to show people how to think about themselves as agents of change...and changes that could happen TODAY. Sadly, that type of cover description doesn't sell books. So, I'm sure there will be people complaining about how it doesn't deliver on its promises. Well, welcome to the world of book-selling. Now, get over it.
Get over it and read this book. It's been a huge factor in my being able to finally see where I fit in as a citizen of this world...not just a participant in my life. Read it. Let it scare you and then pull back. Let it make you say, "DUH!" and then surprise you by the next sentence's depth and insight. If it were a man, I'd recommend you kiss him just so you can know what it's like. Yeah, it's that good. If you let it in.
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18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Authentic Black Man, March 20, 2006
I have a new addiction. I am hung up on the African writer Kola Boof. I guess because I am a black woman, I relate so much more to the urgency and wisdom in Boof's political views mixed with her command of our ancestor's cultures and her defiant love for blackness itself, until I was not as impressed with Walter Mosley's new book as my husband was, but still, I thought "LIFE OUT OF CONTEXT" was very good. I don't regret buying it.
To the contrary, I think this book is much better than some other friends have said it was.
Mosely, who is biracial, speaks of a world view for colored peoples and is concerned with all races. He doesn't resonate with me as powerfully as Kola Boof does, because I still don't think we have saved black people yet let alone the whole earth, but this book shows how intelligent he is and that his heart is in the right place. I agreed totally with his idea of a Black political party. It's long overdue.
If you want to read a true masterpiece that every black human being should wrap their brains around, however, then you should read Kola Boof's autobiography "Diary of a Lost Girl". She has an essay in that book called "The Authentic Black Man" that only an African woman could have written.
My husband and I live by it!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You sure don't have to be African American to get value from this book, September 8, 2010
I may be the only reviewer so far who isn't African-American, but this is a book that should be of interest to anyone politically minded to read. Sure, I can't quite agree with every idea presented here, but that doesn't make any difference This isn't a call to action as much as it is a sharing of one's thought processes in seeking solutions to a social problem and to injustice arising from our American political system. It is an encouragement to the reader to do his or her own musing on the issues.I quite respect Walter Mosley who is mainly thought of as a crime novelist and his novels have a lot of philosophical and political thought in them. It's good to see a non-fiction book from him which gives such a personal look at his thought processes.
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