Customer Reviews

Losing Absalom

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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This book addressed issues that are central to many African American lives. I especially liked the book because it showed a black family intact and portrayed them as normal people working through family relationships and trying to deal with a crisis in a constructive manner. I do, however, wish the ending had more fully addressed the complexities of the situation.

This book opened up a whole new thought line for me. The strength that Absalom brought to this family at its start held them until the very end.This reminds me so much of the battles that some our black families face everyday. The outcome is never what you think it will be but the reality is. This brother writes with true feeling. I could feel each and every character all of their joy and their pain. I'm looking forward to reading more of his work.

Absalom worked like a dog for countless years to ensure that his family had food on the table, a clean home, and a positive role model. Doesn't it always seem that as soon as hardworking folk like him get to a point in their life where they are in a position to retire, death or disease rear their ugly heads? Losing Absalom tells of this man and his toils. It seems, however, that there is no peace for a man who feels that his children are not living up to the values he set forth.His daughter is living in the home he worked so hard to buy, letting it go to pot, living with a drug dealer boyfriend who is bad news. His son has been reduced to a workaholic, ignoring his family and his Philadelphia roots - living in a city where you could count the black population on one hand. Far from home. Far from what Absalom taught him. On his deathbed, Absalom struggles to save his family from their self-destruction, fighting for that which is worth fighting for.

Alexs Pate never ceases to amaze me. With each of his works, it seems that he is talking to me, telling me a poignant story in a way no other author can. A gracious author true to his craft, Pate is the cream of the crop, as is evident in Losing Absalom.

Reviewed by CandaceK

This book was so tedious, it was almost painful to read. The characters were one-dimensional, the plot was predictable and sometimes ridiculous. Worse, its message is that if you aspire to something more than a ghetto existence, you can expect alienation and death!