Customer Reviews

Spike Lee: That's My Story and I'm Sticking to It

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I love Spike Lee movies --- "Do the right thing," "The 25th Hour," and "Clockers, but this book by Kaleem Aftab is shallow and meanders to the point of infuriating. At best it's a surface portrait of a complex man and his films. The book is an easy read, but never delves into the complicated world that Lee has created on and off screen.

From his childhood and all throughout his film career, Spike Lee, born Shelton Jackson Lee, has been outspoken and opinionated. These solid traits, along with the sense of responsibility one acquires by being the oldest of five siblings, combined with education, talent, hard work, and great timing to produce one of the most recognized African-American film directors and producers to date. In SPIKE LEE: THAT'S MY STORY AND I'M STICKING TO IT, author Kaleem Aftab pens Spike's biography with such dedication and attention to details that readers will know everything one can know being on the outside looking into the life of Spike Lee: his upbringing, his college days, his first movies, his motivations, his financial trials, his political standpoints, his outlook on life, his recent films, and his goals. Although all is not rosy, Aftab still pulls back the cover and exposes details of Spike's life, before, after, and during the making of his films.

Starting with his childhood and then arranged by film, Aftab proves to have done excellent research as he provides readers with a plethora of facts about everyone Spike ever spoke to and/or dealt with and about how he started and got to where he is now. Offering insight into the motivations behind Spike's movies and good behind-the-scenes information, Aftab presents a novel that delves not just into Spike's life, but also illuminates certain well-known actors who Spike chose to work with: Bill Nunn, Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, John Turturro, Danny Aiello, and Laurence Fishburne (to name a few). Readers really get a strong grasp of who Spike Lee is as Aftab talks about some of the filmmaker's classic New York outlooks and his perspectives on African-Americans, not just in film but also in life.

Extremely informational, SPIKE LEE, by Aftab, starts out slow and mundane. Aftab's writing style is not very intriguing or captivating for readers, which is a shame for it to be the biography of such an interesting figure. Also jumpy, it is difficult to keep up with what is going on. A section will begin discussing one event and will go off on a tangent about a list of people, who they are, and how they relate to Spike or the movie, and then jump back to the previous event. Transitional aids would help to make section themes flow better. A stronger narrative voice would also make information flow better. Throughout the biography, there are a plethora of quotes. Sometimes, a quote is so long and involved that it is easy for readers to forget that it is a quote, and jumping back to the narrator's voice once again throws off the flow of the text. As readers press on and become adjusted to Aftab's writing style, his composition creates a well-researched look into the life of one of America's prominent African-American directors/producers: Spike Lee.

Reviewed by Natasha T.
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

After reading this book and thinking about it as a whole, I was led to give it a 3-star rating, but it could've been a 5-star rating, if the editing were much stronger.

Viewing the reviews listed here, I see various complaints about the book, but none of them address what I consider to be the most glaringly obvious things: the grammatical errors and the cultural fact errors--two things that could have been handled before the book even went to the printer. First, and I must admit that I don't know if England uses a different set of grammatical rules, there is a serious problem with subject verb agreement throughout the entire text, particularly with regard to collective nouns and singular nouns with a plural appearance. Aftab even changes around some of the quotes to fit this very jarring grammatical detour. (For example, "40 Acres and a Mule are...." While I teach composition, I still know the average reader could pick up on this, whether it's setting a word like "jury" or committee" against the plural verb form or something more complicated like the 40 Acres name.)

Next, there are numerous fact errors. Among them is a misquote of Louis Farrakhan ("good" should be "great"--and that quote is forever taken out of context, and I say that not to defend the man at all). He also has Tupac dying in 1995 after being shot five times, Carmello Anthony going straight to the pros from high school, alongside LeBron James (as opposed to leading Syracuse to a NCAA championship), and stating that Cash Money Records was Master P's record label (not No Limit).

These errors are very glaring, but I can best compare them to enjoying a class where a teacher insists on using screechy chalk on the blackboard, because overall I really liked the book. It took enormous effort to synthesize so much information into a highly readable biography. Don't get me wrong. It is far from perfect, but the linear layout and the quotes from various actors and Spike create a kind of balance so that it's not completely one-sided. And Aftab covers all of the media worthy hot topics that surrounded each of Lee's films so that when you finish the book, you will have gotten a strong glimpse into Lee's professional approach to filmmaking.

I'm pretty sure that Spike Lee's own journals from his films will ultimately prove to be more useful for a beginning filmmaker than this book. It does, however, have its merits.

For a man who stands out in a predominantly "white" profession, "That's my story" provides the reader with a rare glimpse into the mind of a genius. For Spike to allow this biography, he was sending the reader a message. Open up your eyes, and if you read between the lines, you will understand that Spike has been misunderstood for years, by the industry, media and his fans. He is a visionary, who has made his mark on all of us for years, we are just beginning to catch up to his genius finally.

I disagree with the reviews left so far. I found this book to be very interesting and informative. I was expecting a first person retelling of Spike's life from his point of view. What I received was an honest account of Lee's movie making history, told from the perspective of the people who were there. That to me is what makes this book special.

Most would agree that Spike Lee played an instrumental role in changing the movie industry. He was one of the first AA directors to make films "his way", he also opened doors for a multitude of African American actors, directors, DPs, sound people etc. This book gives the low down on how he accomplished all of that. What I liked even more about this work is the fact that it doesn't glorify Lee. It seems to be a vehicle for Lee to tell us how he goes about his craft but also allows the people closest to him to express their views on what he has done well and not so well over the course of his career.

While I admit to being a fan of this director's prolific work and contributions, I am not such a fan as to believe he doesn't have some personality issues that rub folks the wrong way. Beyond that, he has been a trailblazer and a champion for minorities in an industry that had long ago written them off. I also think that if he wanted to, Mr. Lee is very capable of making outstanding commercial movies, that's just not his thing. Many of us are unaware that he has been a driving force behind some of Black Americas best commercial movies, The Best Man and Love and Basketball for example.

For better or worse (depending on the reader)this book reads less like a biography and more like the transcript of a documentary. I recommend it to serious movie buffs, and people with an entrepreneurial spirit.

talk about a Cat who fell off in there Creativity?? Spike Lee was once known for making some interesting films such as Do the right thing&Malcolm x,but His ego,indulgences got the best of him.He has put out alot of films,but His best days have long ago been behind him.this Book never really says much about Him directly.He trys to come off more complex than he might actually be.I have always respected His Hustle,but this Book is about 10 years too late because spike Lee ain't been that kind of film-maker in ages.this book is just kinda there&that is how alot of spike lee's work has been to me after Malcom X came out. Hit&Alot of Miss.

Maybe it's just me being picky, but I was raised to believe that "Thank You" are two very strong words and manners are important. I had a job interview on the Saturday that this book came out and I was really worried that I would not be able to meet Spike Lee and get this book autographed. Luckily, I made it to the bookstore he was at. When I got to the front of the line, I grinned; said "Hello"; he saw my name prepared on a post-it; said "How do you say this?"; I told him; he looked at me like I was stupid; I said "Don't look at me like that"; he signed the book; and said "Here you go" without even a glance. No "Thanks for the support", no "Thanks for buying the book", no nothing. When people support your product, manners come in handy. That rude behavior spoiled the book for me. I got through about three pages and gave up. I'm not even interested in what the book is about anymore because he was so obnoxious.

A month later, I reopened the book because I figured if I went through the trouble to buy the doggone book, I might as well read it. Plus only 2 out of 11 people thought the review above was helpful. I read the book and I realized it's not just me he's obnoxious to, but plenty of people. He got mad at Samuel L. Jackson for wanting more money after doing 4 movies in a row with him. He told Rosario Dawson not to do her other movie because she could "do that anytime." He put the dark-skinned people and the light-skinned people in different kinds of hotels (one set nice hotels and the other mice-infested) to show more tension onset, as if the actors weren't good enough to do it without the extra instigation. For this to be an autobiography, Lee comes off as a complete jerk. I'm surprised he allowed so many parts from other actors to be in this book. He was worried about his father being interviewed, but judging from the people he's worked with, it doesn't seem to matter. He'd ask any and everyone for money but says he hates to be asked for money. I could write a list of reasons why he's unlikeable and my top 2 would be that he thanks his daughter for inspiration in the back of this book, but left out his son and he wasn't around to see either of his kids being born because he wanted to go to the Knicks games. What?!

I'm so annoyed that I went through all that rushing to buy a book from such an ungrateful man. I still appreciate him for making "Malcolm X" and "School Daze", but I don't respect him as a person in the least bit.

Spike, you make some great movies, Summer of Sam is one of your best, Do the Right Thing. Spike has a gift for cinematography, however

Spike Lee Interview on ESPN? The interview said,

interviewer:
"Kanye West said that Bush doesn't care about black people. Would you agree with that?

Lee:
"Yes, I agree with that, BUT I'll go one step further and say that Bush doesn't care about people who don't have any money (whether they're black or white.) I guaranteed you that if this same disaster happened on Long Island or let's say The Hamptons, you would have had an entirley different response from FEMA and his administration."

But you should have seen how he said it, it was as if he was staring right into the camera with this smirk on his face. The dude is bold man, I'll give him that and I applaude him.

Spike said either black, white, Mexican, or asian.
But what he DIDN'T say was Italians!!

That dude has been getting flack forever for his dis'n of Italians in his movies, they call him a racist all the time.

HERE WAS HIS CHANCE to say something, and he blew it.

just didn't happen to say Italians?

NO
So HE is a racist too.

And so are the Africans in Africa, they never have liked white people either, so what about that Spike? Try going over their and applying for a job!

And while I am at, the African Americans in even Baton Rouge don't want the blacks from N.O. coming up their! How come spike never said anything about that?

Fkn whiners, so many the world over! give them a mic and let them talk and will put it on TV and let the world see it for the fools they are.

And ignoramus white liberals eat it up as its gospel and he is telling Da Truth