Customer Reviews

What's Going On

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Makes Me Wanna Holler shocked me a couple of years ago. I still feel haunted by it, but the shock is over and now I can enjoy McCall's writing without feeling sick. He is a great writer, he is angry, and he "tells it how he sees it." Although, I have a feeling that McCall would be angry even in a perfect world; but I still think every white person should read his books. I have learned a lot about my African American friends and neighbors from his writing. Unfortunately, after reading What's Going On I realized that it is only African American's who can pull themselves out of this mess. I think I would be accused of being a racist no matter what I would try and do. Hopefully some good African American leaders will emerge as soon as Mr. Jackson and Mr. Sharpton give up their thrones. I am convinced that many white folks really do want things to to get better for African Americans. We just don't know what to do!

I absolutely loved this book. I could not put it down. Nathan McCall's views were well-thought out, and much to my surprise showed no signs of hypocrisy, instead, his views were the end result of learning through experience. I was able to connect with McCall's real life experiences as a young African-American & Washingtonian. The fact that he has roots in DC made me able to connect on a more personal level with his experiences, (i.e., his references to Georgetown, and parts of middle class Maryland and Virginia) I was always taught by my parents about the true histories and traditions of this city and the elimination of upscale African-American neighborhoods from a history we made. However, McCall idealizes the underlying concepts that apply to the African American culture anywhere in this country. Even if the DC element is extracted, his words apply to any location. I found that the book kept on a continuum rather than skipping over issues and losing its tone, every chapter making equal offerings to the book as a whole. It taught me a great deal about the ways of political change, and I also took from it a sense of responsiblity, that it took McCall the majority of his adolescence to gain. It's one thing to protest something (i.e., McCall's reference to "gangsta rap") but it's a totally different thing to back it up with logic. Even if readers disagree with some of the details of McCall's thinking, his outlook plays on the mind and welcomes another outlook, backed by occurances and explanations given. I felt that McCall explored every aspect of his role as a African American delinquent youth turned respected father and professional, and that alone deserves respect in this autobiographical piece. I suggest that both black men and women read this book, I promise you will gain something of great personal value from it. Knowledge which brings power. I highly recommend this book.

Interestingly, I kept McCall's first book on my shelf for at least three or four years. I have a very heavy schedule and just couldn't find time to read it. I did blindly recommend it to a relaitive of mine who had made a mistake and ended up doing time. About two weks ago, I finally decided to read it. After finishing MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER, I was really upset that my relative didn't read. The book is a wonderful depiction of one of the most misunderstood segments of American life. The author came forth as honest as he could be. There were traces of Eldridge Cleaver, George Jackson, and Malcolm X. Only traces though - McCall's political concerns were not steeped (not yet). WHATS GOING ON reveals a more political minded author. I will place these essays on my shelf next to his first book. The author and I are the same age and we both grew up as black males in a most-times psychologically imbalanced society. We KNOW what the dangers are. So many of his thoughts are common to my experience. Reading both books make me look way back and reflect upon events that I thought I had safely placed away. This guy's an excellent writer. Some reviewers feel as if he's not telling the whole truth - but who really does? McCall should continue writing, continue to take on life as it comes. He should continue exposing the truth about the life so many of us know. The truth told in the clear way that he tells it.

In this book, Nathan McCall does not hesitate to tell the truth, which is something that many of today's writers fail to do. Considering that McCall is speaking from personal experiences, it makes the points raised in the book much more valid. For those that have been asleep or even those that have not, this book is a definite wake up call. To understand the current situation that blacks are in, one has to start with the foundation and get a clear analysis of the good and bad, which is something that McCall helps the reader do in this book. Not only is the author bringing forth points that we already know are true, he is linking them with commonplace experiences which makes his observations even more effective. The only qualm that I have about this book is the length. I got so caught up in reading it that I had finished before I realized it. Don't wait, read this one as soon as possible.

I very much liked his previous book and I liked this one, too, except that it is a very short book puffed up (with big margins, big print, widely spaced lines) to look bigger than it is. I bought it on a recommendation but felt cheated when I got it home and opened it up.

The title of this review is taken from a quote on McCall from Henry Louis Gates, Jr. I must admit I do like powerful writers who do tell it as it is, and do not mince with their words. "A sad truth is better than a merry lie". So when the review on this book, said it is a collection of McCall's perceptions on issues (mostly racial) that divide and polarise people I knew I was going to like it. And I did like it. The book is categorised into four main topics. 1: Mixed Massages 2: The American Dream 3: White Fear 4: Redemption These are based on his opinions and experiences. They range from "mastering the mental game" based on watching a bunch of brothers lose a b-ball game, to his opinions about airing out black folks dirty laundry, gangster rap, and to the "Vibe" which really shows that babies don't discriminate until they taught to. If you loved McCall's other book "Makes Me Wanna Holler" you gonna love this one. He doing what he does best, dishing it as it.

As a person not-of-color (person of non-color?), I very much enjoyed Nathan McCall's insightful and unflinching essays on both white and black views in America. I consider his autobiography, "Makes Me Wanna Holler", to be a modern classic far surpassing other, more heralded books such as "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" in its ability to place the reader fully in the shoes of another person. "What's Going On" serves as both a powerful footnote to his debut and as a profound look at American race relations in its own right. McCall is a true student of the human condition.

Nathan McCall is now 2 for 2. After the classic "Makes me Wanna Holler," he gives us this insightful read. Some might think he harps on racial issues too much, but even in 2002, these issues are still relevant to so many. His chapter on gangster rap is right on the money, and I would even add, as an educator, that rap music has become a bad influence on all races (suburban whites buy more hardcore rap than anyone else). His chapter on Muhammad Ali is one of the most poignant pieces I have ever read, and left me in tears. So often while reading this, you find yourself nodding your head, agreeing with what he's saying. We're lucky to have his perceptive books, and I like many am wondering when his next one is coming (it's been 5 years!). Hopefully soon Mr. McCall.

I'm a latecomer to the writings of Nathan McCall, having only recently discovered him by being given his book of essays through a doctor-friend of mine who worked many years "in the hood" in Camden, New Jersey. She liked his perspective, she told me, and thought I might find this work interesting. Not a doctor myself at all, I live in San Francisco where the major minority is Asian. I can only say that while I appreciated McCall's ability to write readable prose without calling attention to itself, I didn't find a broad, insightful and generous perspective in the man's vision of the world at all, not as he finds it. If bitterness is a perspective -- and a kind of retro "angry black man," then McCall's definitely got it. If illogic and fantasy is having real perspective, then he's got it.

His first essay is "The Revolution is About Basketball." In it, he watches black men and white men play basketball and -- guess what? McCall can read minds! He knows exactly what everybody in the game is thinking -- without even talking with any single one of the players. He knows the black men value themselves only as basketball players and nothing else and he knows that the white men will "give it up" to the black guys for their basketball skills -- but for nothing else about them. How does McCall know this? Well, in the essay, he just fantasizes that his thoughts are the reality. That's how.

In "Airing Dirty Laundry" McCall fantasizes that he's talking only to a black audience because he's asked the white audience to leave -- or to skip this particular chapter! He says black people don't like having their dirty laundry aired. Is this even a subject worth listening to? Excuse me, but has even he heard of Oprah? I talked with my black co-worker in San Francisco about McCall's notions here, and she plainly disagreed with everything McCall says here. I'm not then the only one, being white, thinking that when it comes to black people not liking to air their dirty laundry he's just --- off! Alice Walker and Terry McMillan, subjects in this essay, may have gotten some flack from black people about their portrayals of black men and black women, but not everybody in the black community felt the rage, as McCall asserts; not everybody in the black community even knew Alice Walker and Terry McMillan had gotten bad flack about their works; and, I think, very few -- black (or white) people -- really honestly cared! Alice Walker wrote a book trying to clear herself of false accusations, but she's the only one who rightfully had a care!

In "Men: We Just Don't Get It," the third essay in the book, McCall provides TMI - about himself. I found his confession as to his sexual violence towards women repulsive. His confession did not help my understanding of the essay at all. In fact, my respect for the guy as a man (not as a writer) dropped a few pegs. In this one essay, McCall provides a real clue to himself, however. He tells us he was a punk, a gangsta-type growing up, but that he fantasized a great deal and felt he wanted to be like one of the Mafia bosses because of movies like "The Godfather." He went so far as to actually shoot somebody because he was living out his fantasy. He also tells us that nobody fantasizes as much as young black teenagers, and McCall ought to know. Right? I don't know how he can know that nobody but black male teens fantasize as much as black male teens, being as he's only of one certain color and of one certain gender, but nonetheless, his confession about how he acted out his fantasies and nearly killed somebody made me think again about his essay on basketball and how he can, in the other essays he publishes here as well, look into someone's face and know their exact thoughts exactly.

The white woman in "The Vibe," the eighth essay in the book -- she can just give McCall "a look" and he can know right away that no, she doesn't want him to touch her little baby boy because "he black" and "she white." Given that even fathers of every color are now afraid of touching their own children for fear of being called a molester by women, why wouldn't any man be a little circumspect when confronted with a complete stranger and her child in a public restaurant? According to McCall, he is supposed to be allowed to pick up a female stranger's child just because that child is being a child and is toddling towards him. No, you're not, Mr. McCall. Leave other people's children alone!

I could go on, but there's no real point. McCall describes himself well in all the essays and describes well the situations he finds himself in as well. But he didn't convince me of anything significant or high-minded, except that he made me aware he's angry and bitter and has a head full of fantasies. Perhaps that's' why his most recent work is a novel, "Them." I'd be interested to see what he does in that kind of sphere, where fantasy can become reality.

In Chapter 7, "Faking the Funk," he comes down hard on rich black people living in Prince Georges County. I just want to say to prospective readers, if you buy into McCall's logic here, then you will like the rest of the McCall's essays. This essay is a litmus test, I think, for whether or not you'll appreciate him as a writer and as a human being. McCall's definitely not short on arrogance. He feels he has a right to get up on a podium and preach to achieving, wealthy black folk that they have a moral obligation "to give back" -- to the junkies, the gangstas and the homeless -- while also judging them for being "uniquely black bourgeois." He bemoans their taking "white money" -- as if all money isn't simply green.

He's writing socialist fantasy and fantasizing its social criticism!

By the end of this book, I realized that McCall needs to be more like Mrs. Vessie Taylor, the black woman he writes about in his last and eleventh essay, "On Redemption," a woman who forgives the man who shot her son, the man being, ahem, one of McCall's best friends from prison. She is the one who has the generous heart and the generous spirit. McCall recognizes it but he only recognizes it. That's not who he is.

I strongly feel that the best audience for this collection of essays is someone a lot like himself -- although much younger in years, a black male teenager who's been hanging out with the wrong people and looking to find some way of stop being such a hood. McCall's got there, but he definitely still got a long road to go. Maybe McCall made it out of the hood and into success -- maybe, just maybe -- because his skin is whiter than most African-Americans. I'll bet that he's not reconciled his self-admitted luck to this accident of biology as a real fact.

Nathan McCall's writing style is natural, breezy and a pleasure to follow. Too bad the content and tacked-on moralizing to his well-described situations can't compare.

I have read both of brother McCall's books and this particular title is indeed one that tells it from the author's heart. While both publications are over 10 years old, the message still rings true today and definitely addresses the issues in a candid and insightful way. As a matter of fact, both books have no expiration date as far as I'm concerned.

I have no idea what has become of bro. Mc Call in recent years, but hopefully he has not totally dropped from the radar screen. I am also anticipating or at least hoping he has some future work planned. It would be fantastic if it would include and address the history shaping events that have occured since his last book such as 9/11, the election of Barack Obama and others.