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Before I Forget (Paperback)

~ Leonard Pitts Jr. (Author)
Key Phrases: Jack Johnson, Moses Johnson, Philip Reed (more...)
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
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Before I Forget + Forward From this Moment: Selected Columns, 1994-2008 + Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood
Price For All Three: $34.44

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In a seamless transition to fiction, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Pitts Jr. (Becoming Dad) delivers an unsettling, compelling first novel about secrets, illness, and the role of African-American men in society and family life. His absorbing story centers on unmarried father of one Mo Johnson, a faded 1970s soul star living in Baltimore, and diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at the age of 49. Overwhelmed with regrets, and unable to confess his diagnosis, he sets out to make things right with two men long absent in his life: his teenage son, Trey, an unwed father facing armed-robbery charges; and his father, Jack, now ravaged by cancer. Mo and Trey take a cross-country road trip to visit Jack in his final days, each character a simmering cauldron of secrets, grief, and recrimination about to boil over. Unfolding like a film (big names are already attached to a possible movie adaptation), the novel takes readers to rural 1940s Mississippi, South Central L.A. in the swingin' 1950s, and present-day Las Vegas with immersing dialog and vivid, powerful imagery. Bold in spirit and scope, this is a rare, memorable debut that should net Pitts a wide new expanse of fans.

Review


"A powerful novel about regrets, second chances, forgiveness and responsibility.... This is a beautiful, tragic and riveting work. A compelling, moving novel about fathers and sons and what it means to be a man. —Marilyn Dahl, Shelf Awareness
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Agate Bolden (March 20, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1932841431
  • ISBN-13: 978-1932841435
  • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #35,261 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Leonard Pitts
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Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Jack Johnson, Moses Johnson, Philip Reed, Tommy Knight, Las Vegas, Arthur Cooley, Miss Tash, Gladys Knight, Wonder Woman, Central Avenue, Street Gang, Monte Carlo, Denzel Washington, Michaela Watkins, Mary Willis, Prophet of Love, Trey Johnson, Mario Gaines, Los Angeles, Nana Mike, Ransom Records, South Central, Cedric Gamble, King Cool, Big Ray
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Before I Forget 4.9 out of 5 stars (18)
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Forward From this Moment: Selected Columns, 1994-2008
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Forward From this Moment: Selected Columns, 1994-2008 5.0 out of 5 stars (2)
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Time Is Not On Your Side, March 5, 2009
Before I Forget by Leonard Pitts, Jr. is a story of three generations of black men who are related by blood, but each struggles with their role of being a father and do not understand the heritage that bonds them and makes them who they are. The main character, Mo Johnson, a former soul star of the 70s, has just found out at age 49, he suffers from early-onset Alzheimer's, which will have him forget who he is before the disease kills him. This news, as expected, spins his world out-of-control. Trey, his son, at 19 also has a son, spends his time dreaming to be a rap star and has no means of supporting himself beyond what his mother and father provide to him, and he has just been arrested for robbery and murder. Jack, Mo's father, is dying of cancer and would like to see the son who has not spoken to him in 30 years, once more before he dies. While Mo's initial reaction to this request is no, the circumstances on why Mo refuses to speak to his father forces him to change his mind, as there are some things Mo needs to say before his memory is gone. So, Mo decides to embark on a trip back home to L.A. from Maryland, taking Trey with him as while Mo has supported his son financially he has not given him time and attention and wants to now spend time with his son.

Leonard Pitts weaves a wonderful story which is both painful and truthful, yet with compassion so the reader is able to view the lives of each of these characters and understand who they are. As Mo and Trey drive across country, the story unfolds in a series of flashbacks, alternating with action in the current time. The characters' voices for each of the generations were true to their times and I found myself smiling as I also heard the voices of the older and younger generations in my family. The most poignant of the storylines to me was the unfolding of the effect of Mo's early-onset Alzheimer's on him and his son, Trey.

Fathers are a major theme that affect both the major and secondary characters. The underlying question for the characters is what is a father and how do you effectively fill this role and more importantly, this book shows how black men wrestle with this issue and the different ways they come to terms with it. The author has the courage to address an issue that is on the minds of many in the black community and whether you agree with the characters' decisions or not - you will appreciate the honest portrayal.

I recommend this book to all readers who are interested in a well-written story on current topics. This is a wonderful debut novel and I look forward to reading Mr. Pitts' next book.

Reviewed by Beverly
APOOO BookClub
March 3, 2009
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars This is a story every father should read, May 10, 2009
There isn't a blurb from Bill Cosby on the back of Leonard Pitts's first novel, "Before I Forget." But this is a cautionary tale Cosby would recommend.
In May 2004, the comedian spoke at an NAACP Legal Defense Fund banquet to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision. Cosby drew ire and hostility because he blamed the black community itself for school dropouts, crime and teen pregnancy rates.
"I'm talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was 2? Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18, and how come you don't know he had a pistol? And where is the father ...?"
It's a question any race could ask these days. One of every 10 teenaged Florida girl got pregnant in 2007: 43 percent were white, 33 percent black, 33 percent Hispanic. In 2008, 48 percent of inmates were black, 18 percent Hispanic, 7 percent white. But the point is not ethnicity or gender, the point is that there is an epidemic of missing fathers. Mothers are doing the best they can, but in many cases, they're working and doing the parenting, all alone.
Where is the father? Indeed. One in three children live in a one-parent household.
Pitts, who won the Pulitzer Prize in the same year, took up the drumbeat with his novel about three fictional fathers. The first, Jack Johnson, was angry because he was raped and beaten while in prison. He became a drunk, and beat his wife and son.
Jack's son, Mo Johnson, turned out to be a soul singer with the stature of Marvin Gaye, but he was always on the road while his son was growing up. An indifferent father, he saw the boy once a year.
Where was the father? Indeed. Absentee fathers beget absentee fathers. Mo's boy, Trey, grew up angry. He had a great mother, but no paternal influence. At 19, he and two friends robbed a convenience store. The owner was murdered. At first, Mo blamed the boy, but then he realized the most important fact of his life - he didn't know his son.
At the same time, Mo, who has early onset Alzheimer's, got a call from his own father in California, who was dying. Mo and Trey's 6,000 mile road trip - a common literary device that worked well in Pitts's missive about Everydad and Everyson - gave them the chance to finally understand each other.
"In our own neighborhood, we have men in prison," Cosby told the crowd at Howard University. "No longer is a person embarrassed because they're pregnant without a husband. No longer is a boy considered an embarrassment if he tries to run away from being the father of the unmarried child."
Where is the outrage, Bob Dole would have asked. Indeed. It's a question we all ask occasionally, and we struggle for answers.
"In the neighborhood that most of us grew up in, parenting is not going on. In the old days, you couldn't hooky school," Cosby said. Communities raised children. Moms and dads called other moms and dads, and parents knew where truant children had gone. "Parents don't know that today."
"People with their hat on backwards, pants down around the crack. Isn't that a sign of something or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up? Isn't it a sign of something when she's got her dress all the way up to the crack - and got all kinds of needles and things going through her body. Brown versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem. We've got to take the neighborhood back."
Where is the father? That is, indeed, the lesson Trey finally learns from his father. Trey is a teen father. His son is already 4, and his mother was murdered by her mother. This is the world in which we're living, Pitts and Cosby are saying. And instead of correcting our children when they do wrong, we're defending them.
The question both Cosby and Pitts ask is, where is our decency? Indeed. How much coarser will society become, when fewer and fewer people don't go to school, can't read, can't write, can't add or subtract, and don't care?
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Bigger, Smarter, Better, November 6, 2009
Just finished "Before I Forget" - The writing is so good , the first few chapters were like reading Baldwin - But I kept thinking this isn't anything I know or relate to - When I got to the end of the story I realized I was bigger, smarter, better -This is a shared journey -
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 		 Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Won't forget this book
Loved it! Imani Literary Book Club of Atlanta read this book for our January book selection and rate it among our top reads. Read more
Published 1 day ago by Bernadette Headley Biggs

5.0 out of 5 stars EMOTIONALLY GRIPPING!
Before I Forget centers around Mo Johnson, a popular soul star, his son Trey who he isn't close with until something tragic happens, Tash, his son's mother and other key players... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Dimples

5.0 out of 5 stars A Powerful Story
This is a book that could easily have been hard to believe. James Moses Johnsons: three of them (grandfather, father, son). Okay, so that isn't unusual. Read more
Published 3 months ago by C. E. Selby

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read!
My church book club members followed a friend's suggestion to select this book as the topic of our August discussion. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Shay-Shay

5.0 out of 5 stars Before I Forget; A MUST READ!
Before I Forget, by Leonard Pitts, is a MUST READ!!!! This is a book you can't put down once you start reading it. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Roy L. Mason II

5.0 out of 5 stars If I Could Turn Back Time
Before I Forget by Leonard Pitts, Jr. is a story about men, their relationships with each other, themselves and their sons, as well as how their past relationships affect their... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Tavares S. Carney

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I've read this year.
First off, I must say, the publisher, Agate, sent me this novel a while back before it was published. Read more
Published 4 months ago by thesavvybamalady

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Before I Forget' is timeless
There's a reason why Leonard Pitts won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

Mr. Pitts interpretation of disjointed family relationships, particularly between fathers... Read more
Published 4 months ago by MissD

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved it
I loved this book! I am a big fan of Leonard Pitts Jr's columns, and was delighted to hear he had written a novel. I couldn't put it down - it was wonderful.
Published 5 months ago by Susan M. Seibold-Simpson

5.0 out of 5 stars Before I Forget
This was one of the best books I've read in a very long time. I didn't expect to be pulled into it, but I was! Read more
Published 6 months ago by Rose M. Jude

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