Book Review

The Beautiful Struggle (2008)

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Reviewed by Tom Sinclair | May 20, 2008

Tom Sinclair

Tom Sinclair is a senior writer for EW and has been called "the handsomest man in rock criticism'' (by his wife)

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EW's GRADE

A-

Details Writer: Ta-Nehisi Coates; Genres: Autobiography, Nonfiction; Publisher: Spiegel & Grau

$BALTIMORE RAVIN\' The Beautiful Struggle, Ta-Nehisi Coates memoir of growing up in a strict home and around mean streets, crackles... The Beautiful Struggle$

BALTIMORE RAVIN' The Beautiful Struggle, Ta-Nehisi Coates memoir of growing up in a strict home and around mean streets, crackles with life

It once seemed like every male memoirist of color needed a CV featuring prison time and drug addiction. Ta-Nehisi Coates (a former TIME staffer) sidestepped both, but his The Beautiful Struggle is as gripping as Piri Thomas' classic Down These Mean Streets. He reconstructs his formative years in Baltimore, focusing on his complicated family life (overseen by his dad, a strict, autodidactic former Black Panther) and the often violent rites of passage he endured as a teen. Coates' story about surviving adolescence and getting into college may seem familiar, but his poetry-laced, high-wire prose crackles. A-

Originally posted May 09, 2008 Published in issue #991 May 16, 2008 Order article reprints

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