1 comments about Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Escape from India's Caste System.

1. I just received this book and ended up reading the entire book in one night -- it was that enthralling. This is a true account of a Dalit ("untouchable") family in India. The author -- Narendra Jadhav -- born into a Dalit sub-caste, has recorded the journals his father had kept of his parents' resistance against ancient prejudice.
   
   Inspired by the Dalit leader, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Damu Jadhav (the author's father) finally had reached his limit on all of the indignities that had been thrust upon him by the higher-caste authorities. He refused to perform an unconscionable duty demanded of him by a village official; for this refusal, he was brutally beaten. This was the beginning of the family's quest for freedom. There are stirring accounts of demonstrations, led by Dr. Ambedkar, where Dalits (including Damu Jadhav and his wife) had demanded their human dignity. This account relates the Jadhav family's struggles, set against the Dalit human rights struggle.
   
   Finally the reader sees how the Jadhav family emerged in triumph, having escaped their onerous discriminatory conditions, going through all sorts of conditions to make sure that the children would all receive a good education. Dr. Narendra Jadhav grew up to became an esteemed economist and his brothers and sisters also became eminent in their fields of study.
   
   In the cities, prejudice against the Dalits has greatly diminished. Unfortunately, in India's vast rural areas, caste-based discrimination and violence continues to exist in far too many instances. This book lays out a foundation for ways to continue the fight for Dalit human rights.

5 comments about Mister Satan's Apprentice: A Blues Memoir.

1. I read this book from cover to cover and only set it down when I got tired. Each night I would set aside some time to join adam on his adventures growing up playing the harmonica. He talks about love gained and lost and how he first became a harp player, including some of his influences. He has a captivating writing style and brings alot of imagery to his writing. I really felt he poured his soul out onto the page and you really kind of get to know who Adam and Satan are. Not the Prince of Darkness but Sterling "Satan" Magee. The overall story really is about the awkward white boy putting himself out there to play a soulful style of music and how he went through pain and heartache to pay his dues with with his friend and bluesmate, Mr. Satan. I would highly recommend this piece of work by Adam. You should also check out their 3 albums: Harlem Blues, Mother Mojo, and Living on the River.



2. It is an amazing thing when an artist (in this case, Gussow, a writer/blues harp player) can somehow manage to make their mark despite all the confusion and hard knocks life throws at them- and they sometimes throw at themselves. This is a moving story about a burgeoning blues musician captured with excellent dialogue... Gussow has made his characters come alive and jump off the page the way writers are supposed to.
   
   Not only is it Gussow's personal memoirs of his early years in music, but a riveting biography of one of the most unique and original blues acts in recent years- Satan & Adam. Gussow's accounts of his early music/life mentors (such as the underexposed harpist Nat Riddles) with sincerity and genuine emotion is fascinating. The telling of Mister Satan's story is a valuable contribution to blues history that could well have been lost in obscurity.
   
   There are issues explored in this book that have rarely been expounded upon with any meaningful insight in any musician interview or book I can remember. The passages in the book where Gussow is in the middle of Harlem grappling with the rift and misunderstanding between black and white is especially poignant, particularly from his perspective as a young, white, Princeton educated "bluesman".
   
   Although this book isn't an instructional course on technique or musicianship- for those who aren't aware- Adam Gussow is considered by many blues afficionados to be one of the best harmonica players alive today. So he's paid some dues and he knows what he's talking about.
   
   Adam Gussow had the good fortune, the talent, street smarts and the heartfelt focus to get out there and live it- become an apprentice to a bluesmaster- just like most traditional art is passed down from accomplished teacher to eager student. I admire him for it. Mister Satan's Apprentice is a must read for any struggling musician or blues fan- it just might get you thinking about your own life's journey.



3. In "Mister Satan's Apprentice," street musician extraordinaire Adam Gussow has left in just about everything, and it's about 40 percent too much; the book would have read far better at a sleek 250 pages. But the good stuff is really good, and the book is well worth reading despite its distractions and digressions. In his early 40s, Gussow is currently a doctoral candidate in Princeton's English department. But thousands know him as the harmonica-wielding half of the "progressive gutbucket blues" duo Satan and Adam -- three-CD recording artists, photogenic subject of any number of newspaper and magazine features, and cameo stars of the U2 movie "Rattle and Hum."

   In his autobiography, Gussow gets deep inside blues, and his relationship to it, and manages to successfully translate the music into language. "Blues harmonica played well was a miniature tongued slalom, a tornado swallowed and contained," he tells us, and his words capture every bit of excitement that the grooves and notes have to offer. "Mister Satan's Apprentice" is about much more than the blues, though -- it's a provocative meditation on race from a white man immersed in a traditionally black genre, neighborhood and world. Playing around with his first harmonica, in 1974, Gussow contemplates the subtleties of playing blues. "It had something to do with being a black guy," he muses.

   As the protagonist in his narrative, Gussow pales (no pun intended) next to two marvelous characters: his two mentors, Nat Riddles and Sterling "Mister Satan" Magee. Twenty-two years older than his protégé, Mister Satan is as colorful as they come. He's a visual artist and apocalyptic numerologist with a murky music-industry background, and a font of, if not wisdom, then brilliantly idiosyncratic aphorisms and soliloquies. A Harlem fixture when Gussow approaches the guitarist to jam along, he shouts and hollers, runs hot and cold, towers over other men. Mister Satan looms larger than life, but harmonica player Nat Riddles is entirely real, an odd-job taxi driver with a dazzling smile and soulful tone. "He was perpetually on the verge of becoming the blues world's Next Big Thing," Gussow writes. "A young black harp-player with the Sound." Riddles flits in and out of fortune, showing up unexpectedly to astound a New York club, phoning from somewhere in the South, destitute and desperate, surviving gunshot wounds only to eventually succumb to a cruel wasting disease.

   It's the music, finally, that counts most -- Gussow gives his story its own soundtrack, one of restlessness and yearning, of his struggle to capture the Sound: "The Sound was Southern-bound, it was cocky, playful, manic, chucking, resentful, edgy, comforting, relentless. It took incredible lip strength and finesse to produce. It was sexual. It was the haunted, restless feeling of a guy's apartment late at night after the woman who used to live there had moved out. It was whatever nasty things she was doing with the other guy-a virile sensitive soulmate-this very minute. It was the best way of beating those visions back into the ghoulish cave they had crawled out of. Working hard at the Sound was a socially acceptable way of sobbing, raging, and primal-screaming from a hot heart while pretending merely to be practicing." A little of this kind of writing goes a long way, and there's an awful lot of it here. Granted, it's a real challenge to maintain a level of excitement in writing about music page after page, particularly about blues, a genre built on the same few chords locked in a repetitious groove. So it's forgivable that Gussow often leans out a little far: "The sidewalk scene dissolved; I was wandering in a garden of earthly delights, hands cupped against the sweet cold fluid air. Every bent note was a pitch-perfect arrow puncturing the gray dusk. You only live now. Blue notes danced and spun, lines endlessly unfolding like so many wrapped gifts laid bare." You have to remind yourself that he's talking about a harmonica, one of the more prosaic of instruments.

   For all Gussow's breathless adjectives and action verbs, he's frustratingly vague about the technical aspects of the duo's "huge raw perfect sound." The book's photos show Gussow with effects pedals at his feet, but he makes no mention of them; he doesn't mention the basic information that he plays in "cross harp" style until page 386; Mister Satan's "phase-shifted guitar wash and deafening clatter" is described pretty much only in metaphorical terms, as, for instance, "an endlessly unrolling Persian carpet with gristle and clanks added." Gussow is so good at getting inside his playing that the narrative sags whenever it moves to other topics. A hefty amount of the bloat deals with his failed relationships. We meet mercurial crackhead Robyn and inconstant ex-fat girl Gail, but mostly there's erratic, irritable hyperfeminist Helen. Gussow tells us on page 30 that Helen left him back in 1984, so we're predisposed to dislike her, and we indeed do. "Most men had a girlfriend," he writes. "I had Aphrodite crossed with Kali the Destroyer, She of infinite ravenous limbs." Worse, the book's artfully jumbled narrative, with short sections ordered sort of sequentially on several tracks, dooms us to read about Helen over the entire course of the book. We think we're finally through with her, and then: "1983. Things with Helen had turned out surprisingly well . . ." Enough already!

   In the late '80s and early '90s, a period when racial violence kept flaring up in the outer boroughs of New York City, Satan and Adam's young-old, white-black novelty made a splash, but momentum slipped away. "Minor celebrity beckoned, then faded," Gussow writes. And despite the book's vibrant cover photo of the pair, they no longer perform, according to an e-mail Gussow sent me. "[I]t's impossible to keep the act together," he wrote, noting that Mister Satan now lives in south-central Virginia and has no telephone. That's a real shame.




4. I could hardly put this book down to perform activities of daily living, let alone going to work. "Mr Adam" has created a masterpiece of American musical literature. Being a blues lover of many years, I was bored to death by the almost clinical approach of most writers on the subject. Not so, Mr. Gussow! He delivers a passionately honest and heart felt memoir filled with wonderfully alive and vibrant individuals, sharing with us the one true American music, the blues.



5. Recently it was my privilege to see author and harmonica player Adam Gussow at my local huge independent bookstore here in the Eastern US. I rarely do commercials, but if you can't catch Adam, you can check out his new novel "Mr. Satan's Apprentice". Adam calls it "a blues memoir", and so it is. The guy is a no-shit, kick-butt, street-smart harp player! FYI, I have fairly high standards in this realm. If you've seen or heard the New York duo "Satan and Adam", you'll know what I mean. The guy is ALSO a juicy and creative, energetic, sexy writer - something I'm also picky about. Princeton Ph.D. candidate - English.

   Adam's book describes a journey that a few of us know, but most do not. The musician in you will relate to the tale of the emergence of deep and powerful music from the little instrument - and the romantic in you will throb with the ways the emerging harmonica player and boundary-crosser discovers the things he needs to grow musically and personally - and then sometimes fearlessly, sometimes not, sets out to acquire them. You'll meet his teachers and mentors, and like it or not, you'll see life through the eyes of this seeker of musical and personal connection. You'll go with Adam on the romantic roller coaster as loves come and go - and you'll travel with him to Paris to play in the Metro and on the street; to the American South, and to other places exotic and otherwise - including a hitch with the road company of Broadway show based on Mark Twain's Sawyer and Finn. Later we get into the recording studio with Mr. Gussow and Mr. Satan - the Harlem street mystic and one-man band who becomes Adam's main-man mentor and muse, the Mr. Satan of the book's title. Throughout the book you'll find Adam the street intellectual examining his position as a white man among black men (and black women) in this blues-filled world - an examination in which Mr. Satan plays a key role.

   A book for players and lovers - of the spirit of the music, of the street; of the endless forms of beauty and love, as they are found ALL over the place. The author is one who knows, and magically, describes, many of the gut experiences we players know; to my knowledge no one's ever written quite this way about these things before. Like the performing moments, the pulling out of all the everything you've got and then some, when the audience is on it's very EDGE, right there with you; when you are truly and purely the great IT! Blowing and drawing deep, and deeper, and then high and higher; and the room is all whoops and smiles, and all there in your hand. A good player knows these things, and believe me, in a blues band, nobody gets that kind of juice but the harp player.

   OK, so maybe you don't know the peak of performance grace and light - but you know your peaks, and Adam's telling can stir it back into view...

   Adam Gussow writes of music, romance, conflict, and awakening in an intimately physical and heart- connected way. As a player, I'm rocked. -"Harmonica Jack" Merrylees (JMerrylees@aol.com)

1 comments about My Life and Battles: By Jack Johnson.

1. When Ali returned from exile to fight Jerry Quarry; his friend and cornerman Drew Bundini Brown yelled to Ali from ringside, " Ghost in the House". He was referring of course to Jack Johnson. Ali always felt a kinship; he felt that his life mirrored Johnson's. In this book the reader gets to hear Jack Johnson's stories from Jack himself. It gives great insight to a truly unique individual. Although the stories were taken from French transcripts, the author Christopher Rivers does a great job of translating and keeping them true to form ( or as true as Mr. Johnson wanted to tell). So the ghost is back and telling His story, His way.... Read it.

5 comments about From Rage To Reason: My Life in Two Americas: My Life in Two Americas.

1. I recieved the book very fast and it was in excellent condition.



2. for having the courage to tell your story about your rise from the projects of Indianapolis to being a member of a power elite. Yours is a story of struggle, guts and determination to make a name for yourself. Your interracial marriages did create a lot of controversy in the elite, for they don't accept the idea of black/biracial black women marrying elite, upper class nonblack men such as your husband.
   
   You made a name for yourself in modeling early on. I have to give it to you for having kept your face and figure, but that's not all. You have a mind of your own that sometimes conflict with the prevailing views of the establishment, which isn't too accepting of smart, assertive women like you. But then again times has changed.
   
   All I have say is that you rose above it all.



3. This is an autobiography so you'd expect Janet Cohen to present herself in a good light. She doesn't. Instead Cohen comes off as a very bitter, self absorbed woman who doesn't seem to have learned anything over the years.



4. Janet's book is very excellent, she deserves a standing ovation for a book well written. This book is so interesting and captivating. This is the first time, i have seen someone so clear-cut honest. Janet Cohen is a beautiful woman who deserved all the good things in life. She has broken down racial barriers like Oprah to become of the greatest African-Americans of this era. I strongly recommend this book to people who haven't read it.



5. This book is so mistitled on two accounts. First, I would agree with the reviewer below; "From Rage to Reason" was for me, too, "From Rage to Disgust." How can anyone who is writing their OWN story come off so nauseatingly unlikeable? The more you read, the more arrogant, self-centered, and disengenuous Janet Langhart Cohen becomes. Maybe it should be "From Rage to Sickenly Manipulative." Second, this is clearly not a book about "My Life in Two Americas." Her story is simply not about the experience of being black in America. Forget that she's white skinned with caucasain features, she is astonishingly and uniquely beautiful. Perhaps, in her case, the two Americas could more adequately be described as the "few privileged with astounding beauty and the rest of us ordinary-looking people." Now, I have a great admiration for beauty and nothing against a woman using it to her best advantage; we should all put our assets to their best use. But this woman has done nothing to help the plight, the image, the future hopes and dreams of anyone but herself. As the old saying goes, for some women beauty is the biggest disadvantage because they have no need or motivation to develope any skills beyond dressing well and flirting when necessary. Janet Cohen has not proved that race has been a disadvantage for her, only that beauty paired with selfish ambition can produce a hollow, grating, selfish personality. Her "blackness" is used as a convenient excuse when she doesn't get her way or people don't like. People don't like her, obviously, because she is unlikeable. This woman is a horrible role model for any young woman, black, white, or whatever.

5 comments about Soul Survivors: The Official Autobiography of Destiny's Child.

1. I READ THIS BOOK AND I WAS SHOCKED AT HOW GOOD IT WAS. IT TALKED ABOUT THE MEMBERS OF DESTINY'S CHILD AND THEIR LIVES AT HOME AS WELL AS ON THE ROAD. IT TALKED ABOUT THE MEMBER CHANGES AND WHAT REALLY HAPPENED. IT TALKED ABOUT THEIR STRUGGLES WITH GETTING A RECORD DEAL AS WELL AS THE STRUGGLES WITH THE MEDIA. I REALLY LIKE THIS BOOK BECAUSE IT TALKED ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT THE MAGAZINES DONT.IT MADE ME FEEL AS IF I KNEW THEM. IF ASKED IF I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO A FRIEND I WOULD BECAUSE IT'S AND EXCELENT BOOK.



2. It is a great book. I definetly recommend it. It tells what happened with the group members, first kisses, boyfriends. I never ever wanted to read a book,{BECAUSE I AM NOT A GOOD READER} but when i got the book i couldnt put it down. I read it in one day and i am a slow reader. They didnt say anything bad about farrah, letoya, or latavia. I WOULD always recommend you to get the book, and it is worth every penny. You wont be disappointed. Also it tells about their childhood, with pics which is cool.
   
   P.S: You can have a opinion but dont hate, appreciate. Also u will probably hurt their feeling so dont say anything stupid.



3. the book is very good i want to read over and over again and i like how they put pictures in the middle of the book and they talk about their child hood but they talk to much about the break up but not the future and what they have accomplished as a group with out the other members but i would recomend this book



4. I enjoy Destiny's Child, and I thought it would be interesting ot read about them. It was a good book mostly, and you learn a lot about these three members, like their childhood, early life, school years, how they joined Destiny's Child, and more. What was strange to me was the title of this book. I really am not sure that these three rich woman who are famous all around the world are really "soul survivors". What did they survive? Sure, they lost three group members but that's about it. Another thing that bothered me was that the book was mostly Beyonce this, Beyonce that. She did most of the writing, or should I say talking because they just told their story to James Patrick Herman, who actually wrote it. Also, it seems like the book is mainly about her. So what, she writes their songs and is their (Destiny's Child) lead singer. It dosn't mean she should always get all of the attention! Overall, the book is great, but I think big Destiny's Child fans would like it the most.



5. The book gave a look into the lives of the group destiny's child and the women. I just don't feel it. I think the only way to be really honest is to have the ex-members tell there side a well. If it's not that way then you're really getting a one sided story. And I need to hear everybody's piece. I think they are talented and everything, but really you are just throwing away money if you get this. Money that could be in your pockets. Please do not keep slipping further into idol worship. This are just people. Some of ya'll need to really calm down. Some girl was going off. Like she was a friend of those girls. Just like she, said she don't know them personally either. So how can she try to make it like they are just survivors, no. They really honestly didn't lose anything. Everybody is picked, shy sometimes, and grows up without a father. Just because they are stars do not make there story more heart touching. I need to hear from everybody to know the truth. That's just me. So For all of ya'll obsessed crazy fans. Please, calm down. It ain't that serious, really. Remember they are just people, psychos.

5 comments about In the Black: A History of African Americans on Wall Street.

1. Great Book by an author who was born into the game and has the unique abilty to show blacks involvement with Wallstreet since day one.



2. You never know where you're going unless you know where you came from! I just started the book, and I wish my finance professors had incorporated this into the otherwise impeccable curriculum at Clark Atlanta. Very interesting read. Every person on wall street should read it, it's not only black history but AMERICAN history.



3. I found the information in this book very informative and surprising that black participation in finance went back as far as it did. Stories of black stockbrokers and mutual fund salesmen in the 1950's to the investment bankers of today, records the slow but meaningful progress made on the Street in the last few decades. Hopefully, the progress will continue....



4. This book was an impulse buy for me, I have always had little interest in Wall Street but my son works in the securities industry so I thought I would read this for some background. I am very glad I did because I did not realize how deep African American history in the financial world is. I enjoyed the stories of people like Philip Jenkins and John Patterson, early pioneers who deserve greater recognition for their contributions. I think that this book is an important contribution of both African American and Wall Street history and does a good job of illuminating aspects about the history of finance that went unrecognized for far too long.



5. This book fills in the missing pages of Wall Street's History. It documents how African-Americans overcame racism and other barriers to become successful in the financial securities industry. This should be part of every business school's curriculum.

5 comments about Hoop Roots.

1. May be the best novel about the inner experience of an aging athlete. An autobiographical novel by an accomplished writer and a complex man, Hoop Roots is a challenging read. Wideman demands something of his audience, a rarity these days, and those looking for a mindless basketball book will likely not be up to the task. As in his other books, Wideman occasionally gets carried away with his command of complex language, and some passages are a struggle even for the most commited readers. However, overall this is a first rate novel, by a first rate writer, on a subject with which he is singularly expert.



2. I had to read this book for a college course. Too bad for me, since it's the worst book I've had to read from cover to cover. HoRrIbLy boring, mostly incoherent, the book takes very promising themes and turns them into very stylish junk. Loaded with clichés and overused images. Blah, blah, blah, it goes on and on. If I wasn't being evaluated on it for class I would have stopped reading it after the first 15 pages. It's the only Wideman book I've read, and of course I don't plan to read any others, but if this is proof of his best work, I hope he is a better creative writing professor than his writing would suggest.



3. I had to read this book for a college course. Too bad for me, since it's the worst book I've had to read from cover to cover. HoRrIbLy boring, mostly incoherent, the book takes very promising themes and turns them into very stylish [material]. Loaded with clichés and overused images. Blah, blah, blah, it goes on and on. If I wasn't being evaluated on it for class I would have stopped reading it after the first 15 pages. It's the only Wideman book I've read, and of course I don't plan to read any others, but if this is proof of his best work, I hope he is a better creative writing professor than his writing would suggest.



4. If you think John Wideman's Hoop Roots is about playground basketball you may find yourself disappointed -- as I was.
   Wideman is a wonderful writer. When he describes a player's drive to the basket, gliding into the air, checking out all around him, you can picture the action and feel the the excitement. When he describes the social protocols for the pick-up game he nails it When he describes the early days of the National Basketball Association, including the unique challenges for Black players, you can see it and feel it.
   Unfortunately Hoop Roots contains far too few accounts like these. This book is about John Wideman growing up in a Black neighborhood in Pittsburgh, about his relationship to his family and in particular his grandmother, about Black athletes and Black men in America. Basketball, which has played such a key role in Wideman's life, is sprinkled throughout, often in bits and pieces that left me wanting much more.
   Wideman was a star high school and college basketball player. He came the same neighborhood as NBA great Maurice Stokes and other noted stars. He played highly competitive playground basketball until he was 59, long after he had become an award-winning writer. I had so many questions for him. What was it like playing organized high school and college ball compared to the playgrounds? What were his own experiences as a playground player? What were some of his most memorable experiences in the playground game? How did he ever play until he was 59?!
   Instead Wideman gives us long passages on the different routes he took to get to the playground as a youth, oversized shorts versus short shorts, and a fable about the Globe Trotters first road trip. It's all brilliantly written. It's just not about basketball.



5. OK, after reading the previously posted review, I admit that I am one of those readers who will read ANYTHING by John Wideman, regardless of subject- but I disagree that this book has too much roots and too little hoops. This book is fantastic. Wideman manages to discuss basketball- its history, its present, its future, and at the same time discuss race, love, music- all so eloquently that I often had to put the book down and absorb. The various stories of his family members make me wonder how John and his talented daughter Jamila managed to come out on top, when his brother and his son are so mired in tragedy. John Wideman is the best writer alive in America- I am convinced- and this book is an absolute masterpiece.

5 comments about Burnt Bread and Chutney: Growing Up Between Cultures - A Memoir of an Indian Jewish Childhood (Ballantine Reader's Circle).

1. A very different take on growing up Jewish in the United States. You won't find the usual lox and bagels stories here.



2. This is a very interesting book! Talk about your culture clash and your family secrets! Like many children of mixed cultural backgrounds, Carmit found it a bit difficult to fit into either. But it was more difficult because she was a minority within a minority, a dark-skinned, South Asian who "didn't look Jewish", and an Indian whose family had a different religion and different traditions from the Hindu majority. As a child, her grandmother makes her promise that she will always return to the Bene Israel, and she does.
   
   Her family history, too, set her apart. Her grandmother was betrothed to a man who turned out to be an alcoholic. This put an end to the engagement, but it also made her grandmother practically unmarriageable. Until her sister's husband offered to take her as his second wife. He treated her and her daughter very differently from the way he behaved towards his first wife, being abusive, forcing her to live in poverty while her sister lived in luxury. The family's condescension towards Nana-bai and her descendents continued into the author's generation.
   
   While I wasn't terribly impressed with the author's writing style (I thought she jumped around a lot, among other things), the book is well worth reading for an understanding of the difficulties of growing up in a multi-cultural household, of being "odd girl out", as well as to learn a little bit about this small, perhaps dying, segment of Judaism. I would, in fact, have liked to have learned more about Bene Israel, its history, how its practices differ from mainstream Judaism, but I guess that would be another book!



3. horrible, self-involved memoir, supposedly about growing up Indian Jewish American, but really about me me me. Nasty family skeleton I didn't want to know about from grandmother's generation. I didn't finish and threw it out - something I never ever do. I didn't even want to give it to the library.



4. The book itself was very unappealing to me and the text is rather bland. Overall the book was just not as well written as it could have been, sometimes contradicting and overworked. I would not recommend this book. Readers Beware.



5. This book was a wonderful read, and introduced me to the overlooked Indian Jews. Her descriptions of living in virtually a dual lifestyle were very vivid and educational to say the least. I look forward to more releases by Carmit Delman.

5 comments about The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad.

1. Sometime ago, I decided to writte a book about the Black Muslims of America, but, being french, I knew little about Black nationalism in the United States. Reading Evanzz was a gold mine that provided many insights on the Black muslims ; It is also so wide ranging and alludes to so many aspects of Black nationalism it is the perfect entrance door for that political aspect of the US black community.
   
   During my own research for the FBI archives as well as with local US newspaper ranging from 1930 to 1975, I was able to cross check and verify many information he provides : they were allways accurate. While he sometimes only alluded to acts of anti-white racism that seemed very important to me (the Zebra Killings for instance) I give him credit for mentionning them. He left no stone unturned.
   
   Evanzz Book is a thick, dense read. It should not be read as a novel but rather as an encyclopedia. Maybe my only critic is that he's a bit too fond of Malcolm X



2. That is all the author did was take declassified FBI records and wrote a book. Most of which the information about WD FARD and Elijah Muhammad were contradictory. Wish I had the time to elaborate. He should be ashamed of writing such. Sad.



3. Of all the literature I've read concerning the Elijah Muhammad, this is by far the worse. After only two chapters, it becomes obvious that Evanzz developed his analysis of Muhammad and the N.O.I. based upon data presented by the FBI, CIA, New York and Detroit police. Where are the interviews with Muhammad's family, friends, and business associates? Where are the excerpts from any of Muhammad's dozens of books? Where are the accounts from present or former N.O.I. members? Instead this book presents references from government agencies as indisputable fact. Anyone familiar with the clandestine workings of such agencies during the 1950's and '60's (i.e. "CoIntelPro") would surely be suspicious of such "information", and at least attempt to seek out other sources. Evanzz's account fails to make such an attempt and is so one-sided, that it offers the reader no opportunity to intelligently analyze Elijah Muhammad, his organization or those who followed him. This book is closer to "National Enquirer" material, than it is to informative, responsible journalism. Anyone interested in a well-written, balanced account of Elijah Muhammad and the history of the N.O.I., I recommend "An Original Man" by Claude Andrew Clegg III. It's a brilliant work and far superior to Evanzz slanderous writing. Don't waste your time or money.



4. Karl Evanzz wrote a fascinating account of how power corrupts in "The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad." Evanzz supported his biography of the man responsible for the enormous growth of the Nation of Islam with almost 200 pages of documentation. However, he clearly lost all objectivity toward the second half of the book. Yet, I found this true story to be a compelling one worth reading.



5. from SALAAM ALLAH NATION OF ISLAM, June 3, 2004,
   ministersalaamallah@lycos.com
   not wonderful at all this book is a disaster!
   what is wonderful about what is happening to the black nation today?
   the black man and the black woman freed slaves and that is all is
   supposed to believe that this awful idiot karl evanzzz has some clue
   as to what he is talking about of which he has NONE WHATSOEVER! now
   as more and more black american becomes homeless permanetly
   unemployed and unemployable filling up the jails and prisons and
   death rows of the wilderness hell of north ameriKKKa ......... and
   the rest of our black peoples karl evanzzz cares NOTHING about being
   sent off to foregin wars int he US military to die and come back to
   ameriKKKa to add to the rest of the list above etc... Somehow this is
   supposed to be 'wonderful' and if we just stop what we are doing read
   the lies and deciet of sonsyrea tate silly little book ' little X '
   or the late misleader ' alex hailey ' oh his Biography of minister
   malcolm shabazz and now the big 3 negatives books by the latest
   mental basket case 'karl evanzzz' & this is somehow going to do
   great 'wonderful' things for the black american who is still at the
   bottom of everything of hell we still suffer from at he hands of the
   worst ever peoples to ever rule with a beast savage madness on the
   planet earth ever ( just ask iraq ) MESSENGER ELIJAH MUHAMMAD taught
   right what was going to happen in the last days of the so called good
   ol' USA and where this was going! nothing 'wonderful' at all about
   this karl evanzz needs to write what his solution and solution(s) is
   for the black nation lay out his program and not KNOCK the greatest
   black leader of all time ever ........ MESSENGER ELIJAH MUHAMMAD
   peace be upon him those who think karl evanzz is so 'wonderful'
   should ask him to lay out what his SOULTION is for the so called
   american negro here in the wilderness hell of north america !
   ameriKKKa ! thankz for reading this correction to ' wonderful '

   Also recommended: MESSENGER ELIJAH MUHAMMAD MESSAGE TO THE BLACKMAN
   THE FALL OF AMERICA OUR SAVIOUR HAS ARRIVED HOW TO EAT TO LIVE THE
   JOURNAL OF TRUTH !- BY HIS BLOOD BROTHER! SUPREME MINISTER JOHN
   MUHAMMAD DETROIT MI.

2 comments about The Hendrix Experience.

1. NUNCA ANTES HABIA ESCUCHADO JH PERO EL SONIDO DE SU GUITARRA SEMEJABAN LOS TRUENOS DE LOS DIOSES, NOS TRANSPORTABA A OTRA PARTE, DONDE EL RECORDAR ESOS AÑOS DONDE OTRAS BUENAS AGRUPACIONES ESTABAN SONANDO MUY FUERTE EL ESTABA CREANDO NUEVOS SONIDOS QUE NINGUNA OTRA AGRUPACION A PODIDO IGUALAR.....



2. The author, Mitch Mitchell was in a unique position to provide a sense of Hendrix as an artist. His interplay with Hendrix as a drummer was like that of the jazz greats ie. Charlie Parker/Max Roach. Lots of discription of the London music scene in the explosive sixties along with the movers and shakers who made it happen. The book's visuals were great with lots of unseen and hard to find pictures of the group, posters and other goodies. The author's mod image was so cool!