A review by blacksentai
21: The Story of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago
3.0
It's pretty good. I like the art and the story as a whole. It does feel light in some areas. It hops over some details too quickly. There are some small political historical elements but those are all skimmed over. We don't really get to spend any nuanced time with the ideas of Puerto Rican independence and what that would have meant to Roberto. We do get a retelling of the three magi bringing baby jesus gifts. And maybe if we didn't have that we'd have more time to deal with some more dense story telling. Just a thought. We get these snapshots of roberto dealing with segregation but it's just mentioned and we move on. We have this one conversation where someone mentions black people from other countries only dating white girls and it's also just run off the page.
I think dealing with some of this stuff would've been more interesting than spending as much time on certain baseball games and stuff. I just think it might have provided a more fun and substantial look at his life. But I think the book is really good. Just could have been much more.
Also, it definitely looses points for including the line "scalp the indians." That shit is foul and needs to be removed from our lexicon. It in no way needs to be in the book and totally detracts from everything that's going on. It's so gross.
I think dealing with some of this stuff would've been more interesting than spending as much time on certain baseball games and stuff. I just think it might have provided a more fun and substantial look at his life. But I think the book is really good. Just could have been much more.
Also, it definitely looses points for including the line "scalp the indians." That shit is foul and needs to be removed from our lexicon. It in no way needs to be in the book and totally detracts from everything that's going on. It's so gross.