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A review by atticus13
The Autobiography of Malcom X by Malcolm X
5.0
Biographies aim to reveal the activities and/or the internal world of their subject. It’s the internal world that’s difficult to tackle.
If it’s written by a biographer, they have no omniscient insight into the thoughts of their subject. If it’s an autobiography, there’s often too much self consciousness for the inner world to be laid truly bare.
Somehow Malcom X does it. His inner world does seem to be laid bare in chronological parallel to the activities of his life. What’s even more remarkable is that even though this book was mostly constructed near the end of his life, the language seems to evolve over the chapters as if it had been written in real time (even though it is written in past tense).
As far as autobiographies go, I think this is a gold standard.
If it’s written by a biographer, they have no omniscient insight into the thoughts of their subject. If it’s an autobiography, there’s often too much self consciousness for the inner world to be laid truly bare.
Somehow Malcom X does it. His inner world does seem to be laid bare in chronological parallel to the activities of his life. What’s even more remarkable is that even though this book was mostly constructed near the end of his life, the language seems to evolve over the chapters as if it had been written in real time (even though it is written in past tense).
As far as autobiographies go, I think this is a gold standard.