When I read Between The World And Me I knew Coates was someone who I would read any and everything by.
We Were Eight Years In Power confirmed my feelings.
Over the 8 years of the Obama Administration in his job writing for The Atlantic Coates wrote the essays he includes in this book. Before each one he includes a note about where he is now, where he was then, what he thinks he did well and what he could have done better and his opinion on how each essay has held up. And then he gives us an incredible epilogue. You may not agree with his analysis on every point, I found myself seldom if at all disagreeing with him, but his work is well thought out, documented, and defended.
He writes so well and so powerfully, with lines like "To Trump whiteness is neither notional no symbolic but is the very core of his power. In this, Trump is not singular. But whereas his forebears carried whiteness like and ancestral talisman, Trump cracked the glowing amulet open, releasing its eldritch energies."
If for you like it does for me reading Coates brings to mind Baldwin I don't think he would mind the comparison.
P.S. Coates has also authored new Marvel Black Panther comics and they are really good too!!
(Finished November 3, 2017)
No comments:
Post a Comment