I don’t like to write in books. Even bound galleys — it just feels wrong. Besides, you still have to later find the page where the underlined passage appears. Better to slap a Post-It note by the parts you want to recall later.
So when I pulled down my advance copy of Jonathan Eig’s “King: A Life,” which comes out Tuesday, I smiled. The pages sprout with magenta and orange notes. It’s been five months since I read it, before the King holiday last January. While I knew the book was interesting, I forgot just how interesting.
So interesting that I don’t even have to check the citations to immediately remember riveting details, such as that for the first 20 years of his life he went by “Mike King.” That one fact alone might unsettle your entire view of what being Martin Luther King Jr. must have been like. Not the young preacher, waiting for the greatness he knew was coming. But just Mike, just a regular guy, maybe more sensitive than most, who threw himself out of a second floor window when his grandmother died. Twice.
A man deeply flawed — he bit his nails, liked to play pool, liked to drink. King had a habit of plagiarizing, in school, in speeches and later books. He cheated in writing, and he cheated on his wife.
Not a particularly flattering portrait of King, except for the civil rights part. Yet one being celebrated as the new standard King biography.
“Magnificent,” wrote the Economist.
“The most compelling account of King’s life in a generation” wrote the Washington Post.
Why? Because life is messy. And those who keep alive King’s dream of a country where people are judged, not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character, know this must be done by facing reality, not concocting self-flattering mythologies.
“Great men,” Eig writes, quoting Emerson, “have not been boasters and buffoons.”
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Are you headed to me or Johnson's inauguration this morning?
ReplyDelete"To you?" I'm not going to Johnson's inauguration. I thought I'd ignore this mayor and sees if that works better than seeking out Lightfoot did. Four years flashes by so fast.
DeleteI think “me or” is supposed to be “mayor.”
DeleteAh. That would make sense.
DeleteI keep waiting for someone to come forward and carry the torch that MLK used to enlighten us all. He was fearless. He knew it was just a matter of time before someone was going to stop him. Now with assault weapons readily available to the J. Edgar Hoover disciples of this country, maybe no one has the same courage or commitment.
ReplyDeleteIf Brandon Johnson can get some positive things done in Chicago, maybe he’s the one.
Well said!
ReplyDeleteJust now, I happen to be reading a book about a "deeply flawed" individual, namely: Timothy McVeigh, who despite some admirable traits, left a legacy of infamy by murdering several hundred innocent people. King's legacy, despite his record of cheating, is his eloquent and peaceful work on behalf of oppressed people in the United States and elsewhere. Although it is a shock to read of his infidelities (and probably I would prefer to look the other way) they do not cancel a lifetime not of sanctity, but of goodness. We can stand the truth.
ReplyDeletejohn
I would like to believe most people no matter how bad they might be have some admirable traits. I wonder what McVeigh's were
Delete“I just can’t hardly see a Negro using the same restroom that I use... It’s just a little matter of the cleanliness and the morals and everything else." Yeah, right. Because public restrooms have always been known for their cleanliness. If I started concerning myself with the morals and cleanliness of the guys lined up at the troughs, I'd never be able to go to a Cubs game, that's for sure!
ReplyDeleteCounting the old ballparks and the ones that no longer exist, I've peed in 19 major league venues, and a number of minor-league parks as well. There were plenty of pissoirs that were far worse than those at the Friendly Confines. Old Comiskey, for starters. Cleveland Stadium. And the most unsanitary of the relatively new ones? Pissburgh...
DeleteSearched the Lee County library system for Eig's book. Four copies, none out on loan. At least they exist here, possibly they were borrowed heavily when new. I plan on reading it when I return to the World next week, after I replenish my post-it supply.
ReplyDeleteDo libraries get books before the publishing date. The publishing date was the 16th. I just checked our library. We are part of a larger system. One library has it on order. One is not avaiable. A couple of others on hold. Our Library doesn't have it at all yet. The other libraries on the list are in small cities. I am guessing they would not have more than two copies
Delete